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“How?”
“I made a late night visit to that abandoned house at the end of your neighborhood. The one you told me you see your dad go into from time to time.”
Jesse’s cheeks flare with embarrassment.
“You saw more than you led on earlier, didn’t you?” I ask.
He looks down, ashamed by his father’s sexual deviance.
“Hey,” I lean forward. “Don’t think I haven’t seen worse in prison.”
Jesse wrinkles his nose. “Gross.”
“You have no idea. … Jesse… Your dad doesn’t….”
“No. God, no. He’s never touched me. Especially like that. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t do anything like that with my mom, either. It’s his own freaky-ass disgusting little thing he does to our whore of a neighbor.”
“Have you told your mom?”
“No way.”
“She’ll find out. They always do.”
Jesse nods as if this relieves him. “I want her to leave him.”
“Hell, me too.”
He snorts a laugh.
“Why doesn’t she?” I ask.
“She ain’t got her own money. The woman hasn’t worked a day in her life.”
“So she’s trapped, then.”
“Yeah.”
“Just like you are.”
He frowns, looks up at me.
“Don’t be like your mom, Jesse. Go home, get a job, save up, and get yourself out of that house. Make a better life for yourself. You arenottrapped. Trust me. Use the resources you currently have to better your life. Meaning, use your parents’ car, use their internet to study, educate yourself, sleep in your comfortable bed so you can get up and be your best self every day. Use them. Screw it. You are in control. Got it?”
He blinks. My point was received, and received well.
“Anyway, enough of that,” I flick my hand in the air. “Listen, have you seen Detective Stroud around your neighborhood?”
“No… not that I noticed, anyway. Like I said, I haven’t been there in a while.”
“He drives that big-ass grey truck with deer lights on top.”
“I know what he drives—everyone does.” Jesse rolls his eyes and I’m glad to know I’m not the only one that thinks Stroud’s display of masculinity is absolutely ridiculous. “Why you ask?”
“I saw him. Last night—late—driving into your neighborhood.”
“Late? How late?”
“Around midnight.”
