belonged to ex-friends long ago invited to his house while he was at
home.
Tonight…
“Come on, Matt,” Caroline’s voice, lazy, slow, and seductive
purred. It sounded as if she were lying down, speaking into the crack
under the door. “Don’t be such a spoilsport. You know you have to
come out sometime.”
“Let me talk to my mom.”
“I can’t, Matt. I told you before, she’s undergoing training.”
“To be like you?”
“It takes a lot of work to get to be like me, Matt.” Suddenly
Caroline’s tone was not flirtatious any longer.
“I bet,” Matt muttered, and added, “You hurt my family and you’re
going to be sorrier than you can imagine.”
“Oh, Matt! Come on, get real. Nobody is going to hurt anybody.”
Matt slowly opened his hands to look at what he had clenched
between them. Meredith’s old revolver, filled with the bullets blessed by
Obaasan.
“What is Elena’s middle name?” he asked—not loudly, even
though there were the sounds of music and dancing in Mrs. Flowers’s
backyard.
“Matt, what are you talking about? What are you doing in there,
making a family tree?”
“I asked you a simple question, Care. You and Elena played since
you were practically babies, right? So what is her middle name?”
A flurry of activity. When Caroline finally answered he could