“Hey.” His voice came out husky, as he did a terrible job of hiding the emotion coursing through him.
“Hi.” She flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder. “Sorry I’m late. I’ve been sitting in my car, on the phone with Ms. Watson. She needed to process before she arrived at the station, so Blaine had her call me.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Elated. Shocked. Tearful. Hysterical. She’s riding the roller coaster, but sounded in control by the time we ended the call.” Melina checked her watch. “She should be here soon. How’s Arnie doing?”
Kellan scratched the back of his neck. “Overtired. Anxious. Tearful. He’s riding his own roller coaster.”
“I bet he is.” Her attention shifted to the boy as she stepped into Kellan’s office. She crouched down beside him, softly greeting Jane and starting a murmured conversation. The woman responded to Melina’s gentle care, her eyes welling with tears as she smiled and spoke to the social worker.
Arnold was kind of sleepy, but his head popped up to eye Melina.
“Hey, Arnie.” She smiled. “My name’s Melina. I’m Kellan’s friend.” She glanced at Kellan, her wink making his heart expand. “I just spoke to your mom on my way here. She’s so excited to see you again.”
Instant tears glassed Arnold’s eyes.
“I know you’re so tired.” Melina reached out and began rubbing his back. “But very soon, you can sit in your mom’s lap and fall asleep. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, she’s going to be there to make you breakfast.”
He sniffed and his dimples popped into place when he pressed his lips together.
Melina grinned. “How about you come here for a second and introduce me to this little yellow bear here so Grammy Jane can go to the bathroom? And if you like, Chief Marks can make us some hot chocolate. How does that sound?”
“Good,” the boy squeaked.
“Okay.” Melina reached out her arms and Arnold fell into them, burying his forehead into the crook of her neck. She held him steady and lowered them into the chair. Spinning him around on her lap, she cradled him like any mother would, and Kellan’s heartstrings were pulled so tight it hurt.
Melina was a beautiful, kind, compassionate woman, and he was a fool to keep pushing her away.
But how could he let her in?
After Rae disappeared, his only way to survive was to push back, to conceal what he was feeling as a way of protecting himself. He couldn’t talk or let people in. He was worried if he tried to do that a dam would bust open and he’d never be able to piece himself back together.
Carrie never understood that. It was probably the main reason why she left. She wanted to cry, to feel, to process her emotion, and all Kellan could do was keep building the bricks around himself. He had to be strong. Numb. If he let himself feel then he’d fail them both. They’d never find Rae.
After a while he’d become such an impenetrable fortress that even his wife couldn’t reach him anymore. She must have felt like she was suffering alone and she just couldn’t take it anymore.
He’d never blamed her for leaving. It wasn’t like he’d chased after her.
She’d slipped through his fingers and he’d let her, because every time they looked at each other, they were reminded of what they’d lost.
Shaking off the dark memories, he guided Jane out of his office and showed her where the bathroom was before taking her drink order.
He then went to the kitchen and made two hot chocolates, a milky tea and one strong coffee. Testing the temperature of Arnold’s, he added some extra milk and was about to walk them back when he heard a door bang open.
“This way, Ms. Watson.” Blaine’s voice was smooth and even in contrast to the hurried movements of the woman walking beside him.
Kellan shot out of the kitchen, racing to his office in time to see the slender black woman run inside.
“Arnie!” She was crying his name as she dropped to her knees, her arms outstretched to receive him.
“Mommy,” he wailed back, jumping off Melina’s lap and launching himself into his mother’s arms.
They clung to each other, the mother sobbing loudly as she cupped the back of her son’s head and rocked them both.
Melina stayed where she was, taking it all in with a glistening smile.
The lump in Kellan’s throat grew so big he thought he might choke on it. Watching this mother reunite with her son was as beautiful as it was painful.
He’d never been given that opportunity.
He’d never hold his little Rae again.
It cut deep.
And it reminded him that the scars he wore on the inside weren’t really scars at all. They were open, infected wounds that would never truly heal.
39
Thursday, October 4th
3:05am
The tears had dried up, the hot chocolate served.
Grammy Jane had finally relented and agreed to head home. She cried when she hugged Arnold goodbye, but Ms. Watson promised to keep in touch.
Arnold was now tucked up on his mother’s lap, looking past the point of exhaustion. His cheeks were rosy, his eyes red-rimmed, but he was alert and obviously unwilling to fall asleep, as if he might wake up and find it was all a dream.
Ms. Watson couldn’t stop stroking her son’s back, his head, running her fingers along his neck. She’d kissed his forehead too many times to count.
Melina’s heart was full as she watched them together.
Tonight had been one of those good ones. The ones she worked so hard for.
Not that she’d done anything. This reunion could be credited to one person.
Leah.
They had to find her.
The FBI had been contacted and two agents were on their way. They had limited time, and Melina could sense Kellan’s urgency as he threaded his fingers together and tried to sound calm.
“Arnie, we know you’re really tired and you just want to go home, but we’ve got some really important questions we need to ask you.”
