“I’m ten.”
“I mean ten. She’s about ten. And her name is Jane.”
“Nicole,” the girl said.
“I mean Nicole. And she’s resting in the bathroom because she just broke all the furniture here and destroyed the place.”
“I’m hiding,” Nicole said. “I was scared.”
6.
Sam arrived about half an hour later. She wasn’t wearing her uniform.
“Thanks for coming,” I said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“I hope you didn’t disturb anything.”
“I had to think of Nicole.” Nicole looked up from a chair she was using as a table in the kitchen area. “She was hungry.”
“Thirsty,” Nicole said.
“And thirsty. I made her a glass of water.”
“You don’t make water,” Nicole said.
“And I made her cinnamon toast.” I stuck my tongue out at the child. She laughed. I turned to Sam. “Like I used to make for you.”
“Is that your wife?”
“My daughter.”
“Is that really your daughter?” Nicole asked.
“My lovely daughter, of whom I am double-proud.”
“Why double?”
“Proud of her as an outstanding police person and proud of her as a wonderful human being who has come through a lot of difficulties in her life.”
Nicole frowned. “She’s police?”
“Sure as shootin’.”
Sam drew me aside. “What do you know about her?” I shook my head. “Or about what happened?” I shrugged.
“I waited for you before asking questions,” I said.
Sam looked at her watch.
“Do you have to be somewhere?”
“I called this in on my way. Some uniforms should be here soon.” She knelt beside Nicole’s ‘table.’ “I’m Sam,” she said.
“That’s a boy’s name.”
“My father wanted a boy. He didn’t realize that girls are better.”
That pleased the child, who acknowledged it by taking a giant mouthful of the toast, as if no mere boy could eat so much at one time. She choked a little but got it down.
Sam said, “I need you to tell me what happened here, Nicole.”
“Men came and wanted money. Wolfgang wouldn’t give it to them, so they looked everywhere for it. Then they took him away.”
“Wolfgang?” Sam asked.
“He owns the house,” I said.
“The men broke everything,” Nicole said. “It wasn’t me.”
“Who else was here?”
“Two of the mothers.” Nicole thought. “Tara and... I can’t remember her name.”
“They were staying here?” Sam asked.
“We all stay here.”
“Why is that?”
“Our husbands and boyfriends aren’t good ones. They hit us.” Her face wrinkled. “Not me. But Mom. Harvey does that.”
“Is Harvey your dad?”
“No.” Her frown suggested that the less she had to do with Harvey the happier she’d be.
“How many women are staying here?” Sam asked.
Nicole counted on her fingers. “Seven.”
“And children?”
“Only me and a couple of babies.”
“Where are they all now?” Sam asked.
“Tara and the other one ran away when the men came. Two others... Janine and Stephanie... They came back later but they left. I think it was because their kids were about to get out of school.” She thought. “That’s Harry after the prince of England cause he’s got red hair, and Chloe.”
“They go to school?” Sam said. “I thought you said only babies stayed here.”
“Harry’s six and Chloe is seven. They’re such babies.”
“And,” Sam said, “where is your mother, Nicole?”
After toughing it out for a moment, Nicole’s face puckered up. She began to cry. “I don’t know. She left this morning and said I should wait here.”
“And you haven’t seen her or heard from her?”
“I told her I should have my own phone.”
“Why aren’t you at school?”
“The one I go to is too far away. Mom said we’d get a new one soon.”
“She wasn’t here when the men came?”
“No.”
“Do you know where she went? To work, maybe?”
“She used to work at Denny’s but then Harvey found her. I don’t know if she found another job yet.” Another pucker. “But she always comes back at night. I wait here for her.” She looked up at Sam. “Do you think Harvey found her again?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said quietly, “but I’ll try to find out. So Harvey wasn’t one of the men who took Wolfgang away?”
“I don’t know. They had masks on.”
“What kind of masks?”
“All over their faces, with holes for the eyes.”
“Did you recognize any of the men?”
She shook her head.
I said, “Do you know Harvey’s last name?”
“Peterson, I think.”
“Does Harvey know you and your mother live here now?”
“I don’t think so. But we’ve only been here...” She thought. “Three nights. But even if Harvey comes, Wolfgang promised he won’t get in.”
“How does he make sure of that?”
“He locks the door and he’s the only one who answers it.” The face puckered again. “But when the men came, they just pushed him out of the way. Wolfgang shouted for everyone to run and he jumped on one of the men, on his back.”
“You must have been scared, Nicole,” I said.
She nodded.
“But you didn’t leave with the other women?”
“Mom said to wait here.”
There was noise at the front of the house. We turned to look and saw two cops coming in through the aforementioned — but absent — door.
Sam put her arm around Nicole and took control.
I took flight.
7.
I headed back to the hospital. The answers to most of my questions were knocking around somewhere in Wolfgang’s head. Wolfgang, the half-alien formerly known as LeBron James. Wolfgang, the half-alien born in Santa Claus, Indiana, under the name of Curtis Nelson.
I did know some things.
As I drove I thought about what Nicole had told us and I wondered what kind of place Wolfgang was running. The Wolfgang I’d known didn’t seem a first-choice candidate for defender against angry terrorists, or boyfriends. He wasn’t big — just an average kind of guy. And when I knew him, he didn’t even have secure locks on his doors.
However, at that time he’d lived alone. Now he lived with seven women and three children. Maybe other things had changed too.
Once inside the hospital I was waylaid in the crowded waiting room. The rain hadn’t stopped and people continued to flood into Emergency. But I said magic words. I asked for Nurse Matty by name. Moments later she appeared before me.
“You’re back,” she said.
“Your powers of observation continue to dazzle.”
“I thought this Wolfgang guy wasn’t a friend.”
“He’s not. However I’ve just been to his house, where the cops are sifting through the wreckage of all the furniture.”
She leaned forward with her eyes wide open. “Wreckage?”
“There was also a ten-year-old girl hiding there who doesn’t know where her mother is.”
“This is Wolfgang’s... girlfriend?”
“Unlikely, but he’s the only person I can think of who might have an idea what’s up with Mom. And if he’s anywhere close to conversation-enabled, I need to see him.”
Nurse Matty tilted her head. “So, does that make you a cop?”