Jase asked as they walked home that night. They followed a path between the two houses, lit by the flashlight Shell carried. Dammit, she thought, he saw altogether too much. She considered denying his allegation but shrugged. Why resort to a phony denial that he wouldn’t believe anyway? She hadn’t wanted to take him there. That it had turned out as well as it had was no thanks to her abilities to protect her mother. To her eternal relief, Kathleen, her mother’s dear friend and longtime companion, had seen them coming up the ramp and had the presence of mind to whisk the gold statuettes away. Jase had not seen them, had asked no questions that couldn’t be answered easily, and had spent most of the ensuing hours entertaining them, rather than the other way around. “Lil isn’t well,” she said. “Surely, you could see that.” Then, almost grudgingly, she added, “Though I must say she enjoyed your company and your stories. All that laughter seemed to add to rather than deplete her strength.
