Chapter 81

I pulled up to the college with 20 minutes to spare. Since Jill wasn't waiting for me in the pickup area, I had to park in the lot. I let the song on the radio finish and then made my way over to the gate.

There's a street light not far from the gate. As soon as I was under it I saw the door to the guard shack open. Jill and a security guard came over to me. He asked her if she was sure she was going to be all right and she told him she was. I had to hold out my hand before she took it.

She was quiet on the way over to the car. I opened the door and let her in. She slid over to me when I got in and just leaned against me, sighing.

"What's wrong, Jill?"

She finally grabbed my arm and leaned against me.

"It happened again."

It happened again. My mind was trying to put it together. She came across her father in bed with someone. How? She was going to come right here from school. I must have taken a while for me to go through my mental gyrations.

"Jack?"

"Sorry. I was thinking. It happened again?"

"Yeah. On the way over here."

"OK. I'm lost. You need to tell me what's going on, Jill."

"Oh. You know I said I'd walk over here after school."

"Yeah."

"Well, I thought about it and I had from 3:30 till 7:00 to get here, so I decided to go to the library and do my homework."

"All right."

"So, they closed up the library at 5:30. That gave me an hour and a half to get to school."

"OK."

"So I went to the Burger King on Fifth St. Since I had lots of time I ordered a coke and sat outside for a while, then I went in and bought something to eat."

"Yeah?" Come on, Jill — I'm getting impatient over here.

"So I got a chicken sandwich and onion rings."

"Jill, what happened?"

"These two guys tried to pick me up."

"Did they hurt you?"

"No. But they wouldn't leave me alone. I had to go inside. I was going to tell the manager to call the police but they disappeared."

"Did you know them?"

"Of course I knew them. They go to my school. They're druggies."

"But you're OK now. Right?"

"Well, there's more."

"Tell me." Please!

"They must have waited around for me. About a block away from Burger King they showed up."

"Did they hurt you?"

"No. I ran."

"So, what happened?"

"I waited for you to come get me."

"No, Jill. You ran away from them before 7:00. It's after 9:00. What happened?"

"Well, I ran inside the gate and the guard saw me and he came out. They must have seen him because he couldn't find them after I told him what happened. He said I shouldn't be out by myself but there wasn't anything anybody could do. He said if I'd been hurt the cops could do something but if I called them, the druggies would just deny it. Since I was the only who saw them, it would be my word against theirs."

"OK. So, you waited two hours for me to get you? Why didn't you call me?"

"I didn't want you to get mad."

"Mad? Why would I get mad?"

"I just thought you might. I can't go anywhere by myself."

I turned around and pulled her into my chest, wrapping one arm around her and holding her head to me with the other.

"Jill, it's not you. You can't help it if there are some real jerks around."

"Yeah, but now you're going to want to take me to school. And it will mess up your work."

"Jill, that's no reason to sit in the guard shack for over two hours."

"It's still going to mess you up. Maybe I can take a cab."

"Jill. Just calm down. I'll figure something out. Do you remember when I was going to look for work flipping burgers? And you told me to talk to my coach? That he'd figure out some way to make it work?"

"Yeah."

"OK. Just hang on. We've got two days till you have to go back. I'm sure I can figure something out."

"All right."

I put my hand under her chin and tilted her head up so I could kiss her.

"OK. Now move over so I can drive us home."

She let me start the car, then grabbed my arm, sighed again, and rested her cheek against it.

We got home a few minutes later. Mom's Lexus was nowhere in sight. The headlights hit the side of the garage and I could see part of a stairway against the side of the garage. Actually, the stairway was all there, it was just missing a handrail. There was some kind of pulley arrangement just past the end of it with a rope hanging down near the side door.

"Want to look?" I nodded toward the garage.

"OK."

"It's too dark. Follow me."

We went in the front door to the house. There was nobody around as we went through the kitchen. I turned on the outside light and then led Jill outside. I had to stop by the gate and give Queenie her scratch. We made our way over to the side door to the garage.