Officer Rozutto asked her again what her mother’s name was, and she answered honestly, “I never knew her real name. She never told me, and I don’t think I ever asked. She was the little girl in the photograph that you took from our home. I called her mummy, like Tracey calls me.” The sound of Tracey’s name coming from her own lips sent a pain through her chest. She’d failed her mother. She’d failed Tracey.
Officer Rozutto gently persisted, “Do you remember how you came to live with her?”
Again she closed her eyes, shaking her head. “I know I was wearing the dress that Tracey wears to pray. I remember that flowered dress.” Kate’s face contorted, as if a painful memory were weaving its way through her mind. Sergeant Moeler and Officer Rozutto looked at each other.
“It’s okay, Kate. We can take a break if you need to,” Officer Rozutto said.
She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her cheeks flushed red. She stood. Sergeant Moeler and Officer Rozutto came quickly to their feet. She paced nervously. “I—” she said, then went silent. Officer Rozutto motioned for Sergeant Moeler to stay back, let her pace.
“I remember,” her words came out like broken glass, each one hard to piece together. She grabbed the sides of her head. Officer Rozutto came up behind her and guided her gently to the chair. She sat down, clasped her hands together in her lap and began rocking nervously. She didn’t look at Sergeant Moeler or Officer Rozutto. “I remember…I remember playing in the playground by the church. I was there with friends, and I remember trying so hard not to get my dress dirty,” she looked up with sad, red eyes. “I had gotten that dress specifically for that party,” a crooked, pained smile passed across her lips, then disappeared. She reached up and covered her face. “She came to the edge of the cornfield. She was hidden, and I could only see her face. I was so happy. She had played with me before, and I remember being so happy to see her that day.” Tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn’t feel saddened by the memory, just confused. “I walked over to her, in the cornfield, and she took me to the campsite. I remember her telling me that her mummy had died, and she really needed a friend, so I went with her.” She lowered her hands and raised her voice, “I went with her. I went.”
“And she took you underground that day?” Officer Rozutto asked.
Kate nodded, remembering. “She turned it into a game. She said it was her secret hideout, and that no one could find us there, that we could play forever, and I wouldn’t have to go to school or do anything I didn’t want to do. I remember it being…fun. Until I wanted to go home, then—” she turned away. She wiped her tears and looked down at her hands, ashamed that she had been a bother to Mummy, that she had cried and had to be put in the bad spot. She wondered what Sergeant Moeler and Officer Rozutto must think of her—that she had been a bad little girl, or selfish, or something even worse.
“Did you try to get away? Do you remember?” Sergeant Moeler asked forcefully.
She nodded, giving him an odd look, “I…I don’t remember wanting to get away from her,” she said protectively. “I just remember asking if I could go home.” She looked down again, her voice became faint, “But there was no going home. Mummy explained to me about the toxins, and how they get into your body when you live on the outside, how sometimes you don’t even know you’re sick until it is too late. She told me that was how her mummy died. She lived for about thirty years on the outside, and she was sick when they went underground, and became even sicker as time went on, but she did it to save Mummy…my mother. She didn’t want her to die, and she knew that she was sick a lot, and I guess it was from the toxins, because when Mummy died, she died just like her mother did, in the same way.” She was uncomfortable with their eyes trained on her, hanging onto her every word, disbelieving her, she could tell. “And she told me that I had to save a little girl, that it was my job, that God would be waiting for me to save someone, and if I didn’t, that He might do something awful to me.” She became angry again, “And now I’ve failed her.”
“Kate, I’m sorry you went through all that you did,” Officer Rozutto leaned across the table, “but do you understand that taking Tracey away from her parents was just as wrong as your mummy taking you away from your parents?”
Tears burned her eyes again, and she clenched them shut, speaking through clenched teeth, “But she saved me. What she did wasn’t wrong—and I saved Tracey. Maybe her parents don’t even know about the toxins, I don’t know.” She pulled back from the table, swiping at the hair that had fallen across her face. “I saved her!” she said fiercely.
Molly hung up the phone and flopped on the couch next to Cole. “It was Mike. He called to apologize, again, and then put Sal on. They think Tracey’s abductor is Kate Plummer.”
“Unbelievable,” Cole said, astonished.
“Sal said Tracey’s family is pressing charges,” Molly added, “but they’ll decide what they’re seeking for her—help or jail—after her identity is confirmed—or not.” Molly turned away, but Cole pulled her close.
“I know you’re thinking about Amanda and her family.”
Molly blinked away her tears. “She never had a chance, Cole. I wish I had done something, tried to stop that man. I wish I had screamed, called 9-1-1. Something! Anything!” she wiped her eyes. “But I didn’t, and I know I can’t change that. Amanda’s gone.”
Cole looked into her eyes, “But Tracey isn’t.”
Cole had been at the grocery store for over an hour and Molly had lain on the couch, resting, in his absence. She heard the front door open and lifted her body to an upright position, gathering her energy in order to appear a little less exhausted for Cole when he walked into the room. To her surprise, she saw Erik’s face instead. She jumped up, energized, and ran to him, throwing her arms around his body, “Erik!” “Ma! I can’t breathe!” he said, laughing. “How did you get here?” She was overcome with joy. She turned her smile to Cole who popped a grape into his mouth and shrugged. “I know you, Mol. You needed to see him, to touch him.” Cole winked. Erik grinned, digging into the grapes. “You guys are so great!” she exclaimed. “How did you get here so fast?”
“I called last night and made flight arrangements. I was sure you figured it out the other night, when you came back from looking for the dogs? When you walked in and I was on the cell phone speaking cryptically?” Molly gave him a puzzled look. “I had an airport taxi pick him up this morning and drive him to the Carters’. He’s been there for hours.” “But I just spoke to him a few hours ago.”
Erik held up his cell phone. “That’s the great thing,” his dark eyes sparkled. “With a cell phone, you never really know where I am.” He put his arm around his mother and kissed the top of her head, very parentally.
Molly reached her arm around his back, which felt broader than it had when he’d left for school just weeks earlier. She had needed to see him, to touch him. She had missed his presence.