Chapter 13 · Stay Off the Water

"You met her."

Daniel didn't look up from the tape recorder he was wiring to the wall outlet. His hands were steady. Too steady.

"Don't ignore me." I crossed the room in three steps and shoved his shoulder. "You met my mother. Before she drowned."

He caught my wrist before I could pull back. His grip wasn't tight, but it locked me in place. When he finally looked at me, his eyes were flat.

"Yeah," he said. "I met her."

I yanked my hand free. "When?"

"Two weeks before she died." He turned back to the recorder, fed a tape into the slot. "She came here looking for work. Said she needed cash, no questions."

"Bullshit." My voice cracked. "Mom had a job. She worked at the cannery."

"She got fired three months before that." Daniel's tone didn't change. He could've been reading a grocery list. "Came here because someone told her I paid under the table. I do. Did."

The room tilted. I grabbed the back of the chair to keep upright.

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"Then why didn't you say anything? When I moved in, when I told you her name—"

"Because you wouldn't have believed me.