people. While he wants to know more about the knives, a younger part of him hopes it isn’t true. Finding out for sure what his father knows is breaking his heart a little bit. At the same time, it will make him stronger. He’ll be one of the people who know the score, who know the worst. The people in the driver’s seat.
“Because,” Michael says in a teacherly voice, “she seemed to be a sheep, but on closer inspection she is not a sheep.”
“She’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Malcolm says. His father waves him forward. They’re tenth in line, and the compost center is in sight.
“Aroooo!” Michael calls, imitating a wolf’s howl. He slaps Malcolm on the arm.
“Aroooo!” Malcolm echoes.
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38
“When is Dani coming to babysit?” Alex asks.
“Dani’s gone,” his mother says. “She moved away.”
39
Cecilia Martin, English teacher, hands wineglasses to the women in her book group. They probably won’t get around to discussing this month’s pick, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.
Tonight it’s more important that they hear a real story—Cynthia Draper’s story.
“I can’t believe you feel up to book group after what you’ve been through,” she told her on the phone two days earlier.
“How could I not come?” says Cynthia. “I need to talk about it. I feel more comfortable discussing it in a friend’s home than anywhere else.”
Cecilia’s eyes narrow as Cynthia tells her story. She feels how Cynthia must have felt, confronted out of nowhere with a danger to Alex and having to use her wits to save him.
“Good call locking yourself in the bathroom,” Cecilia says.
Her wineglass makes a ring on Carson McCullers’s face. “I don’t think I would have had your presence of mind. I would have wigged out.”
Kathleen Perkins recrosses her legs. “I would have taken her down right there. As they say in the Marines, kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.”
“She still shows up for school every day,” Cecilia says. “That’s the thing that gets me. I had her in English class today, and I kept T H E B A B Y S I T T E R M U R D E R S
wondering what goes on behind that innocent-looking face. I asked the school psychologist if she had been in—usually they’re pretty open about that stuff—and they said no. At least now that I said something they’ll know what her deal is, in case—in case I don’t know what.”
“Oh, she’s supposedly getting help,” Cynthia says. “Beth Solomon called right away to tell me that. She was obviously trying to do damage control.”
“Woosh,” Kathleen says. “That must have been quite a conversation.”
“It wasn’t,” says Cynthia. “She made a point of leaving a message when she knew I would be at work. Obviously she wasn’t eager to speak to me.”
“I wonder if Dani is looking for another babysitting job,” the teacher muses.
“No, no, no,” Cynthia says. “We cannot let that happen.”
“And you say she was smiling while she told you all this?”
Kathleen asks.
“That’s right,” says Cynthia.
“Mmmmm-mm,” Kathleen hums, imitating the creepy music in a horror movie.
“Do not let her babysit for you,” Cynthia says. She clutches her wine and stares at the floor. The other women stare too, as if the portrait of a murdered child is worked into the carpet.
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40
“Mom,” Dani says. She carries her laptop into her mother’s home office. “Mom. Would you look at this for a minute?”
She had opened the Hawthorne Beacon-Times website to read the school sports page when she found this: Thursday, May 13
SITTER TO MOM: I MIGHT KILL TOT
A babysitter responsible for a five-year-old Hawthorne boy told the child’s mother she contemplated killing him, the Beacon-Times learned on Tuesday.
Sources close to the situation told the Beacon-Times that the sitter told police that she “kept thinking about”
murdering the boy and “had a picture in her mind” of him dying. Sergeant Philip Mason of the Hawthorne Police Department confirmed the incident but told a reporter that no charges were filed and asked the Beacon-Times to keep the babysitter’s name private.
A source close to the situation said the sitter, a seventeen-year-old student at Hawthorne High School, revealed her intentions to the child’s mother, who then called 911 and locked herself and the child in an upstairs bathroom while awaiting the arrival of police.
T H E B A B Y S I T T E R M U R D E R S
The Beacon-Times is withholding the name of the child’s mother in order to protect the privacy of the potential victim.