When she reached the gas station, she went inside and bought two packs of cigarettes and a coffee. The cold burned her anew when she came back out and started across the parking area toward Woodlawn Road. She lit a cigarette, shielding it in the cup of her hands, and drew the hot, acrid smoke deep into her lungs. Her head swam momentarily with the sensation, and the misery of her life faded to a manageable level. Maybe this would work for her, coming to Nest with Harper, trying to get a new start. Maybe she would find what she needed here, back in good old Hopewell. It wouldn’t take all that much to stay straight, if she just worked at it hard enough. Get a job, a little apartment, put Harper in day care, make a few friends. She could do it.
Yeah, right. She shook her head angrily. Like there was any chance at all for someone like her. Who was she kidding? She cried a little, at how messed up her life was and how little chance she had of ever getting it straightened out again.
“It’s cold out here, girlfriend,” Penny Dreadful said, materializing next to her out of nowhere. “Hey, my car’s right over there. Come on. Let me give you a ride.”
Bennett looked at her dully, as if she were an inevitability, a constant in her life that refused to change or disappear. She suddenly felt tired and worn and alone. The cold numbed and deadened her, but that wasn’t how she wanted to feel. She wanted to feel good about something. Just for a little while. Just for a bit.
Dropping her cigarette into the snow, she allowed Penny to take her by the arm and lead her away.
-=O=-***-=O=-
Deputy Sheriff Larry Spence sat alone in his living room at one end of the big couch, staring at the television set across the way. He was watching it without paying attention to what he was seeing, his mind trying to focus on the voice speaking to him through the telephone receiver he held against his ear. His kids were in bed, asleep or pretending to be, getting ready for a final day and a half of school before the Christmas break, anticipating what Santa was going to bring them. Billy was sleeping better again, not having those nightmares about severed fingers, but he still had a haunted look in his eyes that was troublesome.
“You have to go back out there in the morning and check on him,” Special Agent Robinson was saying through the phone, the words resonating inside Spence’s confused and distracted mind. “You have to be sure he doesn’t hurt her.”
“Why would he do that?” Spence asked, staring at nothing. “He doesn’t have any reason to.”
Robinson paused thoughtfully. “He’s dangerous, and dangerous men will do anything. He uses her to give himself a place to hide. He is a drug dealer, and he is here to do business. If she discovers this, what do you think he will do?”
“But she doesn’t want me to come there. She practically threw me out. What am I supposed to do?”
“You visit officially, just like you did today. You have every right to conduct an investigation.”
“Into what? What am I supposed to be investigating?”
“What do you think, Deputy? What seems possible to you?”
Larry Spence blinked and shook his head. “He’s a dealer. So he’s here to make a sale. There must be something going down in the park, right?”
“Seems like a good place to start.”
“I can say someone saw something, try that out and see if I get a reaction.”
“Maybe someone did see something. Someone usually does.”
Spence shifted on the couch, his big frame leaning forward. “I can’t let that girl be hurt. She doesn’t understand how people are. She believes the best about everyone, but she doesn’t know.”
“Someone has to open her eyes to the truth,” Robinson agreed. “She would be very grateful to anyone who did, don’t you think?”
Larry Spence nodded slowly. “I could do that for her. I could help her see how things really are. All I have to do is get him to slip up, say the wrong thing. I just have to keep after him, that’s all. Yeah, just stay on it.”