Page 163 of Slumming It
She gave me a skeptical look. "You do, huh?"
"Yeah, he told me so himself, just today, in fact." It was one of the many things he had revealed while parked in that empty lot after I'd started demanding answers.
Rita leaned back on the sofa. "You remember his exact words?"
I tried to think. "He said something like…'I heard what they said on the roadside.'"
Rita shot me with an imaginary gun. "Bingo!"
I stared from the recliner. "Bingo?"
"Yeah, bingo," she repeated. "Heheardbecause he was there. Like I said, I didn't tell him dick."
Woah.I sat back in my seat. "Wait. You're saying he was there the whole time?"
Rita nodded. "Yeah, watching from the woods."
I still didn't believe it. "He was not. I would've spotted him."
Her tone became mocking. "Oh, because you were looking so hard, right?"
"Not really," I admitted. "But I still would've seen him."
"Trust me," Rita said. "If Reese doesn't want to be seen, Reese isn't seen."
I was still trying to process it. "So he was there all along? Where was his car?"
"Parked around the bend."
"But why?" I asked. "I mean why would he stick around?"
"You can't guess?"
I considered his reasons for coming here in the first place. "I dunno…Did he want a good laugh?"
This made her frown. "Trust me. He wasn't laughing."
Her implication was obvious – and total load of crap. I replied, "Well, trustmewhen I tell you, he wasnotworried about my safety."
"Bullshit."
"Oh, get real," I said. "If he was so worried, he would've simply stuck around."
"Yeah, and he did."
"Imeantwhere I could see him."
She gave a slow nod. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"
"Yes, actually."
She shrugged. "I never said he didn't have issues."
"Issues?" I scoffed. "He has a lot more than issues. Get this. At that nightclub I mentioned, he used me as bait."
"To catch what?"
"Morgan and Nikki – those two girls you just called bitches."
