by N L Hinkens
“It wasn’t trespassing, if that’s what you’re worried about. Ray gave me permission to go in there, remember?”
“To pick up Henry’s things, not to poke around,” Evelyn huffed. “If Ray abducted his son, then the whole house is a crime scene. You shouldn’t have touched anything—“
“Relax!” Sonia cut in, patting her mother’s arm. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. I’m just bouncing my wild theories off you for a little perspective.”
Evelyn pursed her lips. “What did you find that was so odd?”
“It was a newspaper article from the local paper—the story they ran recently on the five-year anniversary of Katie Lambert’s disappearance. Remember you were watching it on the news a couple of weeks ago?”
A befuddled expression flitted across Evelyn’s face. ”Why’s that so odd? Ray’s a journalist, isn’t he?”
Sonia shrugged. ”Honestly, I don’t know what to think. I don’t even know if he’s really a journalist. Maybe he’s a private investigator. The family could have hired him to look into Katie’s disappearance. It would explain why he keeps his distance—he’s probably treating everyone as a potential suspect.”
Evelyn looked doubtful. ”Who would have hired him? Katie’s parents are dead, and her grandparents are in a memory care facility. I can’t imagine them engaging an investigator to look into her disappearance.”
Sonia picked at her finger. “What if he was reading up on Katie’s story because he has a personal interest in child abduction? What if Henry’s mother—“
She broke off at the sound of the doorbell. ”That’s our food. Don’t say anything in front of the kids. And don’t bring up the accident either. The last thing I want to do is traumatize Henry any further by telling him his dad doesn’t remember who he is.”
Seated around the kitchen table, Sonia divvied up the cartons of Chinese food. Henry stared wide-eyed at the orange chicken, fried rice, and egg roll she set on the plate in front of him.
Picking up on his hesitancy, Jessica leaned over. “It’s yummy,” she said encouragingly. ”Just eat it like this.” She proceeded to pick up her egg roll and demonstrate, making increasingly exaggerated sounds of enjoyment until Henry started giggling. Sonia and Evelyn exchanged cautious smiles. With enough prodding from Jessica, he was starting to open up. It was almost as if she gave him the permission he needed to be a child.
As she chewed her food, Sonia thought back to the night Ray had come over for dinner and the strange comment he had made about Henry not being allowed to eat much ice cream. Perhaps his wife had restricted Henry’s sugar intake. Some parents had a bit of a phobia when it came to letting their kids eat sugar. But there had been such an air of sadness in Ray’s expression when he’d said it that it made her think there was more to it than that. Had his wife deprived Henry of toys too? But if that was the case, why did he miss her so much?
“I talked to your dad today, Henry,” Sonia said, smiling at him. ”He said you could stay with us for a few days.”
“For real?” Jessica spluttered, choking on a mouthful of rice. ”Yeah! This is going to be so much fun. I always wanted a little brother or sister.” She jumped up from the table and hugged Henry before resuming her seat. ”We can build a blanket fort and I can read Henry stories.”
“That’s a great idea,” Sonia agreed. She turned to Henry. “Do you like reading stories with your dad?”
He stopped munching his egg roll and stared across the table at her. After a beat of silence, he gave a dejected shake of his head.
Sonia let him swallow his food before trying again, “What kinds of things do you and your dad like to do together?”
Henry threw a distressed look Jessica’s way before giving a barely perceptible shrug of his shoulders.
”Do you like to go swimming with him?” Jessica asked in a helpful tone.
Henry shook his head.
“How about watching movies?” Jessica persisted.
After thinking about it for a moment, he gave a tentative nod.
“We love watching movies too,” Sonia said. “What’s your favorite movie, Henry?”
His gaze roved around the table searching each face in turn, as if seeking the answer, before his eyes welled up with tears. ”I miss … my… mommy.”
“Oh, sweetie!” Sonia said, rising from her seat and reaching over to pick him up. She settled him in her lap and rocked him gently back-and-forth for several minutes as he sniffled pitifully. “I know you miss your mommy. Did you used to watch movies with her?”
Henry scooted up in her lap and rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands. “No,” he hiccupped. “We … we played ball.”
