What Strange Creatures by Emily Arsenault Read Free Book Online Page B

someone who has to live with Wayne. Not so much as a friend. I don’t mean I have anything against her. We’re just not friends.”
    Brittany got up and walked over to the coat closet beside the door to the apartment.
    “So if she was in some kind of trouble, she wouldn’t call you about it?” I asked.
    “No.” Brittany pulled a black jacket out of the closet and carried it back to the sofa. “Not unless there was no one else for her to call, maybe. The thing is, I’m not so surprised she’s saddled you with Wayne and then flaked out. She does stuff like that sometimes. I’m sure she’ll turn up.”
    “What do you think happened?”
    “If I had to guess, I’d say she reconnected with her old boyfriend.”
    Brittany thrust the jacket into my hands so I could see the jagged, stringy fabric where a cuff had once been.
    “Wow,” I said, holding it in my lap for a moment, hoping to appear sympathetic. “So her boyfriend. You mean Jeff?”
    “Jeff? No. Is he the alcoholic? No. Her old boyfriend’s named Kyle. All of Kim’s drama always boils down to Kyle. That’s my theory anyway.”
    “Right . . .” I gave my best knowing nod, trying to ignore the leaden feeling in my chest. I avoided the impulse to point out to Brittany the difference between alcohol ism and alcohol abuse.
    “If she’d only cut it off with him, she’d probably be a lot happier. Sometimes you can’t be friends.”
    “I know, I know,” I said. Was the second “I know” too much, I wondered. Too fake?
    “I think Jeff’s onto the whole thing. I heard Kim talking on the phone with him once, and she’s all like ‘We just had to talk about one thing. We have a mutual friend, and she’s having a problem.’ Or some bullshit like that. ‘I can’t go into it, I can’t go into it,’ she kept saying. By the time she got off the phone, she was crying. I think that Jeff was really laying into her. Can’t say I blame him, I guess. I know she still saw Kyle, still talked to him. And more than once.”
    “Why didn’t she just end it?” I asked.
    “Well . . .” Brittany cocked her head at me again. Maybe that was one too many questions. Maybe it sounded terribly naïve. Maybe anyone who knew Kim at all should have the answer.
    “I actually don’t know. She said he’d drunk-dial her sometimes, but what I don’t get is why she would answer.”
    Brittany shrugged and folded her arms.
    “So maybe if I could track down Kyle, I could track down Kim?” I asked her.
    “I’d think,” Brittany said, then clucked her tongue. “You ever met Kyle?”
    “No.” I folded Brittany’s jacket and placed it between us on the couch. “You?”
    “Nope.”
    “Now, what was his last name?”
    “Mmm . . . Spicer? Yeah. I remember thinking it reminded me of cinnamon.”
    “And you think she’s with him?”
    Brittany shrugged again.
    “Where does Kyle live?” I asked.
    “I’m not sure, but he lives close. Maybe Ricksville. I know he works at Carpet World in Ricksville.”
    I nodded. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with this information.
    “Did Kim happen to mention someone sending her nasty texts?” I asked.
    “Texts?” Brittany shook her head. “No. I don’t think so.”
    “What about Donald Wallace? Did she ever mention that name to you?”
    Brittany looked at me like I was a lunatic. “Donald Wallace?” she repeated. “You mean the Senate candidate?”
    “That’s the one.” I tried to sound casual.
    “Uh . . . no. ” Brittany twisted her lip to show how weird she thought I was for asking.
    “So, then . . . this friend of hers . . . Missy? Do you think she’d know where Kim is?”
    Brittany shrugged. “I’m not sure. I know Kim would walk Wayne with her sometimes. I never met her. Kim mentioned she was an old friend she’d recently gotten in touch with again.”
    “Do you know Missy’s last name? Where she lives?”
    “No. I just know that they’d walk Wayne in Higgins Park in Folston. She