[Georgia 03] Fallen

sure they had snacks and did their book reports.
    “You kept all his shit in your closet. What’s up with that?”
    He meant Jeremy. Faith still didn’t answer. Evelyn had made her keep everything because she had known that one day, Faith would cherish it more than anything else save for Emma’s things.
    She looked at her mother. “I’m so sorry.”
    Evelyn glanced back down at the dead man again, the Glock. Faith didn’t know what her mother wanted her to do. He was at least fifteen feet away.
    “I asked you a question.” He’d stopped pacing. He stood in the middle of the floor, directly across from Faith. The Tec-9 was pointed straight at Evelyn’s head. “Answer me.”
    She wasn’t going to tell him the truth, so she gave him the last clue that had clicked it all into place. “You changed out the lock of hair.”
    His smile turned her blood cold. Faith had realized this morning that the strand of Jeremy’s hair hadn’t darkened with time. The baby blue bow holding the lock of hair together was different from the one that held Jeremy’s. The edges were crisp, not frayed, where Faith had rubbed them like a talisman the last few months of her pregnancy with Emma.
    The silverware. The pens. The snow globes. Sara was right. It was something a kid would do for attention. When Faith first met the man in the bathroom, she had been so concerned with remembering his description that she hadn’t processed what she was seeing. He was Jeremy’s age. He was around Faith’s height. He had chewed his lip the way Jeremy did. He had Zeke’s bully bluster. And he had Evelyn’s blue eyes.
    The same almond shape. The same deep blue with specks of green.
    Faith said, “Your mother obviously loved you. She kept a lock of your hair.”
    “Which mother?” he asked, and Faith was startled by the question.
    Had Evelyn kept a lock of his hair for all of these years? Faith had an image of her mother at the hospital, holding her baby for what she knew would be the last time. Was it Amanda who had thought to find a pair of scissors? Had she helped Evelyn clip a piece of hair and tie it in a blue bow? Had Evelyn kept it with her for the last twenty years, taking it out every now and then to feel the soft, baby-fine strands between her fingers?
    Of course she had.
    You didn’t give up a child and not think about him every day, every moment, for the rest of your life. It wasn’t possible.
    He asked, “Don’t you even want to know my name?”
    Faith’s knees were shaking. She wanted to sit down, but she knew that she couldn’t move. She was standing in the front foyer. The kitchen door was on her left. The front door was behind her. The hall was to her right. At the end of the hall was the bathroom. Beyond that bathroom was Will and his Colt AR-15A2 and his excellent shot, if she could just get this bastard to make a move toward her.
    He turned the gun on its side, gangster-style, as he lined up the sights. “Ask me my name.”
    “What’s your name?”
    “What’s your name, little brother ?”
    She tasted bile on her tongue. “What’s your name, little brother?”
    “Caleb,” he said. “Caleb. Ezekiel. Faith. I guess Mommy likes her Bible names.”
    She did, which was why Jeremy’s middle name was Abraham and Faith’s first name was Hannah. Why had Faith chosen Emma’s name because it was pretty instead of honoring her mother’s tradition? Evelyn had suggested Elizabeth or Esther or Abigail, and Faith had been stubborn just because she didn’t know any other way.
    “This is where he grew up, too, right?” Caleb waved the gun, indicating the house. “Your precious Jeremy?”
    Faith hated the sound of her child’s name in his mouth. She wanted to punch it back down his throat with her fist.
    “Watched TV. Read some books. Played some games.” The bottom cabinet of the bookcase was open. He kept one eye on Faith as he pulled out the board games and tossed them on the floor. “Monopoly. Clue. Life.” He laughed. “Sorry!”
    “What do you want from us?”
    “Damn, you sound just like her.” He turned back to Evelyn. “Ain’t that what you said to me, Mommy? ‘What do you want from me, Caleb?’ Like you can pay me off.” He stared back at Faith. “She offered me money. What do you think about that? Ten thousand bucks to go away.”
    Faith didn’t believe him.
    “All she cared about was protecting you and your spoiled bitch kid.” The platinum tooth glimmered in the low light. “You got