After Mr. Zephyr left, Gram took Doni upstairs to show her some things she had dug out of storage for her room: rugs and curtains and pictures and things like that. I was alone with Mr. Carr for a little while. He settled down at the kitchen table, covered with all sorts of documents and lots of handwritten notes. I put away the lemonade and cookies and washed the dishes we had used.
"How's your
cousin settling in?" he asked me, when I'd finished rinsing the last
glass.
"She's a pretty
tough little kid. There were a couple times I thought she'd start
crying..." I shrugged and looked up at the ceiling. Gram and Granddad's
room was over the kitchen, with the big cedar closet right next to it, and I
could track Gram and Doni's movements by the faint creaking of the boards
overhead. "They took all her books away."
"Eh?" He
slid his glasses off the end of his nose and sat back, looking at me.
"Aunt Lenore was
like Granddad--loved books. Doni's the same way. I'm pretty sure all those
books Aunt Lenore and Uncle Thad sent to us, they had the same books for
themselves. So that's like thousands, maybe. They had to build an extra room on
their house for all the books, Doni said. Well, the Hallidays sold all her
books. Except for that backpack full, that she stole when she figured what they
were doing. Who'd be so mean to a little kid?"
"Indeed, I've
been wondering what kind of people these Hallidays are. I met Thad, after he married
Lenore. A good man. It amazes me that such a kind, generous man could come of
such people. Then again, serial killers often pop up in loving, moral, strong
families, so who can say?" He tapped the papers in front of him, written
in a bold, square handwriting. "Charlotte and I have been planning what to
say and do. The way this whole affair was handled is unforgivable. She isn't a
woman to seek vengeance, but this is her granddaughter who has been
irretrievably injured by the cold callousness of these people. It pained her to
admit she suspects the way everything was handled indicates these people were
maneuvering to profit from Thad and Lenore's deaths. The secrecy, and holding
onto London, and then casting her off the way they did." He shook his
head, his eyes dark with stern disapproval.
His eyes got darker
when I told him what Doni had said, about being in the care of the authorities
for seven weeks before the Hallidays showed up.
"I believe I
shall take great joy in...hounding these people, causing them as much
inconvenience and frustration as I can."
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