Chapter 2

Abbie retreated up the steps out of the sunken living room. She wandered around the condo and had a good look at everything.

She found the open kitchen on the upper level. The photographs on the wall made a lot more sense now, with Trina and an older man laughing on the beach with a beautiful bleach-blonde younger woman. Abbie wandered all the way back to the entrance foyer. Her suitcase still sat by the elevator.

What should she do? Should she leave? Trina certainly wasn't in any danger by herself. Abbie couldn't wait all day for this Malcolm Malloy to show up. He obviously hired her to do something with Trina, even if that was nothing more than stand around watching her play on her phone.

Abbie made another complete circuit of the condo. He had money. That was for certain. This place must cost a fortune. The big living room windows commanded a sweeping view of the city in three directions, all the way out to the ocean and up the river to the smoky horizon.

Abbie lingered around the kitchen. From the open counter tops, she looked down on Trina's head. She wandered around, investigating rooms and opening drawers, for another three hours before she lost her patience. She better leave. Malcolm Malloy could get in touch with her to arrange some other meeting time. She checked her phone but found no message from him. She headed for the elevator.

She got up the stairs to the foyer when the elevator opened in front of her and a broad shouldered man with buzzed hair stepped out of it. His green eyes brightened when he spotted Abbie. “Oh, Miss Townsend, you're here. That's wonderful. Did you find your way around all right? How are you getting along?”

Abbie stiffened. “I thought you were going to meet me here. I've been waiting almost four hours.”

The man strode past her to drop his keys in a dish on the side table. “I figured you could work it out for yourself. Did you meet Trina? Meeting her is much more important than meeting me.”

“I met her if that's what you can call it, but she's not my employer. I thought I might be trespassing when no one met me or even invited me in.”

The man's expression softened. His whole face lit up when he smiled. That smile melted Abbie's heart. “I'm sorry, Miss Townsend. You're absolutely right. I should have been here to meet you and show you around and introduce you to Trina. I made a mistake thinking you could just walk right in and make yourself at home. Let me make it up to you now. Come inside, and I'll show you around.”

“Please call me Abbie. I can't stand people calling me Miss Townsend.”

He held out his hand. “All right, and you can call me Malcolm. Are you hungry? How about some lunch?”

“Before I start making myself at home, maybe you can explain what I'm supposed to do here. Is it Trina you want me to take care of? I usually get hired to take care of much younger children.”

“She's the only child here. She's thirteen going on thirty-five, but she's still too young to stay alone for any length of time. She can entertain herself for a few hours, but I have to go away on business sometimes. I need an adult around to cook meals and be available in case of emergency.”

“I can handle that, but Trina says she doesn't go to school. What does she do?”

Malcolm cringed. “No, she doesn't go to school. She's been kicked out of three schools in ten months. She doesn't want to go to school. I'm not sure what to do about that.”

“Well, you can't do nothing. That's not an option. She should be studying at home with a tutor if she doesn't want to go to school.”

Malcolm waved that aside. “You don't need to worry about that. I'll work out what to do about that another time. For now, I just want you to hold down the fort while I'm away. If you make any headway towards getting Trina to socialize with you, I'll be impressed. That's as far as I want you to go.”

“Okay. That's no problem.”

“Good. Come on. I'm hungry. I'll make you a sandwich, and one for Trina. After that, I have to get back to work. You'll be in charge for the rest of the day, and from now on.”

He led the way back to the kitchen. He took bread, sliced meats, lettuce, tomato and pickles out of the fridge and spread out his sandwich operation on the counter. Abbie watched him assemble three magnificent sandwiches and spread mayonnaise and mustard on the bread. He laid them on three separate plates and pushed Abbie's toward her.

Malcolm leaned against a bar stool at the counter and took a bite of his sandwich while Abbie ate standing up. The third sandwich sat alone and forlorn on the plate. Trina sat in the same place with her earphones on.

Abbie lowered her voice to a murmur, even though Trina couldn’t hear her. “Is it always like this?”

Malcolm nodded. “She spends pretty much every day doing the same thing. She didn't want to come here. She would rather live with her mother in Malibu. That's where all her friends live.”

“Why is she here, then?”

“The court makes her stay with me half the year. She sits there with her headphones on the whole time and waits until it's time to go back.”

Abbie couldn't help herself. “Poor kid.”

“Yeah, I know, but there's nothing I can do about it.”

“Does her mother have the same trouble getting her to go to school?”

“As much or more, but her mother takes a hands-off approach. She wants to let Trina work out for herself what she's going to do and how she's going to do it. That's why I'm not going out of my way to push her into school. I'm going along with her mother's plan until we see how it works out.”

“I see.”

“I can see you don't agree with it. I don't really agree with it, either. I'm just going along with it until her mother realizes it won't work. Then we can try something else.”

