MAYA WAS BORED. SHE AND Isabelle had colored and had snacks. They’d read all the picture books Letty brought home from the library. Now, Isabelle was curled up on the sofa, looking at her phone, laughing at something she was reading.
The wind ruffled the curtains at the open sliding glass doors, and she stepped out onto the patio, looking over her shoulder to see if Isabelle would object, but the teenager was still absorbed in her own world.
A squirrel sat on the garden gate, with a ripe red cherry tomato clutched between its paws. Maya tiptoed toward it, but the squirrel scampered away, leaping onto a frond of the palm tree that shaded the patio.
She saw a flash of black fur speed past. It was Midnight! Maya unlatched the gate and stepped onto the thick grass. Were the kittens still hidden under the big tree? She looked around to make sure that this time, no bad men were waiting in the shadows.
Emboldened, she ran to the tree and peeked beneath the saw-toothed plants with their bright pink throats. The nest of pine needles was bare, with only a few tufts of black fur left behind.
Maya stood up and dusted bits of grass from her T-shirt. Had Midnight gone back to the scary cave where she’d put the kittens before? No. She must have found a newer, nicer place to hide the kittens. Maybe she would ask Isabelle to help her look. Or maybe she would walk over to the office, to ask Miss Ava if they could bake cookies today.
She was walking toward the motel office when she heard the whine of the approaching ambulance. It pulled into the parking lot, and two men in blue uniforms got out. People were walking up from the beach.
From nowhere, she saw Midnight streak past again and dive into a big concrete planter of prickly green asparagus fern near the front door of the office. Even from where she stood now, Maya could hear the kittens’ plaintive mews. Midnight’s babies were hungry and crying for their mama.
Maya was moving steadily toward the planter when she heard her name being called. It was Letty.
Her aunt was walking with Miss Vikki and following three men. One of the men was Mr. Joe, and she didn’t know the other man, but she stopped walking and forgot all about finding Midnight’s kittens when she got close enough to see the man in the middle. He was walking like his foot was hurt, and his head was down, so she couldn’t really see his face.
Suddenly the man raised his head, and when his eyes met hers Maya wanted to run away and hide somewhere safe, like Midnight’s kittens.
“Maya!” Letty cried, when she spotted her niece standing near the door to the office.
“Christ!” Evan said angrily. “What’s she doing here? Who the hell is supposed to be watching my daughter?”
Letty rushed toward Maya. She knelt down beside the little girl, trying to shield her from the sight of her father, bleeding and handcuffed.
Joe joined them a moment later.
“Ladybug,” she said, her voice stern. “You’re not supposed to be out here. You’re supposed to be home with Isabelle.”
“I saw Midnight. And I wanted to see where she hid the kittens.” Maya peered around Letty’s legs, watching as the ambulance attendants unfolded a wheeled gurney from the back of their vehicle.
Isabelle ran up to them, breathless. “Oh my God! Letty, I’m so sorry. I was looking at something on my Insta, and the next thing I knew, Maya was gone.” She looked down at her charge. “Maya Papaya, you scared me!”
“It’s okay,” Letty said. “Please don’t worry. She’s fine.”
“Sowwy, Isabelle,” Maya said.
“What’s going on out here?” Isabelle asked, pointing at the ambulance and the growing crowd of regulars who’d come out of their units to gawk.
“It’s a very long story,” Letty said. She reached down to pick up her niece. “Let’s get you back to the apartment. I think you’ve had more than enough excitement for today.”
“That’s Daddy,” Maya told Isabelle, pointing at Wingfield before hiding her head in Letty’s shoulder. Evan Wingfield was sitting on the stretcher while the EMTs examined his foot. “Why is Daddy here?”
Letty looked at Joe for guidance, but he, too, was at a loss for words.
“He, uh, wanted to visit you, and bring you some new clothes,” Letty began. “But I told him…”
Wingfield looked up just then, his eyes meeting Maya’s. “Hey, baby,” he called. “Daddy’s here. I’ll see you in a little bit, okay?”
“Nooo,” Maya cried. She clamped her hands over her ears. “I don’t want to go to Daddy’s house. He’s a bad daddy. He hurt my mommy.”
Letty’s scalp prickled.
“Do you want me to take her back to your place?” Isabelle offered.
