Read Always Watching for Free Online

Pavilion parking lot reporters swarmed. As our limo crept forward, they descended upon us like wasps. Policemen fought them back with little success. Camera flashes split the night. Voices yelled my name.
    Me?
I turned wide eyes to Mom.
    She put an arm around me, whispering, “They’ve heard you found him.”
    I leaned into her. I hated these types of crowds. Even when separated from me by a car, the crush of people snatched air from my lungs.
    Brittany cringed on my left, hands shoved between her knees. “Where did they all come from?”
    Morrey made a sound in his throat. “They never sleep.”
    Television camera lights surged on, spilling over shouting mouths and microphones, a man being shoved back by police, a disembodied hand holding a still camera high. Beyond the lights, dark shadows played over faces and shoving bodies, turning them grotesque and malformed.
    Something pummeled the window. I screamed. Brittany sank her fingernails into my arm.
    “It’s okay, girls.” Mom’s voice sounded tight. “They can’t get in. We’ll be through this in a minute.”
    “It’ll be all over the news tomorrow.” Kim sat straight, unaffected. She was fearless in crowds. “You wait. I’m talking
every channel. All day.”
    We pulled away from the crowd onto the street. Our limo picked up speed.
    “My mom will hear.” Brittany’s breath hitched. “She’ll make me go home.”
    “Mom,
do
something,” I begged. “Brittany
can’t
leave.”
    Onstage, Rayne O’Connor always looked confident and beautiful. A bundle of dancing, singing energy, feeding off the crowds. Now the corners of her mouth drew down, and her eyes were bloodshot.
    She patted my leg. “I’ll call Linda tonight, even though it’s late.” Mom leaned forward to look at Brittany. “I promise — I’ll get her to let you stay.”
    Brittany let out a hopeful sigh. If anyone could accomplish that, it was my mom. Hard to say no to Rayne O’Connor.
    At the hotel, Wendell, Bruce, and Mick hustled us in a side door and up to our rooms. We met Ross on our private floor for our room keys and the night’s “code” — a list of names and room numbers, plus the password. For protection and privacy, only those in our party and a few key people on the buses had the code. Anyone else calling the hotel and asking to be put through to one of our rooms would be denied.
    “You’re not leaving your room tomorrow, understand?” Mom said as a bellman opened her door for her and lugged in suitcases.
    For weeks, Brittany and I had planned to go shopping on Saturday. I thought again of Brittany’s warning to me — the plans we should keep. At least that’s the way I interpreted it. Tomorrow would be plenty soon enough to argue with Mom about shopping. I could wear a disguise, and we’d have a bodyguard with us. We’dbe plenty safe. But first things first—Brittany needed to be allowed to stay.
    “Okay. But remember, you have to call Brittany’s mom tonight.”
    “I will. Just let me get settled.”
    I hugged Mom hard before Brittany and I went into our own room next door. As typical, Mom and I had adjoining suites with a door in between so we could go back and forth without stepping into the hall.
    Fifteen minutes later Brittany and I were in our pajamas, sitting cross-legged on our matching queen beds. Mom hadn’t called yet. I’d already dialed her cell phone to say, “Please call Brittany’s mother
now.
We’re waiting up to hear.”
    Not that we’d have gone to bed anyway. Brittany and I had passed beyond exhaustion, now too wired to sleep. The chaos of police officers at the Pavilion and the crowds of reporters around our limo had momentarily numbed my pain. In its place — a simmering determination to find justice for Tom.
    “I’m going to help the police solve this,” I declared.
    “Yeah. I’m with you.”
    Brittany flipped her long hair around and around her right forefinger — a sign she was thinking hard. “Know what? This is a