Jarrod heard a thud. He looked over to see the laundry basket toppled by the foot of the stairs, dirty laundry splayed all over the wood floor. He knew that Faith was there, somewhere, listening. He turned back to Maggie. He felt as if someone had punched him hard in the stomach, but he could still breathe and the pain hadn’t set in yet. He looked back at Maggie. ‘What? What did you say?’ The question rushed out of his mouth.
Maggie looked anxiously over at the pile. ‘The lady wanted Mommy to help her, but she wouldn’t open the door.’ Her thumb went to her mouth.
He turned to watch the TV. The caption under the photo of a smiling young woman with dark hair and dark eyes and a neck tattoo said ANOTHER MURDER IN THE CANE FIELDS. ‘What do you mean? I’m not getting you, honey. Take that thumb out of your mouth and tell me what happened.’ He gently pulled her thumb away.
‘There was a mean man there. He was waiting for her outside. He wanted to hurt the lady, but Mommy wouldn’t open the door.’
‘What door? The door to the house? Here?’
‘No, Daddy. The caaarrr doooorrr,’ she replied dragging out the word.
‘The car door …’ he repeated, his voice trailing off.
‘The lady was scared. Then the mean man took her away and she was crying.’
‘Who was crying? Mommy?’
Maggie lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘The lady.’ She started to pick at the white balls on her reindeer dress. ‘I felt bad ’cause she was sad. I don’t want Mommy to get mad again …’ her voice trailed off.
Jarrod knelt down next to her and put his hands on her delicate shoulders that already looked like they bore the weight of the world. ‘Mommy’s not going to get mad, Maggie. No one’s going to get mad. When did this happen, honey? Can you remember?’
Maggie shook her head.
‘Tell Daddy. Don’t worry about Mommy; she’s fine. She’s upstairs. Tell me what you saw. Tell me when this happened.’
‘Aunt Charity’s birthday.’
‘When you drove up with Mommy to see Aunt Charity for her surprise party?’
She nodded.
‘When did this happen, when you were driving to Aunt Charity’s or back home at night?’
‘Night.’ Her bottom lip ballooned out. ‘It was dark and I was scared.’
‘Was this after you got mad and kicked the seat?’
She nodded again. The lip was quivering.
Maggie had her issues. She had problems in school but that was because she wouldn’t keep her ass in the chair and listen, not because she wasn’t smart. Was she defiant? Yes. Emotional? Yup. Hyperactive? That was what his money was on. But with all of her challenges, Jarrod knew lying was not one of them. She could tell tall tales sometimes, though. She was only four and young kids saw things differently than adults did. So what was fantasy and what was reality? Was this story she was telling him pieced together in her brain from movies she’d watched? Stories she’d heard? Video games she’d played? Maybe she’d seen this girl’s face in the paper or on the news before? He rubbed his chin. Faith had never mentioned anything like this to him.
‘Maggie, you need to be very clear. The lady on the news – you’re sure that was the lady you saw that night coming home from Aunt Charity’s? You’re positive?’
She nodded.
‘And she asked Mommy to help her? You’re sure?’
‘Yes. She banged on the window, Daddy. She was all wet, ’cause it was raining out and I don’t like thunder. But Mommy wouldn’t open the door. She told the lady, “No!”
‘Then what happened?’
‘Then the mean man came and he took the lady away and she looked sad.’
‘What did Mommy do?’
‘Nothing.’ Maggie paused and looked down at the floor, as though she were ashamed to say it. ‘She watched him take the lady away.’
‘Did you say anything to Mommy?’
Maggie shook her head. Tears rolled down her cheeks now. ‘The man told me not to.’
‘Wait, wait, wait – you spoke to the man?’ He wiped her apple cheeks with his big hands.
‘He told me not to say anything,’ Maggie replied, putting her finger to her lips and making the shush sound. ‘He said to shush.’
Jarrod shook his head. He could feel the anger rising inside. A paternal, oversized anger at the idea that a strange man had frightened his daughter. ‘Did he touch you? Did this man touch you, Maggie?’ He was yelling now, but he couldn’t help it.
She shook her head. ‘He pointed his finger at me.’
‘And what did Mommy do when the man told you to shush? When he pointed?’
‘She drove away.’
‘She left the lady there with the scary man?’
Maggie nodded. ‘I’m sorry, Daddy.’
‘You don’t have anything to be sorry about.’ Jarrod grabbed his daughter and hugged her tight, something he should have done a minute earlier. He dropped onto both knees, stroking her hair, inhaling the scent of her. He was overwhelmed by a sickening feeling that he was lucky to do this – like the man who misses the flight that he heard has crashed. ‘I have to talk to Mommy about this,’ he said into her shoulder.
Maggie shook her head. ‘She’s gonna get mad.’
‘No, she won’t. Did you talk to Mommy about what you saw? Does she know you saw the girl?’
Maggie shook her head and looked at the ground again. ‘She’ll be mad, like she was at that lady. Mommy made her cry ’cause she was mean and said no. She yelled at me to go to sleep and stop kicking. I didn’t want her to get mad at me for being ’wake, so I closed my eyes and ’tended to be sleeping, but I was only ’tending.’
Jarrod felt his heart clench up. The punch to the gut had knocked the wind out of him, and now the pain was here and it was worse than what he was expecting. Whatever story Maggie was telling was not made up. Whatever it was she thought she saw had happened. And that scared the shit out of him. Because the story in and of itself was terrifying. And the ending … Another murder in the cane fields.
He ran his hand through his hair, trying to think clearly. Well, the ending was horrific. Perhaps the puzzle pieces were not fitting perfectly, perhaps Maggie had mixed some facts up, but it didn’t matter – a picture was starting to form. A half-hour ago, he’d been frustrated about being late and thinking about court and the conference call he’d had to take out in the garage. Now everything seemed … trivial. Inconsequential. While he didn’t know exactly what had happened that night, he did know that the pain from the invisible punch he’d just taken was going to be excruciating. He looked over at the dirty laundry, spilled emblematically all over the floor.
‘I have to talk to Mommy,’ he repeated.
Maggie shook her head defiantly. ‘No!’
‘Yes. I have to find out what happened.’ He stood, picking Maggie up in his arms. She buried her face in his neck. ‘Faith?’ he called out, walking over to the living room. ‘Faith, I gotta talk to you about something.’ He rounded the corner, stepping over the blue jeans and towels that lay on the floor.
And there she was. Sitting on the second landing, leaning her head back against the wall. Like Maggie, she, too, was crying. They faced each other for what seemed an eternity and he knew for sure that this was gonna be bad. Really, really bad.
‘Jarrod,’ she said in a weak, small voice. ‘We have to talk …’