moving.
“Lee could be on his way back home by now.”
That did the trick. She forced herself to turn the knob. Then she pushed the door open and stuck her head inside. She screwed up her face in anticipation of the worst. She took one step in, then another.
Alice was lying in bed, as Herb had been, but Tracy could see she was breathing. Slowly. Maybe too slowly. But regularly.
Her whole body sagged; then she remembered she didn’t have time for relief.
“Alice?” Tracy crept over to the bedside. The room was small, the spreads on the twin beds frilly and girlish, as if chosen to please Olivia. Alice was curled up on her side, her hands under her face in an attitude of prayer.
She moaned and made an attempt to sit up.
“No, it’s just me, Tracy. Don’t get up, it’s okay. I just wanted you to know I came in to put up smoke detectors. My insurance company insisted.”
Alice’s eyes were wide open now. “Lee?”
“He and Olivia just left. I don’t want to bother you. I’ll be out in a jiffy. You don’t even have to tell Lee I was here. In fact, please don’t.”
Alice stared at her. Her eyes were unfocused and seemed to grow more so as Tracy watched. Her eyelids drifted down again, but before they closed, she exhaled two words. Tracy couldn’t hear clearly, but she was very afraid Alice had just said, “Help me.”
Tracy put her hand on Alice’s shoulder. “Alice? What did you say? Help you? Help you do what?”
Alice moaned.
“Alice, do you need something? What can I do? I’ll do anything. Are you afraid? Are you being mistreated?” Tracy realized she was babbling, but now she really was frightened.
Alice didn’t respond. Her breathing slowed again. Tracy tried shaking her a little, but Alice was deeply asleep once more.
Tracy straightened. What did she know that she hadn’t before? That Alice wasn’t well? Lee had told her as much. That things had reached such a serious state the woman needed help? But Lee claimed help was exactly what he was giving her. He said he was following the advice of Alice’s doctor, and how could Tracy refute this? What had she seen that proved things were anything but what Lee said they were?
Help me? Even if she had heard Alice correctly, what was Tracy supposed to help her with? Maybe Alice needed a glass of water or a trip to the bathroom, and she’d hoped Tracy could assist.
Or maybe she needed someone to protect her from Lee.
She might only have minutes before Lee and Olivia came back. Unfortunately, she was getting used to snooping through her renters’ lives, but this time she knew better than to touch Alice’s belongings. Lee would know if anything was moved. Even the hairs on the man’s head seemed to have been assigned specific coordinates. Trudging through a hurricane, he would still look exactly the same.
She walked through the house, checking to see if anything was in sight that might provide information. She noted two smoke detectors, which meant she had even less reason to be there, but everything she might find interesting had been put away. Short of rifling through drawers, she had no alternatives.
She had reached an impasse. She had to have more information, and she knew there was only one way to get it. Olivia was too young to turn on her father. Alice was too sick. Only Lee himself could tell the story. Tracy had grown up with the children of actors, lived on the same streets, shopped at the same grocery stores. Film stars had been her neighbors, but she had never expected to make a neighbor a film star. Not until now.
“Granny cam, here we come.”
She locked the front door and let herself out the back, making sure the door locked behind her. Then she zigzagged behind the house until she was far enough away that she could safely walk along the road again. Halfway to Wanda’s house, Lee’s new Infiniti passed, and she gave a friendly wave, although she couldn’t see anyone through the tinted windows.
She could act, too. She just hoped her performance was going to be good enough.
chapter thirty-one
Janya decided to cook, really cook. Not a library-inspired recipe, with ingredients, smells and tastes she wasn’t familiar with. She was hungry for food she understood, food that satisfied her hunger for all things Indian. If the women of Happiness Key enjoyed the dishes she prepared, wasn’t it time to take a chance on