Starter House(31)

Lex threw the camera through the window. It was all he had. He realized, as it left his hand, that it was a bad idea; he needed the camera. Too late. The window shattered, and the noises of the apartment started, as if he’d turned the mute button off. For a moment, he couldn’t quite believe what he’d done. Because he couldn’t have thrown the camera through the window. It was the kind of thing crazy people did.

Theo threw the chicken leg, and it fell in the broken glass. Jeanne shouted, “Call the cops, Mom! He’s busted out the window!”

Evidence. The memory card was evidence, even if the camera was broken. He had to get it back. He took off his windbreaker, wrapped it around his left arm, and broke the rest of the window glass. “Get out, get away from me, get away,” Jeanne panted. She couldn’t shout for long. She couldn’t do anything for long, the way the fat squeezed around her heart, and this was what she wanted for Theo.

He wanted to tell her. “You’ll die,” he said. “What you’re doing. You’ll die.”

Jeanne crushed her small white hands together over her sick heart. She had such pretty hands, the prettiest part of her. “He says he’ll kill me,” she said.

“I called them,” Jeanne’s mother said from the living room. She didn’t come into the kitchen. She hardly ever got out of the recliner because her knees hurt. “The cops are coming, Lex!” she shouted. “They gone shoot you in the head.”

He didn’t believe her. The phone was on a sideboard across the room from the recliner. Big Jeanne wouldn’t be out of the chair yet.

He hadn’t meant to threaten her. It was so hard. His thoughts were real, and the words never came right. Jeanne’s pretty hands. There was a pleat where the fat folded over her wrists, and then the fine small hands, like they were sewn on. The rest of Jeanne could be like that, fine and pretty and perfect. “You’re sick,” he said.

“You’re the one who’s sick, taking pictures through my window!”

“I love you,” he said. That could never be the wrong thing to say.

“That’s some sick crazy love,” Jeanne said. “I was fourteen when we met.”

Lex unbuckled Theo from the car seat. “She needs a clean diaper.”

“I’m her mama and I’m the one who says what she needs. You put her down.”

The camera was next to Jeanne’s right foot. Another second and she’d see it and stomp on it, and where would his evidence be then? “I need to take care of you,” he said.

“Mama! Call the cops. He’s threatening me.”

“I need you to listen to me. I need to take care of you. You’re sick.”

“Mama!”

A metallic groan and a thump came from the other room: big Jeanne lowering the footrest of the recliner. Lex had no time, and he had to get the camera. “Here,” he said, pushing Theo into Jeanne’s arms. Theo laughed and grabbed her mother’s cheeks. Lex lunged for the camera. The view screen was broken off, but the memory card looked okay. “I want to take care of you,” he said. He took out his wallet and gave Jeanne a twenty-dollar bill.

She laughed angrily. “Twenty bucks, and what about the window?”

“I’ll send you a check tomorrow.” The old man would have to pay for it. Lex couldn’t afford it, that big window, three or four hundred bucks. And it must have been cracked already, otherwise there was no way the camera could have broken it. He wasn’t going to argue with Jeanne, though. “Don’t call the cops.”

“I got my finger on the nine,” Big Jeanne said from the other room.

Jeanne looked at the camera and the window. Too late, Lex remembered she was clever; people forgot that about her. Her eyes looked dull and small, but her mind belonged to the pretty hands, so clever and so quick. “I can take pictures, too,” she said. “My lawyer knows your lawyer. She says she can eat him for lunch. I’ll get a restraining order. I’ll have you arrested. Get out of my house.”

“I only want to help you.”

“I’ve had enough of your help.” She held the baby out to him. The thick little legs, thicker than zucchinis, kicked in the air, and the baby fussed, protesting against the lack of support. “Say good-bye,” Jeanne said. “In five years, she won’t know your name.”

Lex left through the window. He grabbed the frame as he jumped from the room, and the broken glass cut his hand. He bled all the way back to his car. When he took the memory card out of the camera, it was still whole. He had his evidence.





Chapter Fifteen