Sonia caught her breath. Henry had talked a little to Jessica off and on, but this was the first thing he had ever shared directly with her. She kissed the top of his head as she thought of how best to respond. She didn’t want to say anything that he might perceive as criticism of his mother—it sounded as if she’d been as strict about television and movies as she had been about sugar. ”Playing ball is fun too. I love being outside in the fresh air.”
“Not outside,” Henry said, furrowing his dark brows. “In our room.”
Sonia exchanged a perplexed look with Evelyn. “You mean, in your house?”
Henry studied her face, before nodding in agreement.
Not for the first time, Sonia got the feeling he was giving her the answers he thought she wanted. It was almost as if he was afraid to say the wrong thing. She was no child welfare professional, but her motherly instincts told her Henry had been taught to live in fear. But of whom? And by whom? His father, or his mother? Had Ray abducted Henry to get him out of an abusive situation—or an overly controlling one? But then why did Henry seem so disconnected to Ray?
“What did you play with your mom when she got sick?” Jessica asked, resting her chin in her hands and blinking innocently across at him.
Alarmed at the direction the conversation was taking, Sonia tried to catch her daughter’s eye. She shot Evelyn an urgent plea for help, but her mother merely shrugged in response. No doubt, she was all too eager to hear everything Henry had to say now that he was talking.
“She not got sick,” Henry said in a scolding tone.
”What happened to her then?” Jessica prodded.
Sonia groaned inwardly, fearing the worst—that Henry would clam up again, or burst into tears and be inconsolable for the rest of the evening. But, to her surprise, he remained composed. He seemed to handle Jessica’s blunt line of questioning better than even the most innocuous interaction with adults.
“He hurted her.” His little voice was unwavering and insistent. He turned to Sonia, put his small hands around her neck, and gave a quick squeeze. “Like this.”
10
Sonia shrank back from the unexpected pressure of Henry’s hot, little hands around her throat. ”Who are you talking about, Henry?” she asked in a subdued tone. “Who hurt your Mommy?”
His body turned rigid, as if it had suddenly dawned on him what he’d let slip. Silently, he slid down from her lap and trotted back to his seat.
“Did your daddy do it?” Jessica whispered loudly to him, eyes wide with fascination.
Henry clutched his spoon, his gaze fixed firmly on the fried rice on his plate.
Jessica made a couple more attempts to drag an answer out of him, before Sonia’s glaring daggers silenced her. There was a reason Henry had abruptly stopped talking. The fear in his face had been unmistakable. It would be wrong of them to push him for more details. Was it his dad he was frightened of? Had he witnessed his mother being abused? Sonia’s throat pulsed as she pictured an enraged Ray with his hands locked around his wife’s neck, tightening his grip as their young son looked on. The food churned in her stomach. She’d suspected all along that something was off, but after Henry’s disturbing revelation, she could no longer brush it aside. As a concerned citizen, she should pick up the phone and report this to the police. But what exactly would she tell them?
Henry was only four years old—the authorities wouldn’t take what he said at face value without any evidence. And what if it wasn’t Ray he was talking about? Maybe his mother had a boyfriend who had hurt her, and that was why Ray was hiding out here, using his wife’s cancer as a cover story. It was understandable that he would be willing to do anything to protect Henry after what he’d gone through in his own childhood.
Sonia chewed on her lip, briefly meeting her mother’s anxious gaze before glancing away again. For several minutes they continued pushing their food around their plates in silence, before Sonia cleared her throat. ”Okay kids, run along and play while Grandma and I clean up the kitchen. We can watch a movie together after that.”
“You’re shaking like a leaf,” Evelyn muttered, the minute the kids hightailed it out of the kitchen. “Are you all right?”
Sonia leaned over the sink, feeling as if she was about to throw up everything she’d just eaten. “It brings back bad memories, that’s all.” Snapping out of it, she turned to her mother. ”But, this isn’t about me. Do you think I should report what Henry said to the authorities?”
Evelyn set down the tumblers she was holding with a sigh. ”It might come to that, but we should think this through carefully. With Ray in the state he’s in, Child Protective Services will put Henry in a foster home until they get to the bottom of things. I can’t bear the thought of Celia’s grandson winding up in the system—that never ends well.”
