The Follower by Kate Doughty (ebook reader with built in dictionary TXT) 📕

She feels cold. She steps forward to grab Rudy, but her brother isn’t going anywhere.

“Our house, our house,” he repeats, over and over again.

“Please,” the nurse says brusquely. “He’s—becoming agitated. Don’t worry, this happens all the time . . . it just might be a good idea for us to give you some space, wouldn’t it, Frank?”

Mr. Glenarm continues repeating the words “our house” as if on a loop. Like a broken cassette, Amber thinks.

“Would you mind returning another time?” the nurse asks. Translation: Leave now.

Amber and the others file out of the room. The nurse closes the door behind them, and as she takes off down the hallway, Rudy calls out to her. “Can you—tell us about him?”

The nurse pauses and turns to look at them.

“For a history project,” Bella echoes, but she sounds less enthusiastic now. Less enthusiastic and much more scared.

“He was injured in the same car accident that killed his wife, right? Bonnie?” Rudy asks, pushing the words out in a rush. It’s too much, Amber thinks. He’s pushing it too far. These are not the kind of things kids would ask about for a high school project.

The nurse looks confused. “I’m sorry. We don’t discuss medical history with non-relatives.”

“Has he been here since the crash?” Rudy asks. “Please. It’s for our project. We don’t want to know anything personal. Just how long he’s been here.”

The nurse shakes her head. “He’s been with us since—before I started here. Over fifteen years, now, maybe longer.” She begins to turn on her heel.

“And was he somewhere else before that?” Rudy presses.

The nurse shakes her head. “I don’t know. Most of our patients were cared for in-home before they began their stay with us; usually when their caretaker is unable to handle the burden anymore. I’m sorry, but I can only reveal medical information to direct family relations.”

The nurse looks like she’s definitely done talking to them now. Amber sees the desperate look on her brother’s face. They did come all this way, after all. And they’ve made it this far.

“Would he have used—antipsychotics?” Amber blurts out. “Clozaril?”

The nurse furrows her brow and leads them into a small, empty visiting room off to the side. “He’s not crazy, if that’s what you’re asking,” the nurse says firmly. “He’s a sweet old man, really is—and what did you say your school project was again?”

“Uh . . .”

The nurse sighs. “Look, if you need to see him again, visiting hours are between ten and five.” With that, she gestures to the main exit, indicating it’s time for them to leave.

Amber looks at her brother, Jada, and Bella. By unspoken agreement, they all beeline past the receptionist, out into the parking lot, and into the Range Rover.

Bella speaks first. “That was so creepy—the way he kept talking about the house, he sounded like . . .”

“Our follower,” Amber says. She shuts the door and buckles her seat belt.

“I don’t think so,” Jada says. “He’s too old—no way that guy is on Instagram, much less sabotaging your renovation.”

“He has to have some connection to the follower,” Bella says. “What if that’s who was taking care of him? The nurse said he probably received in-home care before he was sent to Upstate Medical.”

Jada shakes her head. “Let me get this straight here. You think the follower has something to do with Alex Grable, and you think Frank had to have known Alex, because . . .”

“Because the pill bottle had his name on it, and it expired the same year that Alex and her mom died,” Amber supplies. “We know that Frank’s wife was Alex’s aunt, so it makes sense that Alex and her mom were taking care of him after the accident.”

“Wait,” Rudy says slowly. “The pill bottle only said Glenarm. Not Frank. And the nurse said that he wasn’t crazy—”

“She also said that she wouldn’t tell you about medical records,” Jada cuts in.

“But wait,” Amber says. “There was also Bonnie, right? And his daughter—”

Bella nods. “The obit didn’t say anything besides that she was young . . .”

They speculate all the way to Ulta and back home. Bella and Jada can’t remember an old man who could have been Frank Glenarm in any of the Alex Grable legends; Rudy can’t stop speculating on what Frank meant by “our house.”

Even Jada jumps in, reminding them that Alex Grable had a father who hadn’t been home at the time of the incident. Rudy just shakes his head and says, “Believe me, I’ve tried. He can’t be found.”

Bella pulls up the obituary on her phone and rereads it. She pauses on the line about Bonnie Grable-Glenarm having extended family in Norton. What if it doesn’t mean the Grables, but more Glenarms? They decided that it’s a good place to start. Bella and Jada agree to double down on their research and help.

“I’m in,” Bella says. “This is . . . getting scary, with Cecily, but . . . if someone hurt her, we need to find out who.”

Jada nods. “I’m in, too.”

When Jada says she is in, it is all Amber can do not to kiss her again.

They drop off Bella first. After Rudy pulls up outside of Jada’s house, Amber steps outside the car with her to say goodbye in private. And to ask her something.

“Thanks for . . . everything. For caring, and for offering to help. It means a lot.”

“Of course. I’m here for you,” Jada replies. The way she’s staring into Amber’s eyes makes Amber feel weak in the knees.

Amber leans forward and kisses her. Then, before she can make herself back out, she goes for it: “Can I ask you something?”

‘”Sure.”

“Willyoubemygirlfriend?” The words come out so much faster than Amber thinks they’re going to, and for a second she thinks that Jada has misheard her, that she’s going to have to stumble over the words all over again. But then Jada’s face breaks into a huge smile.

“Absolutely.”

Amber leans forward and kisses her again, leaning into the feel of her lips, her hands on the small of her back—

And then the horn honks.

Amber throws an evil glare