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“When is the trial again?” I ask though I know the Marshal has no answer.
“That’s another person’s job,” he tells me again, before hopping up and heading to the door. “I’ll get your last bag from the car, miss. Then we can go over door-locking procedures.”
He opens the door, sticks his head out, then looks around.
No, that’s not obvious at all…I think, though a certain part of me wants to ask if he sees anything suspicious.
“Is the coast clear?” I can’t help myself.
I have a new name, a new address, and no friends or family who know where I am. With the grandmother who raised me dead and gone, it’s my own life, the old me, that I miss.
My parents don’t even know where I am, though it’s not like we ever kept in touch before my attack. They didn’t want kids, and I was a kid for most of the time they knew me. Part of me thinks it’s logical that they would treat me no differently than any other obligation they despised. Which was basically all of them.
“Okay,” Marshal Todd says, plopping my last bag onto the dusty rug. A plume of debris wafts up around his ankles, and he stares down at it thoughtfully. “You didn’t pack a broom, did you?”
I shake my head, explaining I can find my way to a store with no problem.
“I like to walk,” I add before the agent can interject. “I’ll need to get out of here for a little bit at least. The town’s not far off anyway –”
He looks dubious about letting a woman wander around town unsupervised. “Just don’t talk to anyone who looks suspicious.”
“I won’t. I –”
“But also don’tnottalk, either. That’s just as suspicious. Unfriendly women draw attention.”
I can’t be sure, but I think the bead of sweat he’s wiping from his brow is on my account.
“You can’t go disappearing on me now. You’re my responsibility.”
“But not your prisoner, right?” It needs to be said, so I say it.
The bear of an agent deflates, looking up at me sheepishly from the doorway. “I’m coming on too strong, huh?”
“Little bit,” I confess.
It feels like one less brick on my back.Just about a dozen more to go, I’d say…
“Great. Good. Give me that feedback.” Marshal Todd rubs his hands together and then motions for me to continue. “I can handle it. I don’t need another situation like Pensacola.”
“What happened in Pensacola?”
I’m not sure if I want to know or not. Wait, yes I do. Maybe I can avoid whatever happened.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m a totally different Todd than I was back then. Older and wiser.”
He grips the door handle too tightly for my liking, and I instinctively narrow my eyes in his direction. “What happens in Pensacola…”
“Stays in Pensacola?” I ask, worried he’d say that.
“Goes on your performance report,” he corrects.
“Oh…” I watch him shut the door, then lock it in front of him so he can see me do it.
“And don’t look out these curtains unless you have to.” Agent Todd’s voice rings out on the other side of a window. I shuffle over to it and peek out, watching Marshal Todd glower in my direction. “Unless you have to!” he reminds me with two meaty fingers tapping against the glass.
It’s too close to looking like a threat for my comfort. I instinctively take a step back and he notices, blushing as his eyes widen.
“Not what I meant to say!”