”What choice do we have? We can’t control what they end up doing with him.” Sonia folded her arms in front of her. “It’s not like we can foster him. I have a business to run, and you have your hands full already helping out with Jessica.”
Evelyn rolled her eyes. “I’m not naïve enough to think I can run after a four-year-old at my age. I just meant we have to be sure of our facts. Neglected children sometimes say things to get the attention they crave. We need to figure out if Henry’s telling the truth, and who he’s talking about. The police are going to need more information—evidence.”
“Whoever he was talking about, it’s obvious he’s afraid of him,” Sonia replied. “If it’s Ray, we need to act before he’s discharged from the hospital. We can’t risk him taking off with Henry in the middle of the night. If he finds out Henry’s been saying things, he might load up his truck and disappear with him.”
Evelyn rubbed a mottled hand over her brow. “Who else could he have been talking about?”
Sonia shrugged. “I don’t know. What if Ray’s wife was having an affair? Maybe her boyfriend was violent. He could have been the one who put his hands around her throat. Ray might have abducted Henry to keep him safe. His own horrific childhood would be enough to drive him to do something this drastic.”
“If that’s the case, we need to help Ray,” Evelyn said, a worried tone in her voice. ”If he can’t remember anything, then he won’t remember why he took Henry away from his wife in the first place. She might take advantage of the situation to get him back.”
The trill of Sonia’s phone cut into their conversation. ”I’d better get that,” she said, hurriedly drying her hands. “It could be the hospital. I gave them my number in case they needed to get a hold of me.” She reached for her phone which she’d left plugged in on the counter. “Hello, Masterton Design.”
“It’s me,” a gruff voice answered.
Sonia’s heart sank like a lead weight. Finn’s voice sounded distant and gravelly, as if he’d been drinking. The last thing she wanted to do was put Jessica on the phone with him when he was belligerent, but she would be devastated if she found out her father had called and Sonia hadn’t let her know. No doubt he was calling to apologize for missing Jessica’s eighth birthday last month. He’d have the same old excuse as always—he’d been off on some classified mission in some dangerous part of the globe and unable to call home.
Fighting to keep her frustration in check, she said in a clipped tone, ”I’ll fetch Jessica.” Without waiting for his response, she set her phone on the counter and mouthed to her mother, it’s Finn.
Evelyn flattened her lips and turned away to begin loading the dishwasher. She didn’t approve of Sonia allowing Jessica to talk to her father at all. But Sonia knew that one day her daughter might hold that against her. She was of the firm opinion that Jess would realize herself before too long what an utter waste of time her relationship with her father was—if you could even call it a relationship.
Giddy at the news that her dad was on the phone, Jessica skipped her way down the hall to the kitchen, face aglow. Sonia followed close behind holding Henry by the hand. She sat him down at the kitchen table and gave him a cookie, then made a show of wiping down the counters while unobtrusively trying to listen in on the conversation between Jessica and Finn. Jessica always got upset if she put the phone on speaker, or made it obvious she was listening in, so she was stuck with a one-sided conversation.
“Grandma made me a chocolate cake for my birthday with raspberries on top … uh-huh … uh-huh. I got an “A” for my art project … yup … I know … when are you coming home on leave? No, not really … Mrs. Jenkins died and some new people moved in. Well—“ She broke off and shot a furtive glance Sonia’s way before darting to the door. ”I need some privacy,” she called over her shoulder.
Sonia bit back her frustration, deciding against going after her. It would only make Jessica dig in her heels. Instead, she pulled out a broom and began sweeping the floor while her mother sat down next to Henry and tried to engage him in conversation. He answered in monosyllables, his expression wary and watchful, as if waiting on the fallout from what he’d said earlier.
Minutes later, Jessica came running back into the kitchen. ”Mom! Dad wants to talk to you. It’s important.”
Sonia leaned the broom against the counter, forcing herself to bite back a scathing retort: nothing you say is important, Finn, I can’t stand the sound of your voice, I can’t wait for when Jessica’s old enough to see through your pathetic lies. Restraining herself, she held out a hand for the phone and pressed it to her ear. “What’s up, Finn? I have work to do.”
