Page 84 of The Fall
Fuck. Every interaction with Si was fraught with emotional landmines and I didn’t know how to navigate my way through them without blowing something up. I knew how Silas felt about commitment, especially about parading it around O’Leary. Itmeantsomething that he wanted to kiss me, even just a peck on the lips in the middle of a crowded diner, and I wasn’t sure if I could handle that. It wasn’t fair to let Silas proclaim something when I couldn’t followthrough.
And yeah, it also wasn’t fair to keep leading Si on in private, if that’s what I was doing. But he’d said we could take things slow, and I… I just didn’t want to give himup.
“Morning, Ev, Henry,” Diane said. She pulled a pen from behind her ear and her order pad from the little apron at her waist. “What’ll it be thismorning?”
“Pancakes, please,” I said. “Bacon and coffee,too.”
She nodded. “Sure thing, honey. Henry, what'll itbe?”
He looked startled. “You never ask, you usually just bring me something you know I'lllike.”
She lifted one eyebrow. “Maybe today you could justtell me, rather than me trying to figure itout.”
Dare coughed. “Omelet special sounded good, Henry,” heoffered.
“What? No! I don’t want the omelet special,” Hen said obstinately. “I want what I usuallyhave.”
“I can’t remember,” Diane said, tilting her head. “If you want something, tellme.”
His moustache quivered. “Fine, then. Pancakes and bacon, same as Everett,” he said a moment later. “Please.”
Diane lifted her chin and walkedoff.
“What the devil got into her?” Hen asked thetable.
“She seemed fine to me,” Si said brusquely. “Sometimes it gets frustrating trying to figure out what peoplewant.”
I could practically hear him grinding his teeth and I sighedinternally.
“Morning, Everett! Hen, how are you feeling?” Shane said strolling over to our table to clap Grandpa on the back after dropping off food for Myrna andFrank.
“‘Bout as well as a person can when other folks are upset at them for no reason,” Grandpacomplained.
Shane frowned in confusion. “Well, I know something that’ll cheer you up. Karen Mitchener- Martin, Angela Ross, and Ms. Dorian were in here earlier, and they said there’s been a break in Elliot Marks’s disappearance. You don’t have to be afraidanymore.”
“What?” Si and Dare demanded in unison. The conversations around us grewquiet.
I winced. Just hearing Karen’s name was enough to make me itchy these days. The woman hadn’t stopped speculating and accusing people since the day Elliot Marks went missing, and more than once I’d heard Maura atFanaillesay she couldn’t wait until Karen had her baby, so she’d be too busy to interfere in other folks’lives.
“Well, Ms. Dorian said there was a camera outside a store near Elliot’s apartment building,” Shane said, eyeing Si warily. I couldn’t really blame him. “Showed a tall, blond guy walking in, and that’s the suspect. She said it was obviously that new guy, DanielWhatever.”
I stared at him. “Are yousure?”
Shaneshrugged.
Julian leaned over from the next table. “Excuse me. Did you say they’re accusing Daniel Michaelson of being involved in thedisappearance?”
“No.” Si shook his headvigorously.
“Nobody's accusing anyone of anything,” Dare said, holding up his hands. “Karen Mitchener-Martin's spreading rumors.Again.”
“I heard he lives in the woods because he’s not right in the head,” an older man I’d never met yelled from one of thebooths.
“I heard he came here because he got into trouble with the law and he was on the run,” Myrna Lucano said, frowning. "But he seems realsweet."
“I think that’s a load of horseshit.” An older woman with graying blonde hair stood up from one of the tables in the back. She was sturdy and ruddy-complected, with deep-set laugh lines around her eyes. “Daniel Michaelson helped me work on one of my sculptures the other day. He’s a goodman.”
“Christ alive, Rena Cobb, don’t you tell me that he was modeling for you!” Kelley Dwyer, one of my student’s parents said, soundinghorrified.
