Patricia
I remembered Georgina from attending a meeting of her organization back when I was making up my list (checking it twice). Framed in the kitchen doorway, she looked about the same as she had back then, only she looked more harried than she had the last time I’d seen her.
I had told the kids to stay in the car, be on the alert for bad guys, and that they would be taking care of a little girl whose life was in danger. As soon as I rescued her.
Being on a mission kept their minds diverted.
The door creaked as Georgina held it wide open, with an expression that can only be described as relieved.
“John tells me you’re good with kids.” Then she looked at my car. “Those yours?”
“Yes.” They were now.
Fortunately, she couldn’t see their faces. I had to assume she’d met Brenda’s kids at some point.
“Tell them to come in, too. I have cookies.”
There was no way I wanted those kids in Georgina’s house with what I intended to do. They were traumatized enough.
Nor did I want Georgina to get a good look at them.
“That’s okay. They have games and snacks in the car. Where’s the little girl?”
“Inside. She won’t stop crying. I offered her cookies. I turned on the television. But she didn’t want any of it. I have her locked in a bedroom upstairs.”
Great way to calm a hysterical child. But I didn’t say that. “Let me see her.”
I could hear periodic crying as I mounted the stairs. So could Georgina. It wasn’t solid crying anymore, just the occasional sob or whine of an unhappy child who was running out of energy.
The cat that I’d spotted on the windowsill, which had stopped me from killing Georgina the previous night, followed us.
“I never had a child, you know, but I’ll be taking care of this one for at least a few months. If things work out… maybe longer…” Her voice trailed off. She’d sounded almost wistful. Did that bitch think that she was going to steal a child? Then she rustled in her pocket for the key to the door. “How can one little girl cry for this long? You’d think she’d get tired. If you can calm her down and get her to eat something, that would be a start.”
We agreed on calming the child. I was worried for her.
The cat wound through my legs. It was a pretty thing, grey body with darker face mask, ears, and tail.
“Siamese?” I asked. “What’s her name?”
“She’s Tonkinese. And her name is Elsie.” Georgina unlocked the door and opened it. “Nina, there’s someone here to see you.”
No response.
I scooped the cat up and entered, motioning at Georgina to stay in the hall. I shut the door behind me. A small girl sat cross-legged on the floor clutching a toy tiger and rocking back and forth. She didn’t look at me.
I sat down across from her. “Hello Nina. Did you meet Elsie?”
No response, just continued rocking. The little girl’s face and eyes were red from the crying.
The cat in my arms made no effort to free herself. Instead, she started to purr. I cocked my head as if listening to her.
“Can you hear? Elsie’s talking. She wants to say something to you.”
The rocking ceased, and she looked then, not at me, but at the cat I was holding. Then she let out a sob. But then she stopped, and her gaze traveled up from the cat to my face. “What is she saying?”
“Elsie says she doesn’t have a little girl, but she’d like one. She asks if you’d like to be hers.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
“I told my mommy I wanted a cat.” Then she started to cry again.
“Elsie says we’re going to go get your mommy. She also wants to know your tiger’s name.”
“Tiger.” Nina spoke so softly I almost didn’t hear. “Can I pet you, Elsie?”
I pretended to listen again. “She says she’d like that.”
Then Nina put out a hand. I guided her to the magic spot for every cat, right under the ears. Elsie responded appropriately with more purrs.
“Elsie wants to know if Tiger wants some cookies. Because she does.”
Minutes later, we were downstairs at Georgina’s round kitchen table, a plate of Georgina’s homemade vanilla iced ginger cookies in front of Nina and another plate in front of me and Elsie. Elsie ignored the cookies. Nina ate five cookies and drank a glass of milk. She deserved every cookie.
I ate a few. It had been a rough day for me too.
“Mindy, you’re a wonder.” Georgina seated herself next to Nina. “I’d like to hire you for a few days, until Nina gets used to me. If you want to stay here, your children can stay as well. John said that Brenda would be okay without you temporarily.”
Brenda wouldn’t be needing my services for the next few days. Or ever. But then, neither would Georgina.
“We can talk about it. But maybe Nina should go outside to play with my kids, so she won’t be bored while we talk.”
Georgina looked uneasy. “She might run off.”
“Not if my kids are watching her.” I turned to Nina. “Would you like to meet my children?”
Nina hesitated. “Can Elsie come?”
“She’s an indoor cat.” Georgina shook her head. “I don’t want her out.”
That was also something that I approved: keeping her cat inside. Outdoor cats kill birds, and they get killed in turn. That made two things I liked in Georgina’s house. The cat and the cookies. The cat was sweet, and cookies really weren’t bad.
I walked Nina out to the car and rapped on the back window. Christina opened the door. She had the swollen face and red eyes of someone who’d been weeping, but then, so did Nina. I figured they’d get along.
“This is Nina. She wanted to meet you.”
Christina motioned for me to lean forward. “This is the little girl for the mission?” she whispered.
“Yeah, it is.”
