Blood Red

She put down the dishrag and walked out of the kitchen, looking around quickly with practiced eyes. Teddy Lister was a master at Hide and Seek. The problem seemed to be he never wanted to tell her when he was in the mood to play. At ten years of age, the little shit was practically an accomplished escape artist. She would have been pissed about it, too, but he was a damned cute little munchkin.

Bedrooms were empty. So were the rest of the rooms. One quick look at the attic door—where she had planted a very small piece of tape on the carpet to let her know if anyone went up the flight of wooden stairs—told her that Teddy had not gone that way either. That only left one other option worth considering.

Kelly grabbed her coat from off the chair where she’d draped it when she got to the Lister house, and slipped it on even as she reached for the back door’s crystal knob.

Before actually leaving the building, she listened and, sure enough, she heard Teddy’s voice and that of his best friend and number one accomplice in all things annoying, the equally cute and infuriating Avery Tripp.

She opened the door very, very carefully, letting the light spill out onto the back patio. It was well after sunset and the two boys were not supposed to be outside. One of the two was not even supposed to be at the house at all, but she had grown accustomed to that part of the equation. Avery Tripp was like a cabbage soup dinner: he kept coming back and stinking the place up when you least expected it. Mostly she meant the comparison in a good way.

The two of them were halfway down the stairs and, whatever they were doing, it had them far too engrossed to notice their babysitter sneaking closer. She made it all the way to the top step before a creaking board gave her away.

“Just what are you doing out here?” Kelli put as much venom as she could into the words, just to see how far they would jump. Avery flinched. Teddy let out a yelp and tried desperately to hide the magazine in his hands. Both boys had wide eyes and terrified expressions.

Rather than waiting for an explanation, Kelli walked down the four steps to where they were and grabbed the magazine from the trembling hands of her charge.

They managed to blush, even in the near darkness. Avery dropped a flashlight from his hand and all three of them watched it bounce and roll into the yard.

“Ohgodshe’sgonnafreak.” It was one word, and came from Avery’s lips in a high-speed whisper.

Teddy said what he always said when he got busted. “Avery made me do it.”

Kelli looked at the cover of the Penthouse Magazine the boys had been looking through and smiled. She knew they had to be up to something, especially when it was too quiet in the house.

“Penthouse? Where did you guys get a dirty magazine?” Kelli looked at Avery as she spoke, knowing full well he’d brought it with him.

Avery shrugged and looked at the ground for several seconds before he finally looked back at her. “I brought it.”

“How much trouble are you going to be in if I tell your mom about this, Avery?”

She couldn’t have gotten a better reaction if she’d pumped a million volts into his rear end. “Oh, jeez, Kelli . . . please don’t tell on me.” He was sweating now, worried, and that meant she had him exactly where she wanted him.

“You get your little butt home right now, Avery, and maybe I won’t have to.”

Teddy was the one who started to protest, but one look from her while she waved the magazine was enough to make him shut up. After a few moments of hemming and hawing, she gathered the two boys together and walked Avery back to his house three blocks over.

Three blocks doesn’t sound like a long walk, but when it came to handling Avery and Teddy, it was closer to three miles. They were boys, and they were energetic boys at that.

Avery looked pale and worried the entire time, and for the first time in the months she had known the kid, he was quiet. When they reached the walkway leading to his front door, Kelli put a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay, Avery?”

He swallowed hard and nodded his response.

“Are you sure?” He looked like he was going to faint dead away and that made her a little worried. He looked at her with brown eyes that threatened tears and nodded again, his throat bobbing up and down.

Finally, she reached into her jacket and pulled out the Penthouse, wrapped in a bag from the comic store she knew the two boys frequented. “Well, you go put this back where it belongs, Avery, okay?” She hadn’t been sure about whether or not to let him have the magazine back until just that moment.

“Y-you’re not gonna tell?” She shook her head. He looked like an angel in that moment; relieved, happy, and much more relaxed.

“But you know what?”

Avery shook his head.

“You don’t pull that sort of stuff; you can’t get in trouble for it.”

He rolled his eyes and nodded. The kid’s whole body got into the aww, shucks, ma’am expression whenever he made it.