Arnie looked up at his mother and she smiled and nodded. “It’s okay. We can go home soon, but this policeman needs your help.”
“He’s a good cop.” Arnold glanced at Kellan. “Leah said so.”
“Who’s Leah, baby?”
“She’s my friend. She was nice to me.”
The woman’s lips wobbled as she absorbed the news. This was going to be hard on her. None of them had any idea what Arnie had gone through, and this interview could expose some harrowing truths.
Melina moved her chair a little closer and rested her arm on Ms. Watson’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispered. “He’s safe. With you.”
The woman closed her eyes and nodded.
Kellan cleared his throat, “So, Arnie. Do you remember being taken away from your mother?”
The boy curled into a ball, burying his face in his mother’s chest. The woman blinked and quickly said, “I’ve told the police everything. I was at work and he was with a group of children on a playdate. They left the park without him. They didn’t do a head count and when they realized, they raced back to find him, but he was already gone.”
Melina glanced at Kellan. He already knew that information, and she couldn’t help feeling like reiterating it was a waste of time. They were on a tight clock.
Moving into Arnold’s line of sight, she ducked her head to catch his eye and asked, “Where have you been living? With Leah? In a house?”
“On the farm.” The boy’s voice was soft and delicate.
“A farm. Wow. What kind of farm was it?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged, sitting up a little straighter.
“Were there cows there? Horses? Crops?”
His little nose wrinkled. “What’s crops?”
“Like corn or wheat or…”
“Is corn the long green stuff you can get lost in?” He scratched the side of his nose.
“Uh-huh.” Melina nodded with a smile.
> “It was that. It’s real tall right now,” he said matter-of-factly. “But I’m not allowed in the field. I have to stay in the barn or the bunker.”
“The bunker?”
“Yeah, it’s where we play.”
“Play?” Melina couldn’t keep the tremor from her voice. No matter how much she tried to harden herself against the ugly realities, she knew sick adults could sometimes construe heinous things as “play” as a way to manipulate children. She rubbed the end of her chin and forced a smile. “What kind of playing did you do?”
“Jungle gyms, mostly. We’d jump around and swing a lot. I want to do parkour like Leah, but I’m not big enough yet. I just have to stick with the climbing wall and the bars.”
Melina glanced at Kellan. That was not the answer she’d been expecting. She caught his eye, but he quickly looked back at Arnold, his gaze narrowing slightly. “Do you like to jump and swing?”
Arnie’s mother squeezed him close. “He loves it. He’s always been a monkey.”
“So he has good balance?” Kellan murmured.
The mother nodded. “His preschool teachers always used to say how amazing he was. A natural gymnast. I was actually saving up to enroll him in classes, when…” She blinked and swallowed.
Melina tried to decipher Kellan’s expression. He was thinking something, but giving nothing away.
She turned back to Arnold and kept going with her line of questioning. “So, you liked to play in the bunker. What else did you do?”
“Not much. Drawing.” He worked his jaw to the side. “Counting.”
“So, it was like homeschool?”
“Sort of.” He shrugged. “It was just games.”
“Who played the games with you?”
“The big kids. Sometimes Stella, but she’d get mad. She doesn’t like to play.”
“How mad did she get? Were you ever scared?”
He blinked a few times. “I missed my mommy.” He snuggled against her and she kissed the top of his head.
“Did they try to hurt you?”
He gazed up at Melina, his eyes wide, his expression hidden against his mother’s clothing. “Leah protected me. She always looks after me.”
Melina swallowed, tipping her head to softly ask, “Did they ever hurt Leah?”
His black eyebrows dipped together, his forehead wrinkling with a frown. She could see him closing up shop, putting the blinds down, and she quickly spoke before he could shut down completely. “That’s okay, honey. You don’t have to tell us anything until you’re ready.”
Ms. Watson’s nostrils flared as she splayed her hand over Arnold’s back. “Are we nearly done?”
“Just a couple more questions,” Kellan rushed out. “Arnie, can you tell us about Robin?”
The boy turned to look at Kellan, his voice small. “Robin Hood.”
He glanced at Melina, obviously confused, and she added a follow-up question. “Did you…live with Robin Hood?”
Arnie nodded, completely serious. “He was training us so the bad people can’t hurt us.”
“And who are the bad people?”
“They wear lots of jewels and they live in big houses and they don’t care about us.”
His mother gasped but didn’t say anything.
Melina squeezed her shoulder and forced a smile. “Is that what Robin told you?”
Arnie nodded. “He’s saving us.”
“By stealing from the rich?”
The question confused Arnold, his face scrunching up in a frown.
Melina flagged the question with a wave of her hand. “Can you tell me what Robin looks like?”
Arnie looked uncertain. Glancing up at his mother, he searched for her approval and got it in the form of a nod and a smile.
But he didn’t have time to answer, because a sharp knock on the door interrupted them.
Kellan stood just as Blaine entered the room. He gave them a tight smile, then murmured, “Sorry to interrupt, Chief, but there are some people here to see you.”
