“Molly.”
“Is she older than me?”
Decker looked away, a sudden catch in histhroat. It had been stupid to bring up Molly.
He nodded. “About six years older than you.”
“How come she didn’t come here with you?”
Yeah, a really bad idea.
“She had—school.”
“Oh. So, her mom is with her?”
“Yes, they’re both together, that’s right.”
Zoe gazed over at the house where the two men had been found.
“Areyou and Aunt Alex doing stuff with what happened over there?”
“We’re helping the police look into it.”
Zoe put her thumb back in her mouth and sucked on it, her eyes wide and her brow furrowed. “Mommy said peoplediedin that house,” she mumbled.
“Look, Zoe, you don’t have to think about any of that, okay? It has nothing to do with you or your family.”
“Aunt Alexismy family. And you said you were helping the police.”
This caught Decker off guard. “Right. I know that. I mean…”His voice trailed off as Zoe looked up at him hopelessly.
“You…you should go back to bed, Zoe. It’s really late.”
“Why aren’tyouin bed?”
“Sometimes you have so much going on inside your head, you just can’t sleep.”
“Thishelps me,” Zoe said, holding out her blanket for Decker to take.
He smiled at this kind gesture by the little girl. He touched the blanket and said, “Thanks, but I think you and your blanket need to stay together. It’s just better that way.”
Zoe cuddled with her blanket, stood, and walked back to the door.
She turned and said, “I hope you don’t get hurt any more,Mr. Amos.”
Decker looked at her. “I’ll try not to.”
After she went back inside, Decker stared again at the house behind them. He closed his eyes and let his memories unspool like film across his mind.
His eyes popped open.
And for good reason.
Normally, his memories came back to him just as he had seen them. He had always considered the processpristine. Just like when Zoe had shown him the sheet of numbers and he had memorized them.
But now, like the problem in trying to see the numbers, the memories were erratic and disjointed, as though frames were jumbled together and running out of order through his mind. It was disconcerting, annoying, and Decker eventually put it down to his head injury.
Theweirdhead injury.