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

Rudy isn’t sure what to expect, but this time, the police questions are different. They are totally focused on Steve. How do you know Steve? Did you ever feel threatened by him? Did he bother your sisters?

Rudy wants nothing more than to turn the tables on Yang and Perry, to learn what they have on Steve. To ask them the questions—but even he knows that would be a little much. While Yang interviews him, Rudy can’t help but notice that when Perry is taking notes, she is pressing into the notepad hard enough that the tip of her pencil breaks not once, but twice. He’s willing to bet she’s not too thrilled that his mom had asked her to patrol their house while his parents are gone.

Rudy answers the officer’s questions and then waits as Yang interviews Amber and Cecily. Finally, Rudy and his sisters stand outside the station, waiting for the familiar sight of the white Range Rover.

But this, Rudy realizes too late, is a mistake, because Cecily is exposed. There are a couple of loitering high school kids across the street, clearly taking photographs of her to post online. Rudy replays the backlash from his father’s open house outburst over and over in his head, trying to stop himself from shouting at them.

After a few minutes, a woman exits the station and joins them by the door. She stands with her head in her hands, trembling as she lifts a water bottle to her mouth. She catches sight of the triplets—of Cecily—and Rudy’s heart sinks as she instantly beelines toward them. Rudy steps in front of his sisters, but then he realizes this woman is more distraught than confrontational.

“You don’t think he did it, did you?” she asks. “My boy.”

Steve’s mom. It’s there in the slope of the eyes, the shape of her jaw. Rudy hesitates. “I—”

“He was such a nice boy—he just wanted all those kids to like him, think he was cool. That’s why he pulled up your carpet—” She chokes on a sob. “He can’t go to prison. He just can’t. He’s sixteen—”

“Steve . . . ,” Rudy tries to explain. But what can he say?

She is hysterical. All of a sudden, she reminds Rudy way, way too much of his mom with her fist in her mouth, crying in the hospital as they waited for news about Cecily. “He couldn’t have done all the things to that girl—he was home gaming all night; he was online, I promise—”

“I’m sorry,” Amber stammers. “I don’t—”

“It’s that house.” The woman is openly weeping now, hands trembling as she takes a cigarette out of her purse. “That house, I tell you. It’s cursed. Ever since they made that little girl leave.”

Rudy freezes. After so many days of unanswered phone calls and fruitless internet searches, he hadn’t expected to hear anything about Reena here, of all places.

“Alex Grable?” He feels the disapproval radiate from Cecily and Amber, but Rudy can’t stop himself from asking.

Steve’s mom shakes her head. “No, no, the other one. The Glenarm girl. She went into the system after the Grable family died and her dad got shipped off—the whole town knew it was wrong, but what could we do? I don’t know how Regina does it.”

“Regina? How who does it?” Rudy asks. He’s practically shouting.

“Before you bought it, she was the one who had to keep showing it, to keep trying to sell the place, even after all these years, to all these families that—that—” She shakes her head and rummages around in her purse, pulling out her lighter.

“Regina who?” Rudy presses.

“Armstrong. Your realtor,” Steve’s mom says, trying to light the cigarette. “She told me once that she didn’t even want to sell it. She said she’d buy it, if she could, but she didn’t have the money—” She cuts herself off and shakes her head. “She’s part of that historical group, you know. The one that wants, well, that wanted you all out of the house.”

Rudy freezes. Behind him, the Range Rover pulls up. Cecily tugs at his shirt. He ignores her, because this could be it. This could be her.

“Really?” he asks.

“You know, she was really upset when your family bought the house,” Steve’s mom continues. His parents shout from the car, and Rudy feels Amber’s hand on his arm. “You should have heard her, after you bought it. Ran into her at the corner store, she was going on about bad history—I think she was worried for you. Sweetheart, she is.”

Or a monster, Rudy thinks. “How do you know her?” he asks.

“We both have family at Upstate Medical—the assisted living place up in Tesford,” she says. “We started carpooling. But I couldn’t drive today, because—because—” She casts a long look back into the station and starts crying again.

“Rudy!” With a jolt, Rudy realizes that Cecily’s been trying to get his attention for some time. He wants to stay, wants to keep Steve’s mom talking, but he can’t delay his parents. They have to make that meeting. They have to sell the house. So he lets Cecily steer him toward the car.

Rudy’s mind is reeling on the ride home. Cecily and Amber are quiet, too, and Rudy is sure they must be thinking about what Steve’s mom had said.

As soon as they’re home, he ushers Amber and Cecily into his bedroom. “Regina.”

“Reena. They so sound similar,” Amber agrees. “And she’s the right age. She knows her way around the house. It’s possible.”

“She sold the house to us,” Cecily protests. “Why would she have sold us the house if she didn’t want us to buy it? Think about it—it doesn’t make sense!”

“She probably had to,” Amber says. “It would be suspicious if she didn’t—and remember the tour, how she was going on and on about how we should preserve the integrity of the house?”

In the silence that follows, Rudy can tell that his sisters are turning it all over in their minds just like he is. The only people who