“Okay,” Kevin said. “Advocates are on it.”
“Fine. Stay in the yard or the car.” Then I returned to the house.
Georgina was still seated at her kitchen table, eating her own cookies, looking much more relaxed than when I’d arrived. When Ashley was young, I would savor those moments of peace after a temper tantrum when Ashley would switch over from screaming to happily playing.
Except Nina wasn’t Georgina’s child.
I seated myself opposite her. I’d achieved one part of “the mission.” Second part, rescue the mom. To do that, I needed to know she was. Drawing out information through a friendly conversation might not be exciting, but it works. “So, John told me that Nina’s mother tried to leave state for an abortion, and he and his friend stopped her.”
Georgina had just taken a large bite of ginger cookie. Her mouth full, she nodded. Then she sipped from a cup of tea. “Yes, that’s what happened. That poor deluded woman will thank us someday.”
“And you took Nina from her mother? That’s why she’s been so upset?”
She nodded again, mouth filled with more cookie.
“Why?”
She swallowed. “Why what?”
“Why take the little girl?”
“I don’t know all the details. John just called me, needing a place for the woman and her child to stay the baby arrived. One of my properties was empty. I met them all there. John said that the young woman was acting badly, and we needed to keep the little girl away from her for a bit.”
The cat jumped up on her lap as she talked, and Georgina absently stroked her under the chin. The cat began the kneading motion that indicates contentment.
“Aren’t you worried that the neighbors at that property might see something and call the police?”
She snorted. “Not in that neighborhood. Half of them are illegals, the other half are drug addicts. No one’s calling the police. So do you want to talk salary or not?”
I didn’t want to, because it was meaningless, but I was still in pretend mode, so we did. We talked some numbers for a while. Georgina was much more generous than Brenda. I’ll give her that. Then I returned to the only reason I was still there.
“By the way, John wanted me to stop by and check on Nina’s mother. Something about a heart issue.”
“You? Why you?”
“I was a nurse before I had kids and stopped working. John thought maybe I could check her out. But he forgot to give me the address.”
“A nurse, huh? You are a marvel. I’m so lucky to have you. Now where’s a pen?” She looked around, spotted what she wanted on a table with a landline (she was one of those few people in Texas who still had landlines), grabbed a piece of paper, and scribbled something on it. She passed it over to me, and I pocketed it. “So, tomorrow morning. You’ll be here by nine?”
And with the address in hand, or pocket, I was done. “Probably not.” I took out the gun.
Her expression was priceless. Almost as good as killing her. Her mouth fell open, her eyes widened, showing a disbelief that the sweet little housekeeper she was generously offering to employ would pull a gun on her. “What?”
I had Brenda’s gun, and I had intended to use it. After all, Georgina with her organization’s push for laws to abolish all abortions, was at least as responsible for Ashley’s death as Tom Martin.
The cat made things difficult, though. As much as I despised Georgina and everything she stood for, I liked the cat, and I liked how Georgina treated the cat, with gentleness and, well, love. Animals mean a lot to me, and people who are kind to animals tend to be good by me. Unless, of course, they’re crazy anti-abortion fanatics. Still, the cat won Georgina some points, and, anyway Elsie was on Georgina’s lap. I didn’t want to shoot the cat by accident.
But there was another problem with shooting Georgina.
The kids were in the backyard. If I shot her, even if I took her upstairs to do it, the kids would hear. Nina was so young that she wouldn’t understand what it meant if she heard a gunshot.
But Kevin and Christina would recognize the sound, and they were already traumatized. Even if they didn’t know Georgina, they would be frightened or worse if they heard a shot. And they had just become my new responsibility. My new family.
Did I really want to upset them when I didn’t need to?
So, damn, maybe I’d have to let her live.
Still, I couldn’t have her calling ahead to warn her playmates that I was coming. “Let’s go back upstairs to the room where you kept Nina.” This seemed doable. No phone in the room. I’d lock her in where she’d imprisoned a little girl. It wouldn’t hold her forever, but probably long enough for me to go get Nina’s mom.
“Upstairs. Now.”
She looked at the gun and then at me, and then she repeated herself. “What are you doing?”
“Exactly what it looks like. I’m doing to you what you did to Nina. And to her mother.” I motioned with the gun. “Let’s go. Or I’ll shoot you.” I could have given her the full treatment, telling her all about Ashley and who I was and why I was doing this, but time was of the essence. Anyway, if I wasn’t going to kill her, revealing facts that could lead to my identification wouldn’t be the intelligent move.
Her mouth moved, but nothing came out. I aimed the gun at her face. She stood.
She preceded me up the stairs. At the top, just as I was just congratulating myself for my self-restraint, she suddenly turned and grabbed for my gun.
She was stronger than she looked, hands gripping the barrel, and pulling it towards the ceiling in an effort to yank it from my hands. But then I’m stronger than I look too. I pushed back. Hard.
She lost her footing and went down the stairs. Twenty stairs in all—head first.