The Babysitter Murders - By Janet Ruth Young Page 0,31

now?” Dani asks. “I think it’ll be a big relief to talk to someone.”

“I’ll start calling around, but no movie tonight. You look done in and so am I. Once I make some calls we’ll pop some supper in the microwave and go to bed early.”

“Would you do me a favor, Mom?” Dani asks.

“Of course, sweetheart.”

“Will you lock your door when you go to bed?”

Beth takes a few seconds to realize what Dani’s saying. When she does, it seems that Beth might find this worse than the thoughts of hurting Alex. She puts her hands over her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“You think about hurting me, too? Why would you want to hurt me?”

Dani stands in front of Beth with her hands folded.

“Would you just do it, Mom? It would make me feel better.”

“Well, am I . . . safe?”

“I’m tired and I need to sleep somewhere,” Dani says. “That’s all I can tell you. Now will you do it?”

After their supper, Dani hears Beth lock her bedroom door.

She locks it so softly it seems she doesn’t want Dani to hear. Beth 108

T H E B A B Y S I T T E R M U R D E R S

might think it’s mean and insulting, but it makes Dani feel better.

Dani wishes she could feel closer to her mom right now. Dani feels like the one person in the world who wants to help her—and who can help her—is a locked door away. But she had to ask Beth for that favor. If everyone is protected from Dani, she feels safer too.

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“It’s fine,” Beth Solomon tells her neighbor Lynette the next day, when Lynette asks about the cruiser. Lynette is someone Beth usually can talk to about anything. “Dani got stranded at school and ended up talking with the cop who patrols the school. He saw her standing there and offered her a ride home. Apparently she tried to call me but I was talking to a client and didn’t check my messages. No reason to worry.”

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Text messages between Shelley and Dani:

“You haven’t told anyone, have you? You’re still the only one who knows.”

“Of course not. You are my best friend and I will never tell anyone your secret.”

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“I guess I just like being around her,” Shelley says. “It’s not that I need to have this kind of relationship or that kind. I mean, she doesn’t need to know that my feelings for her are different than for any other friend. I just want to spend time getting to know her. I just want her in my life.”

Shelley and Dani are hunkered on their bench, constructing what they know of Meghan’s relationship history. Meghan seems to like getting boys from Hawthorne High interested, but she only dates them two or three times before dropping them.

“She’s not the kind of person who gets her whole identity from being part of a couple,” Shelley says. “I think that’s cool.”

“I agree,” says Dani. She and Shelley are not those kinds of people either.

Dani has already decided not to tell Shelley what happened with Mrs. Alex and the police. It’s over and done with, and anyway, judging from their earlier conversation, Shelley may not be much help. Dani still has thoughts about grabbing Mr. Gabler’s testicles. But no way is she mentioning that to Shelley again.

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Dani goes for her first visit with Dr. Kumar, whose office

has silk throw pillows from India and a painting of a bowl of cherries.

“Are you angry at someone, Daniela?” Dr. Kumar asks. “Are you angry at Alex for any reason? Are you angry at Mrs. Alex?”

Dani tells Dr. Kumar about Mrs. Alex staying out late, being disorganized, and not having food in the house, but no, she doesn’t think she’s angry at either Alex or Mrs. Alex.

“Do you have thoughts about harming anyone else?”

Dani tells Dr. Kumar her thoughts of knocking her mother off a ladder, grabbing Mr. Gabler’s testicles, and outing Shelley in front of the opposing team, and about Gordy in a basement with pieces beside other pieces they should never be beside.

But she doesn’t feel angry at those people. She gets irritated at her mother and Shelley sometimes. But not angry enough to do those things.

“And your relationship with your father, Daniela? Would you describe it as an angry relationship?”

Dr. Kumar has beautiful, heavily made-up eyes, a blond streak in her hair, and white boots that make her look like a superhero.

Her outfit the first day is an amethyst-colored dress with multiple silver