“I get it. Maybe that's not such a bad idea after all. If Trina's so hostile toward school, she won't let herself learn anything.”

“She's hostile toward school. She's hostile toward me. She's hostile toward everything.”

“Do you have any idea why? Is she hostile because her parents split up? That happens sometimes.”

“I have no idea what caused it, but it wasn't the break-up. She was okay until about a year and a half ago. She even enjoyed coming to live with me for half the year. She made friends at the local community center and went to school. Then all of a sudden, everything fell apart. She's been withdrawn and hostile ever since. No one can figure out why.”

Abbie took another bite of her sandwich and gazed down at Trina. The girl certainly posed an interesting puzzle. Every hostile kid Abbie ever met harbored some terrible secret eating them up from the inside. They attacked anyone who came near to protect themselves and their loved ones from uncovering something too horrible to see the light of day.

Abbie made up her mind then and there to find out what was bothering Trina. Maybe her mother got a new boyfriend who molested her. Maybe she had an unpleasant encounter with a boy she liked who didn't like her the same way. Any of a thousand possibilities could turn a good kid bad.

Malcolm wiped the crumbs off the counter with his hand. He swept them onto his plate and took the plate to the dishwasher. “Come on. I'll show you around.”

Abbie put her plate away and followed him over all the same territory she just covered. Now he brought the place to life explaining every photograph, statue, and nicknack on every surface of the condo.

At last, he showed Abbie into one of the unused bedrooms. “I thought you could use this room, but feel free to take one of the others. Trina's room is off the living room, and mine is upstairs. I've got a home office there, and I work from home sometimes. You'll probably never have any occasion to go up there, but if you need to find me, that's where I usually am.”

Abbie nodded. “This room will work just fine. I'll bring my suitcase down here later.”

“There's also a gym downstairs. I don't know if you want to use it, but it's available if you want to.”

She smiled up at him. “That's okay. Thanks.”

He blushed and turned away. He really could knock 'em dead with that smile of his. He must know how incredibly attractive he was, even if he was so much older. His hair turned gray at the temples, but his face shone bright and cheery as ever in spite of the creases around his eyes.

He walked the rest of the way down the hall, back up to the foyer. “There's a lot of storage space downstairs, too. I don't know if you want to put anything in storage while you're here. Maybe you just want to put your suitcase there to get it out of the way. If so, help yourself. Now I better get going. The office was a mess when I left.”

Abbie nodded. Why did she get uncomfortable facing him? The silence when neither of them said anything gave her a gushy feeling in her stomach. She couldn't think of anything to say. She nodded up at one of the nymphs. “These are really beautiful.”

“Not half as beautiful as you are.”

As soon as he said it and Abbie's eyes flew open, he turned bright red and looked away.

“What I mean is, they're just statues. They aren't as beautiful as a real person.”

Abbie's pulse beat in her head. “Oh. I understand what you mean.”

He pushed the elevator button. “Anyway, I'll get going. Don't worry if Trina doesn't talk to you at first. Just leave her alone.”

The elevator arrived and swept Malcolm Malloy away. Abbie followed his instructions and left Trina alone. The girl didn't say anything all day. She got up, got her sandwich, ate it, put the plate in the dishwasher, and went back to her couch without acknowledging Abbie's existence. Silence enveloped the condo.

After several hours of this, Abbie got bored of waiting. She got her suitcase and moved into the room Malcolm assigned her. She got out her computer and put in a few good hours working on her novel before she went back out to the living room to check on Trina. The girl hadn't moved.

Abbie sighed. A lot of time could pass like this. She could keep working on her book while Trina played her games. They could live alone in the same house for months until Trina went back to her mother's.

Abbie didn't bother going down to the living room. She stayed in the kitchen and observed the girl from behind. Whatever kept her locked in a private world of her own must be pretty serious. Abbie's heart went out to her. She needed a friend, someone she could confide in.

Abbie was a lot closer in age to Trina than to Malcolm. She could find out Trina's secret and bring her out of her shell. Then again, she could make Trina a life-long enemy by prying into her private life. Teenagers didn't usually appreciate that, especially from strangers barging into their homes uninvited.

Abbie couldn't think of anything better to do than work on her book, but she hated going back to her room with Trina on the couch. If Trina really wanted to be alone, she could listen to her music and play her games in her room. Instead, she spent the day on the couch. Her presence sent up an SOS flag. She needed help. She wanted help. She wanted contact with people. She just didn't know how to get it.

Abbie made up her mind. She wouldn't force herself on Trina, but she wouldn't lock herself in her room, either. She fetched her laptop and set up shop on the kitchen counter. She worked on her book and left Trina alone, but she sent up a flag of her own. She was there. She was there and available whenever Trina needed her.