Guarded by Mary Behre Page A

this?”
    She nodded, then slid behind the wheel of her old Buick. Dev closed her door but tapped on her window. After she rolled it down by the hand crank, he said, “Are you sure you’re all right to drive?”
    “Yeah, it’s only a couple of blocks.” She answered as if he hadn’t followed her over from her apartment, but Dev didn’t correct her.
    “Okay.” He turned and had barely hit the unlock button on his key fob when Shelley called out to him.
    “Dev, wait. Something’s wrong with my car. Again.” She turned the key in the ignition, but nothing happened. The engine didn’t even try to turn over. “God, I hate Wednesdays. First the cubs go missing. Then I get fired. Now my fracking car won’t start.”
    “Pop the hood. Let me take a look at the engine.” Dev moved to the front, staring at Shelley through her windshield.
    She shook her head. “Don’t bother. I know what’s wrong. The mechanic told me last week that my alternator was dying. I was hoping it would make it until my next payday before it died. I’ll call the mechanic when I get home.”
    “Yep,” Dev agreed, hoping to lighten the mood. “Could this day suck any more buckets of doggy-drool?”
    Despite the frustration in her tone, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
    Dev chuckled. “At least you’ve still got your sense of humor.”
    The would-be grin vanished, but she said in a light tone, “If your world’s going to hell in a handbasket, might as well enjoy the ride down.”
    “Come on. I can drive you home,” Dev said, opening her door and offering his hand. She accepted it, her tiny palm cool against his skin.
    “I can’t believe he really fired me. What am I going to do?”
    Again the glow that lit her from within was snuffed out. Her smiles were a show, a front. She was trying to be brave, but there was no need to fake it with him.
    Surely she knew that.
    “Ready to go?”
    She glanced at him and another too-bright smile appeared on her lips. This time he noticed how much of it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m all set. No wait, I’ve got to tie the trunk closed.”
    “What?”
    “It’s nothing. The latch is broken. Some kids broke into my car when I was still living in Baltimore, and I never got the trunk fixed.” In short economical moves, she tugged on the bungee cords holding the trunk lid down.
    “That’s not very secure.”
    “It’s more to keep it from flying up in case it rains tonight.” She shrugged. “There’s nothing in there to steal.”
    Without another word, she moved to his car. Dev opened the passenger door of his Lexus and waited until she’d buckled herself in before closing the door.
    It was so quiet at the zoo, it took Dev a minute to recognize that even the normal sounds of squirrels chattering and birds chirping had ceased. He glanced up to the trees surrounding the lot. The few animals there stared down at his car and presumably Shelley in stony silence.
    Their stillness was made more ominous by Dev’s complete lack of knowledge on how to handle the situation. So he did what he did best, kept quiet.
    A breeze carried the scent of the river, warm and brackish, along with the rich aroma of fall in the woods. Long golden shafts of midafternoon sun shining through the surrounding trees cast half of Shelley’s face in shadow.
    The Shelley he knew from college would have argued for her job. Fought to keep it. But the woman before him hadn’t. She rallied enough to smile when he addressed her, yet she slid into the passenger seat like a ghost. Barely aware of where she was and what she was doing.
    It was jacked up. He’d always remembered Shelley as the brave one. The girl at school who not only ran for SGA president, but won. She tutored football players in biology and English for fun. And made him and his teammates enjoy every moment of it too. Shells was never down. Never cried. Not even when she told him about her parents’ death. The only time he’d ever seen her shed a