They all nodded in agreement.
“Thank you for calling us, Chief. We’ll be taking over from here. We’d like copies of your report and your officer’s report sent to us at the Bureau. Here’s my card with contact info. Where is Raymond Phillips now?”
“Likely in surgery. I shot him in the knee before I knew about this. I’m glad I didn’t know until the altercation was over. I might have been tempted to aim higher.”
“Will you notify the family that they can’t come back in here yet? We’ll be collecting evidence up into the night after the crime scene team arrives.”
“His wife, Cheryl, is in the hospital, too. I’m guessing broken ribs and maybe internal injuries for her, but she literally dug holes in him with her nails after she found this. He’ll wear those scars for life.”
“What about the little girl?” the agent asked.
“Her grandmother, Pansy Fields, has her. She lives here in town. We won’t see her scars, but they’ll be there. Nobody ‘gets over’ this kind of hell. And on another note, if you have need of anything, call the station. We’ll be happy to assist.”
The agents nodded.
Sam walked out of the house into the sunshine and felt like he’d just crawled up from the pits of hell. He was sick at heart on a level unlike anything he’d ever known. But he still had reports to write and people to call, so he headed back to the station.
***
The sun was going down by the time Sam left the station. He couldn’t wait to get home and hug his babies. Then he turned the corner on his street and saw Roxie’s car and knew they were safe. He saw Katie’s car and felt a wave of longing wash through him. He needed to see Katie before he could face his daughters. Monsters were in this little town and because they’d been in hiding, a child had come to harm on his watch.
He pulled up into her driveway and got out. He was on his way up the steps when the door suddenly swung open and Katie was standing on the threshold. He walked in without a word, kicked the door shut behind him, then wrapped his arms around her.
Katie knew the moment she saw Sam getting out of the car that the day had been bad. Even though it was dusk, she could see the weariness on his face. The despair within him was evident when she opened the door. Something bad had happened today.
Sam inhaled the sweetness of her, from the scent of her shower gel to the softness of her skin, and when she wrapped her arms around his waist, they were the glue he needed to keep from coming undone.
“I can’t stay long,” he finally said.
“Come sit,” she said, and led him to the sofa.
Sam clutched her hand all the way and didn’t let go, even after they were sitting down.
“We arrested a man today for molesting his daughter. His wife found pictures. So many pictures. She tried to kill him with her bare hands.”
“Oh my God,” Katie whispered.
“When she called the police, he began hitting her in the stomach. I think broken ribs. Hopefully no internal injuries. He pulled a gun on me and one of my officers. He wanted us to kill him. I shot him in the knee instead.”
Katie clutched Sam’s hand tighter.
“I can’t get the pictures out of my head. She’s just a little girl…like mine.”
“It was Ree Phillips, wasn’t it?” Katie said.
Sam blinked, a little startled, and then he remembered Pansy had to get Ree at school. She must have said something.
He nodded. “So it’s all over town already?”
“I don’t know about that. But Ree is in my class. Today was the first day I’d met her, and from the start I knew something was wrong with her. And then when her grandmother came to get her after school, it was what she said, what she alluded to… I knew then my instincts were right.”
Sam frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Keep in mind, I’ve been teaching for years. Teachers see all kinds of broken children, and I always see the little ones. They’re still too young to lie…and too innocent to know they’re being victimized.”
And then she began relating all of the incidents with Ree today, from not wanting to eat anything with a face, to not interacting with children, and how tiny she wrote…like she was trying not to be seen.
Sam was surprised. “I see what you mean about knowing something was wrong. Do kids like that ever recover?”
“I did,” Katie said, and Sam broke.
His eyes welled. “Jesus, Katie… Jesus.”
She sighed. “The upside was that it wasn’t my father. I didn’t love him, then have that trust broken. I didn’t even know his name when it happened. But I was eight and I told, and I don’t know what happened after that because Social Services just moved me to another area of the city. Ree will need counseling and treatment…probably for a long, long time. She needs to go straight to counseling. School is not the place for her right now. The stress on her of being around people was obvious today.
“And everyone in town will soon know why the man was arrested, and then there will be the people who will remember this, and they won’t want their daughters playing with her, and she’ll be ostracized because they’ll be afraid of Ree…because she knows things they don’t want their babies knowing, and no matter how old Ree gets, and how successful her ability to move forward, they won’t let her forget. My heart is broken for her and her mother…and her grandmother. They’ll blame themselves now and never look at her the same way again.”
Sam swiped his hands across his face.
“It’s hard being a cop and accepting there will always be people you can’t save.”
“No, you’re looking at this all wrong,” Katie said. “You already saved them. Today. Just like you saved Frieda Tiller when you hauled Justin off to jail. Just like you do every day, in ways you never see. Your mere presence in Borden’s Gap is a deterrent, Sam. You’re not God. You’re just a very good man with a very big heart, doing the best that you know how to do, and that’s all anyone can ask. You’re saving me and you don’t even know it.”
Sam looked at her then, at the steady gaze she held on his face.
“You are a sleeper, aren’t you, Katie? You look all fragile and womanly, and your gentle manner belies the warrior within. I hope someday you realize how much you’ve come to mean to me, because I want you in my life. Thank you. I needed this. I needed you. And you came through for me like the champ you are. And now I need to get home so Roxie can leave. And I need to hug my babies and pray to God to keep them safe when I’m not there.”