Kellan could see the federal agents behind Blaine and knew their time was up. Shooting the mother a kind smile, he said, “If you’ll excuse us for a few moments.”
The mother leaned forward to see out the door and spotted someone she knew. Her face lit up. “They found him. They found my boy.” Her voice hitched and the agents took it as an open invitation to enter the room. They slipped past Blaine, forcing Kellan back behind his desk.
“Hello, Ms. Watson,” said the shorter agent.
She smiled at them, and Melina had the distinct impression that Kellan’s time with Arnold Watson was up. The Feds were here to take over the case.
She glanced across Kellan’s desk. He caught her eye and indicated for her to leave with a little head tip toward the door.
She wasn’t about to be booted out that easily. Taking her time, she hugged Ms. Watson and Arnold goodbye, then left her card with the mother. “You call me anytime. If you need anything.”
“Thank you for your kindness.” The mother squeezed Melina’s hand before letting go and turning to the agents who had obviously been helping her find Arnold.
Slipping out of the room, Melina waited for Kellan to follow her, but he hovered near his door and politely smiled. “Thanks for coming.”
“Of course.” She crossed her arms, trying to play it cool when all she wanted to do was wrap him in a hug.
He needed one.
Desperately.
An awkward silence settled between them and she went to break it, but he got there first. “It’s pretty late, and you should get some sleep.”
“I’m happy to stay.”
He shook his head. “You’ve done so much already.”
She swallowed back her disappointment. He was pushing her away again, erecting an invisible force field to keep her at bay.
“If you need to talk… about anything…you call me. Anytime.”
He bobbed his head and looked to the floor. “I’ll call you if I need you.”
It was a big fat lie.
Not that Kellan knew it.
He thought he was being a gentleman, sending her to the safety of her home and not realizing how much she wanted to be there for him. To help him heal.
The poor man didn’t even know what he needed.
Melina was desperate to show him. To love him.
But she couldn’t do that if he wouldn’t let her.
“Good night, Kellan.”
“’Night, Melina.”
And with that, he slipped back into his office and firmly closed the door.
40
Thursday, October 4th
3:20am
It had been the longest night of Leah’s life.
After dodging Robin’s death rays, she’d walked into the house and found a seat in the kitchen. JJ had been sent back out with Stella and the older kids to look for Bobby, but Cricket stayed behind. He and Margie had cleaned her up, disinfecting the wound and then holding it in place with butterfly bandages.
It had hurt, but had been nothing compared to the terror that ate her insides raw.
It didn’t help that Margie’s fingers trembled as she placed the large white bandage over the wound.
Cricket hadn’t said anything either.
And he wouldn’t look Leah in the eye. It was a bad sign.
“What happened?” she finally murmured, needing to break the taut silence between them.
Cricket glanced up and then away. “Robin woke us.” He stood and leaned his butt on the table, gripping the edge with his bony fingers. “He was yelling at us to get up. Grab flashlights. Leah and Bobby were missing.” His gaze finally tracked back to her, so she could see how bruised he felt by her betrayal.
Did he know what she’d done?
She tried to ask without speaking and eventually he stood with a huff and spat, “What the hell happened, Leah? Why’d you sneak out?”
“I didn’t…” She sighed, knowing deep down that Cricket wouldn’t get it.
She licked her lips and kept her eyes locked on the floor. “I couldn’t sleep.”
She shrugged, hating that she was lying to her best friend.
Could he smell it?
Yes.
Because the second Margie shuffled out of the room, he crouched down and muttered, “You took him. What’d you do with him?”
Her eyes rounded and her lips parted, but no sound came out.
“Tell me.” Cricket’s face bunched with anguish. “What did you do?”
His pale gaze was compelling. She could feel the truth edging up her throat. But then Robin thundered into the room and she smashed her teeth together.
He towered over them, making Leah feel small and insignificant in her chair.
“Get up.” He ordered Cricket to stand. “Back to bed.”
“Have you found Bobby?”
“Bed!” Robin growled.
Cricket jumped and headed for the door. With his hand on the knob, he glanced over his shoulder to share one final look with Leah. She couldn’t help feeling like it was a silent goodbye.
Dread simmered through her, like someone had injected boiling water into her veins. She wanted to shout out for Cricket not to leave her, but he was a good boy. He always did as he was told.
The moment the door clicked shut, Robin stepped up to Leah’s side. She kept her eyes ahead, refusing to look at him. His tree trunk thigh rested against the back of her chair and she could hear him breathing above her.
She wondered if this was how Jack felt when he met that giant in the clouds.
Never should have climbed that beanstalk.
Never should have broken the rules.
She bit her lips together, her insides quaking.
“Can’t find Bobby,” Robin gritted out.
Her nostrils flared, but she kept her head down. Her mouth shut. If she confessed what she’d done, what she knew about Robin’s treachery, then he’d lock her up for good.
Darkness. That would be all she would know.
Her swallow was thick and audible, although Leah was sure Robin could hear her heart hammering too.
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