No Safe House

Thirty-three

“I think it’ll all come together before the day’s over, Unk.”

“You’re the best, Reggie. You’re the only one I should ever have talked to about this. You’re the only one I can admit to what a fool I’ve been. Trusting that boy. Eli. I gave him work, helped him out. His roommates, they threw him out, you know. But I saw something of myself in that boy.”

“He was no boy, Unk. He was a man.”

“I suppose, but... I don’t know. He was a kid who’d gotten the short end of the stick all his life. Parents never gave a shit about him. He’d had to fend for himself for a long time.”

“A little too well, you ask me.”

“You’re right. I know that. But I never thought, giving him some work, helping him out, that he would turn against me. Me and Eli, we’d sit and talk in the evening. I ended up telling him all about her. All these stories I’ve told you. Too damn much. One night, I guess I had a little too much to drink, and I told him what I’d done. Stupid, I was just stupid.”

“He paid for his betrayal, Unk. He got what he deserved.”

“Other than him, the only person I’ve ever confided in, is you. You know my secrets.”

“And you know mine, Unk.”

“You should have told me sooner. Just how much of a monster my brother was. At first I thought, after your mom died, raising you on his own would make him a better man, a good father.”

“A good father doesn’t expect his daughter to fulfill all the responsibilities of a wife. You’ve been the father I was meant to have, ever since you took me in when I was fourteen.”

“I’ve never told a soul, you know.”

“There’s nothing to tell. There was a fire in the barn. The man died. End of story.”

“About Eli, do you think he told Quayle it was me? When he tried to make the deal with him?”

“He told us no. If Eli had told Quayle everything, you’d have heard from him by now. I guarantee it.”

“I hate that man. There are no words. I hate him with every fiber of my being.”

“I know, Unk. He did a terrible thing to you when he took her away. But you got the last laugh.”

“I suppose.”

“Sit tight. This is the day we’re all going to get what’s coming to us.”