Little Secrets
Page 29
“Where do you think she’s been this whole time?”
“My guess? Ran off with some man, married probably. He must have gotten sick of her and given her the boot. I reckon he was rich, too, by the way she’s been looking down her nose at everyone.”
“She said she was abducted.”
“I know. She’s not acting like it, though, is she?”
“Not really.”
“And she looks in pretty good nick, considering. If she was kidnapped, he must have been pretty fond of her. That’s all I’m saying. What do you think?”
“I don’t give a shit honestly,” he says. “But I reckon there might be a commendation in it for us.”
“I don’t know. Shouldn’t she be in a hospital or something? I don’t know if ass hat was really meant to just let her leave when she clicked her fingers.”
“What is the protocol, then? I know what we’re meant to do when these kids go missing, but what about when they come back?”
“Fucked if I know. Must have been hungover that day.”
They laugh, and then the car is quiet again.
“You know, I’ve been wondering all day who it is she reminds me of,” the female cop says suddenly. “It just hit me. It was this girl back in high school who told everyone she had a brain tumor and took a week off school for the operation. A bunch of us started a drive to raise money for her. I think we all thought she was going to die. She came back right as rain on Monday, though, and for a few hours she was the most popular girl in school. Then someone noticed that none of her hair was shaved, not even an inch. The whole thing was a crock of shit from start to finish.
“That girl, she looked at you just like our little princess back there looked at us when we met her. The way she takes you in, surveys you with that cold glint in her eyes like her head is going a million miles a minute trying to figure out the best way to fuck with you.”
After a while I stop listening to them talk. I remember I have to speak to the detective when I get to Canberra, but I feel too dizzy to try to plan my answers. The car pulls off the main road.
I wake to the jolt of the brakes and the light going on as the female cop opens her door.
“Wake up, little lady,” she says.
I try to sit, but my muscles feel like they’re made of jelly.
I hear a new voice.
“You must be Constables Seirs and Thompson. I’m Senior Inspector Andopolis. Thanks for pulling the overtime to bring her down.”
“No worries, sir.”
“We better get started. I know her mother is over the moon, but I have a lot of questions for her first.”
I hear him pull the door next to me open.
“Rebecca, you can’t imagine how pleased I am to see you,” he says. Then he kneels down beside me. “Are you all right?”
I try to look at him but his face is swirling.
“Yes, I’m okay,” I mutter.
“Why is she so pale?” he calls sharply. “What’s happened to her?”
“She’s fine. She just gets carsick,” the female cop says.
“Call an ambulance!” Andopolis snaps at her as he reaches over and undoes my seat belt.
“Rebecca? Can you hear me? What’s happened?”
“I hurt my arm when I was escaping,” I hear myself say. “It’s okay, just hurts a bit.”
He pulls my jacket to the side. There’s dried blood all the way up to my collarbone. Seeing that makes my vision fade even more.
“You morons! You absolute fucking idiots!” His voice sounds far away now. I can’t see the reaction from the cops; I can’t see their faces paling. But I can imagine.
I smile as the last of my consciousness fades.
Copyright © 2016 by Anna Elizabeth Snoekstra
ISBN-13: 9781488027932
Little Secrets
Copyright © 2017 by Anna Elizabeth Snoekstra
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