“What’s all this about some weirdo moving in next door?”
Sonia squeezed her eyes shut. She should have warned Jessica not to mention Ray. Of course Finn would make a stink about it, just to make her life difficult.
“If you’re referring to Celia’s son, he’s a single dad with a four-year-old. That hardly qualifies him as a weirdo.”
“Jessica says he’s weird. His kid isn’t allowed any toys. What kind of a loser doesn’t buy his kid any toys? He never gets to play outside, or watch movies, or eat sugar. You think that’s normal? Sounds more like some twisted form of punishment by psycho-dad.”
Sonia’s fingers curled into a fist. Finn was one to talk. For the first couple of years after their divorce, she had purchased gifts on his behalf to give to Jessica on her birthday and at Christmas, but the reimbursement Finn promised never came. She had long since given up on the charade—it was better Jessica knew the truth. “Look, this is none of your business,” she spat back. “I have no desire to discuss the merits of the next-door neighbor’s parenting style with you of all people. If that’s all you wanted to gripe about, I need to get back to work.”
“Don’t you dare hang up on me! I’m not done talking.” Finn thundered into the phone. ”One call to my superior and I’ll have CPS knocking down your door to investigate why you’re letting our daughter go over to that whacko’s house, unsupervised. Trust me, the army will side with me that you’re an unfit mother and get Jess out of there pronto. And then you can fight me in the courts for custody.”
A bead of sweat trickled down the back of Sonia’s neck. Even from thousands of miles away, Finn was trying to trigger the same old fears in her. But she wasn’t the same person he’d bullied years ago. ”Don’t be ridiculous! You’re talking about Celia’s son, not some stranger. Besides, Jess isn’t going over there unsupervised. Henry comes over here to play.”
/>
“That’s not what she told me,” Finn fired back. “She’s been in and out of that house half a dozen times when he was home and you weren’t there, so don’t lie to me.” His voice sank to a threatening snarl. “You know I don’t like it when you lie to me.”
Sonia grabbed the phone tighter, blood pounding in her temples.
“And where is the creep, anyway?” Finn asked. “Why’s his kid staying at your place?”
“He rolled his truck—he’s in hospital.”
“Bummer! Too bad he made it.”
“Look, what do you want, Finn? I’ve got better things to do than stand here and argue with you all night.”
“I’m worried about Jess,” Finn went on, his voice softening. ”She told me what Henry said about his dad choking his mom.”
The knot in Sonia’s stomach tightened. “He didn’t say it was Ray. We don’t know who he was talking about. For all we know, his mother might have an abusive boyfriend. Maybe Ray’s just trying to protect his son.”
“Or maybe you’re protecting him! I’m not buying it. Jess says he’s weird, and if Jess says he’s weird, I believe her. And if you were half the mother you should be, you’d believe our daughter too! He’s a psycho!” Finn yelled, his fleeting attempt to remain calm wilting in a heartbeat. He lowered his voice to a familiar menacing growl. “Don’t think for one minute that if anything happens to Jess, I won’t come after you.”
11
Sonia lay on her back in bed staring out at the moonlight spilling over the lawn. The truth of the matter was, Finn was right. She might have put Jessica in danger. For all she knew, Ray could be dangerous—violent even. It was reasonable to think that Finn, with his counter-intelligence training, had picked up on some warning signs from the snippets Jess had told him. Until she got to the bottom of things, she would have to forbid her daughter from going over to Ray’s on her own anymore—even to fetch Henry.
Groaning in frustration, Sonia fluffed up her pillow for the umpteenth time and rolled onto her other side. Why did Finn have to pick today of all days to call their daughter? If he’d called a month ago on her birthday, like he’d promised, Ray wouldn’t even have entered into the conversation. She hadn’t had the heart to reprimand Jessica for telling her dad about their new neighbor. In retrospect, she should have thought to warn her not to bring it up. Finn’s threat to have her investigated by the army likely amounted to little more than hot air—he had no real interest in taking responsibility for Jessica himself. Still, it had been a timely warning that she needed to be more careful. She wouldn’t put it past Finn to try and stir up trouble purely for his own sadistic amusement.
