“Shit,” Martinez said, glancing at the screen. “It’s Rogers. I bet he broke one of them. Come on.” He waved to Daily who looked pissed. I was torn between going and staying with Matt. Martinez must have sensed my ambivalence because he told me Matt was going to be in surgery for awhile, and we would be back before he woke up. That decided it for me, and the three of us were off.
I didn’t say anything as Martinez and Daily talked about the case on the way to wherever we were going. Martinez had called Rogers the second we stepped out of the hospital and procured an address before hanging up. Daily and Martinez were talking in a language of their own, and I didn’t even try to keep up. Instead, I closed my eyes to take a well-deserved nap. I was deprived of the pleasure, however, because every time I closed my eyes, I started remembering Digger touching me. Despite my best efforts to keep quiet, I whimpered as I felt the weight of him against me.
“Scarlett? Are you ok?” Martinez broke off his conversation with Daily to ask me.
“I’m fine, Martinez,” I said, my voice patently false. I didn’t want to lie to him, but I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Daily, either. As he was driving, there wasn’t much Martinez could do but accept my falsehood.
I focused on Danny, trying to reach him to reassure him that help was on the way. When I contacted him, I wanted to reach through the ethers and grab him. He was huddled in the corner of his closet, making whimpering sounds. He had his hand in his pocket, holding his piggy like a good little boy as he banged at the closet door. It was obvious that he had been in there for awhile because of the dark stain spreading under his pants. He had been crying, presumably for a long time. I gathered my concentration and tried to touch his mind. It must have worked because he sat up in a hurry.
“Auntie? Is that you?” His eyes widened in hope, making me glad that I was on my way to finding him. “Are you coming for me?” How many times had he asked a variant on that question only to be disappointed? How glad I was that I could answer in the affirmative this time.
“Yes, baby. I’m coming for you. There will be two police officers with me, “Detective Martinez and Detective Daily. We should be there very soon. Hold on, ok, Danny?”
“You’re really coming for me?” A light shone out of Danny’s eyes. He looked ten times happier than just seconds before. Continue Reading