The Outsider Series: The Complete Omnibus Collection

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Andy knocked on the wooden screen door of the run-down house where Laura Parnell lived. He listened to the creak of the floor as someone approached and the inside door swung open, and an extremely overweight woman with gray hair and a cigarette dangling from her lips stared up at him.

“Yeah?” was all she said through the closed screen door. Smoke drifted up into his face.

Andy coughed and waved the smoke away. “I’m looking for Laura. Is she home?”

The woman scratched her head with her stubby, wrinkled fingers. Her short gray hair was an untidy mess. “Who?” She truly looked confused, and then she pulled the cigarette from her lips and coughed a deep smoker’s cough until tears shimmered in her eyes.

“Laura Parnell, young, blonde, good-looking girl. She’s got a little boy. I dropped her off here a few days ago. She lives here.” Andy was pointing to the spot he was standing, and he wanted to shake the old lady when she nodded as if having to think about it.

“Oh, yeah, the one with the kid who lived in the basement suite.” The woman choked and coughed again.

“Lived? What do you mean ‘lived’? They’re still there, aren’t they?”

The woman shook her head. “Sorry, sonny. Jerry, owns this dump and a few of the other houses on this block.” She pushed open the screen door and gestured with the cigarette in her hand to the older run-down homes on the street. “He tossed her out yesterday. She couldn’t pay the rent. Saw her load up what she could in that old car last night, and I haven’t seen her since.” She stepped back inside, and Andy sniffed the off odor coming from the house. It was beyond cigarettes, and he didn’t have to look too hard to see the clutter stacked and piled here and there. He was wondering whether she had garbage everywhere when she started to close the door.

Andy pressed his hand there, holding it open. “How do you get to the basement suite?”

“Back of the house. But, sonny, I’m telling you she’s gone. You don’t mess with Jerry. He wants you out, you’re out.” This time, she shut the door, and Andy heard the lock click.

He glanced at the rotted-out sofa sitting on the porch beside the door and the boxes beside it, the black bags that he was sure were filled with garbage. He shook his head as he strode down the rotted, creaking steps and around the house to a very different backyard, which was neat and tidy. He paused for a moment, taking in the difference from the front. Andy was surprised and kept going to a set of concrete steps that led down to an open door. He strode down the steep steps, no railing, and listened to a banging and scraping coming from inside. “Laura?” Andy called out as he tapped on the open door and stepped inside. He heard something clatter again, and then a guy shouted, “She’s gone.”

Andy took in the narrow hallway, sagging yellow roof, stained walls and mold growing from spots along the floor. He stepped around the corner, glancing at a solidly built guy with a wrench fixing a tap. “Where did she go?”

The guy dropped the wrench, gazed at Andy, and smirked. “Who knows? Told her to clear out of here. She couldn’t pay the rent.”

Andy rested his hand on the faded yellow cracked counter, fighting the urge to deck this prick. “You just threw a single mom with a kid out into the cold?” He had to bite his tongue when the irony hit him. Hadn’t he done the same thing fifteen years ago to Diana, Jed’s wife, when she was just a kid? Maybe that was what he recognized in this prick before him. It was a darkness he’d come to realize lurked in everyone, a predator, and it was something that men recognized in other men, especially when they had done things to women that they weren’t proud of. Maybe that was why Andy wanted to ram his fist down this vile piece of crap’s throat. But he didn’t. Instead, he flexed his fist.

“Any idea where she went?” Andy glanced around at the torn tweed sofa, which belonged in a dumpster, a lumpy bed in the corner, and a badly stained carpet, all of which had him wondering how someone could live in a dump like this. For the love of God, it was a wonder Laura and her kid weren’t sick.

“No, and don’t care. Anything else? Because I need to get this place ready for new tenants moving in today.” The guy sounded irritated, as if he’d been wronged in some way.

Maybe it was curiosity that had him asking, “What would you charge for a place like this?”

“Eight hundred.” The guy swore as he broke off the rusted tap.

Andy glanced around again, because he wouldn’t have let a dog stay in this hellhole. “That’s highway robbery.”

“Yeah, well, finding places to rent ain’t easy, so if you want a roof over your head, you have to pay for it. After all, I’m providing a service to all those who need a home.”

Andy watched as the guy replaced the tap with something that didn’t look much better than what had been there before. “What’s your name?”

The big guy stopped what he was doing and looked at Andy. “Jerry Hines.”

“Well, Jerry, if you hear from Laura, you tell her I’m looking for her and to call me.” Andy pulled a card from his wallet and dumped it on the chipped counter.

Jerry glanced at the card and then flushed. Andy turned and left, feeling nausea squeeze the edge of his stomach. He took the stairs two at a time as he heard the man shout after him, “You can bet, Mister Friessen, if I hear from her, I’ll make sure she calls you.”