“And we may never know what happened unless she remembers.”
“I’m afraid that’s the case. I waver between hoping she does so that all this can be answered, and we can make a plan for her to move forward, and hoping she never remembers because how she was found lends itself to circumstances no child should have to deal with.”
“Probably better for her to never remember,” Gertie said. “If her family is gone—no matter the reason—and she’s going to have to start over in a new place anyway, might as well do it with no bad memories.”
June nodded. “You might just be right on that one.”
Suddenly June stiffened and her face flashed with anger as she stared past me at the street.
“Oh no, he doesn’t,” June said, and jumped up from her chair as a sheriff’s department truck pulled up to the curb.
She stomped off the porch and met Hermes halfway down her walk.
“This whole screen situation is awesome,” Gertie said.
“Sssshhhhh,” Ida Belle shushed her. “He can’t see us, but he can still hear us.”
“I need to talk to the kid,” Hermes said.
“Well, that’s just too bad,” June said. “You frightened that girl enough yesterday. Unless her caseworker says I have no choice, you won’t be doing it again.”
“The kid is a key element to my case.”
“That child is a victim, and you’d do well to start treating her like one instead of acting like she’s a fingerprint you found somewhere.”
“And she’s probably a witness to a crime.”
“She’s not a witness if she can’t remember, and you’re not going to harass her. If you want to do some police work so badly, why don’t you figure out who was lurking around my property last night.”
“The forensic team didn’t find anything. There’s nothing I can do.”
June snorted. “Of course not. Well, unless you have a warrant that gives you rights to enter my property, I’m going to ask you to step off it and go do your job instead of harassing little girls. And unless you have permission from her caseworker to speak to her—which I’m going to imagine would only be allowed in the presence of said caseworker given how much you upset her yesterday—then I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other.”
Hermes turned five shades of red and I could tell he was mad as hell but also knew he didn’t have a leg to stand on. Not legally.
“Have you spoken to a woman named Fortune Redding?” Hermes asked.
“You mean the woman who saved the girl’s life? No. Why do you ask?”
“She’s been caught interfering with police business before, and I think she is again. Her boyfriend seemed to think that’s okay, but I don’t run things that way.”
June straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “Even if Ms. Redding does contact me, someone inquiring about the health of a child they literally brought back to life is not interfering with crap. It’s called acting like a human being. You should try it sometime.”
June whirled around and came back onto the porch. Hermes stared after her for a couple seconds, then finally accepting defeat, he turned around and headed back to his truck, stomping, of course. June was still scowling when she plopped back down in her chair.
“That man makes me mad enough to spit,” she said. “And that’s just something ladies don’t do.”
“I couldn’t help but overhear,” I said. “Did you say you had an intruder last night?”
She nodded. “The girl was having a nightmare and I went in to check on her. I saw a shadow at the window—way too big to be an animal, which is what that idiot suggested. I called the cops, and two nice deputies had a look around the outside of the house and drove around the neighborhood, but they couldn’t find anything.”
“Have you ever had trouble like that before?”
“Not really, but crime’s been on the upswing everywhere, right?” She sighed. “It used to be these tiny, tucked-away towns were the perfect haven from the stuff on the five o’clock news, but now… Well, sometimes I just don’t know what to think.”
Gertie nodded. “It does seem like the simple life is no longer simple.”
“Speaking of not simple,” I said, “has a woman named Blair Johnson spoken with you?”
“No. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that name before. Who is she?”
“Some kind of oversight person with Children and Family Services. She accosted us downtown in Sinful last night, asking questions about the girl. I figured she’d be talking to you at some point.”
“No one has contacted me yet, but I suppose if she’s talked to you then she’ll be around eventually. Hopefully she’ll do a better job speaking with the girl than that fool sheriff did.”
I rose from my seat. “I really appreciate you talking with us, Ms. Nelson.”
“Please, call me June. Ms. Nelson was my mother-in-law, and I don’t want to be confused with that woman, God rest her soul.”
I smiled. “Thank you for letting us know the girl is okay, in the major ways anyway. And I’m glad she has a safe place to stay with someone who’ll take good care of her. I’m sure she needs it.”
I gave her my card. “If you think of anything we can do to help, please let me know.”
June took the card and tucked it in her pocket. “I’ll do that. You’ve got quite the reputation around here after all those shocking revelations about Mary Joseph that you brought to light. No one would have ever known.”
“Stay safe, and if you suspect anyone is lurking around again, don’t be afraid to call the police as often as you need to,” I said. “And you might want to mention it to the caseworker.”
June bit her lower lip. “You think it might have something to do with the girl?”
I shrugged. “No way to know, but I’m sure you’ve dealt with enough kids coming from abusive situations to know that the parents don’t always make rational choices when it comes to trying to get them back.”
She gave me a grave nod. “That’s a fact, and me and my 12-guage will take it under advisement.”
“I hope we see you at the Mudbug fair this spring,” Gertie said.
“I’m planning on it,” June said, and smiled. “I need some more blue ribbons for my wall.”
Gertie laughed. “As long as you don’t take up knitting. I have to win somewhere.”
We headed out and June scanned the street. “Where’s your car?”
“We stopped at the General Store on our way over and left it downtown,” Ida Belle said. “It was such a pretty day we figured we’d walk, especially since we had the breakfast special at Francine’s.”
June chuckled. “I’ve had that special. You probably should have walked all the way here from Sinful.”
June waved as she turned around and we headed off.
“At least the trees are so plentiful she won’t be able to see us rounding the corner at the end of the block,” Gertie said.
“So what do you think?” Ida Belle asked.
“I think we need to pick up some more of that boudin before we leave Mudbug,” Gertie said.