“What are you doing here?” Emily, returning from break early. I pushed Clara’s phone back into her hands.

“She’s just leaving. Aren’t you? I escorted her out here in the hall, so she wouldn’t bother guests.” I tried to stand straighter, hold Emily’s eye. Emily studied me, and I was sure she knew I was being untruthful, and I couldn’t explain why I’d had Clara’s phone. I simply had to hope that she wouldn’t ask.

“Sure, I am. Hypocrite.” Her eyes were narrowed on Emily. She glowered at me, too, which I assumed was just for show, and left us without another word.

“God, can’t keep the grifters out, huh? Lily, I’m assuming you’re ready to go back to doing your job?”

“Yeah. Why’d she call you a hypocrite?”

“Who knows? Maybe she thinks we’re all on the same page. Just some gals stuck here in Atlantic City, peddling our services for a buck until something better comes along. But with those two, everything is just a setup for one of their cons.” Now Emily’s hostility toward Clara made me wince, and for a second I considered telling her about the burns.

A few minutes later, my phone lit up with a new text. I figured it was Clara, asking me when we could meet up again. See a doctor first, I would tell her. But I almost dropped the phone when I saw who it was.

Hey, Lil. Are you over your slumming at the shore phase yet? We should talk.

Matthew.

I had wanted this for most of the summer, hadn’t I? Some kind of acknowledgment from him? But the text only made me furious. I didn’t have time to puzzle out what Matthew wanted, what he could possibly be up to. I was spent. Cold, where the sweat on my back was now drying in the chill of the air-conditioning. I couldn’t get Mrs. Zale’s voice out of my head. I kept picturing her walking upstairs, creaking open the door to Julie’s room, sitting on the bed. Taking the velvet of that stuffed rabbit’s ear between her fingers, waiting and waiting and waiting for her girl to come home.

JANE 5