Kimmie was shaking so hard that a few minutes into her story Taylor reached over and helped her settle Pip onto the hospital bed. “I don’t want you to drop him,” he explained gently.
Kimmie felt even more vulnerable and exposed without her brother on her lap. It was as if her entire body was a window into the pit of her psyche, and as long as she had Pip shielding her, the curtains were at least partially drawn. Now there was nothing to separate her and Taylor, nothing to filter out the awful truth.
She clutched her blankets around her shoulders and told him everything, not just about tonight when Chuck had threatened her with a rifle but all that she and her mom had endured. Horror stories she hadn’t recalled in years came tumbling out like a tangled mass of words, but instead of bringing healing and catharsis, she felt defiled having to relive those haunting memories, victimized all over again in the retelling.
Taylor was a patient listener, asking a few pointed questions that kept Kimmie focused, making compassionate mmms at the right times, nodding his head in sympathy. When Kimmie had drained her memory banks completely dry, Taylor held her gaze. “Thank you for being honest with me. I’m sure that wasn’t easy.”
She was still trembling, but he didn’t mention it. She stared at him, wondering what was supposed to happen now. She’d done her job. She’d gotten Pip out of Chuck’s house and managed to tell the trooper about all the abuse they’d suffered. Her mission, as gruesome and excruciating as it was, had been a success.
Taylor sighed heavily in his chair, and Kimmie wondered if she’d depressed him with her stories. He was so engaged while she was talking, but now that everything was disclosed, he looked tired. For a second, she wondered if she’d made a mistake. What if he came back and said there was nothing he could do? If not even a state trooper could free her brother from Chuck, her dreams of freedom and safety were nothing but an illusion.
The thought led to a terrifying conclusion.
What if Taylor couldn’t help her? What if he told her it was out of his jurisdiction? What if he told her that since Pip himself hadn’t been the victim of physical abuse, he had to go back home and live with his dad?
Kimmie braced herself, certain that the next words out of Taylor’s mouth would tell her that everything she’d suffered through tonight was in vain. She and her brother would never be free.
Instead, he reached out toward Pip, who’d rolled out of his blankets, and tucked him back in carefully. Taylor looked at Kimmie with a gaze full of sympathy and trust. “I’m glad you were able to talk about these things. All your stories are going to help us build our case.”
“What case?”
Taylor was gazing at Pip while he slept peacefully in the hospital bed. “The case against your stepfather. We’ve put out the warrant for his arrest.”
“Because you thought he hurt us and that’s why we were missing when my sister came by?”
Taylor shook his head. “No. Because we’ve received solid evidence that implicates him in your mother’s murder.”