“Wait.” Joe leaned in, his voice calm. “Maya? Can you tell us how he hurt your mommy?”
“No!” Letty said, swinging Maya away from him. “Don’t make her talk about it now.”
“He pushed her down,” Maya said matter-of-factly.
“That’s enough!” Letty said.
But Maya kept on. “Daddy was yelling and saying bad words, and I was asleep, but then I heard Mommy crying, and I was going to give her a hug, like she hugs me when I’m sad.”
“Let her talk, please, if she wants to,” Joe said, his voice low. “This could be important. Please?”
“If she gets any more upset, we’re stopping,” Letty said, her eyes boring into his. “I mean it.”
“Did you stay in your room that day, when you heard them fighting?” Joe asked.
“No?” Maya hesitated. “Mommy was crying and I was scared and I wanted some juice, but then Daddy was very, very mad. Mommy yelled at him to go away, and I wanted him to go away too, but then he yelled at her again, and he hitted her and she fell down. She had a boo-boo on her head.”
Tears were flowing down Letty’s face as she considered the unbearable act that the child had witnessed.
Joe’s voice was gentle. “What happened next, ladybug?”
Maya ducked her chin. “I wetted my pants. I am a big girl and Daddy says big girls don’t wet their pants, so I should be ashamed of myself.”
“That’s not true, Maya,” Joe said. “Even big girls and boys have accidents sometimes,” he reassured her.
“I wet my pants in PE the first day of junior high,” Isabelle confided.
“And I had to take clean clothes to her at school,” Joe said. “Hey, Maya? Did your daddy see you after he pushed your mommy?”
She shook her head. “No. I hid. I waited and waited a long time for Mommy to come and get me, because I was scared.”
“Where did you hide?”
“Under the bed.”
“Good girl,” Joe said, patting her hand. “You’re a very brave girl, Maya. Can you tell me what happened next?”
“It was a very long time,” Maya said. “And then Letty got to my house.”
“I’m glad Letty got there,” Joe said.
“We took Mommy’s car, because Letty said Mommy went to heaven,” Maya said. “And now I live here, with Letty. And I swim in the pool and maybe soon I will get a kitten.”
They heard the ambulance doors closing behind them, and Letty turned slightly to see that the EMTs had loaded Wingfield into the vehicle. Vikki Hill walked over. She pulled Joe aside.
“They’ll patch him up in the ER, and unless there’s an issue, he’ll be transported to the jail.”
“Maybe he and Rooney will have adjoining hospital beds,” Joe said.
Vikki rolled her eyes. “Shit. That’s not even funny. Garcia was going to meet them at the hospital. How about you call your partner Shauna, and tell her to make sure they don’t let Wingfield anywhere near Rooney. By the way, he’s already demanding to speak to a lawyer. Can you meet me at the jail after you get things settled down here?”
“Yeah.” Joe nodded in Letty and Maya’s direction. “Maya basically just told us she witnessed her mother’s murder. Tanya and Wingfield were arguing, and she says she saw him push her down and she hit her head.”
“For real? She’s sure of what she saw?” the FBI agent asked. “Was Letty aware that Maya saw it go down?”
“No. Maya was awake and crying when Letty reached the scene, but I think she was hoping Maya didn’t actually see her father kill her mother. As far as I know, this was the first time the kid has spoken about it.”
Vikki pushed her sunglasses into her hair and kneaded her forehead. She watched as the ambulance pulled out of the motel parking lot, lights flashing but no siren. “What a cold-blooded piece of work that bastard is. He murders the kid’s mother, hires us to kill the aunt, then shows up here with a pretty pink outfit to take her home to her new mama. He actually thinks putting Maya in a fancy preschool will solve all her problems.”
Joe was only half listening. His eyes were following Letty as she and Isabelle walked over to the planter and parted the ferns to let Maya peek at Midnight and her kittens.
“What do you think will happen now? I mean, the only witness to Tanya’s murder is her four-year-old kid. Will they let me and Letty testify about what she told us? Or would a judge put Maya on the witness stand?”
“I’m just a lowly Feeb agent, DeCurtis. Not a lawyer. Obviously, you and Letty will have to make some kind of sworn statement about what Maya told you.”
Vikki sighed heavily. “But in the meantime, I’ve gotta go file a report because I shot a suspect who was getting ready to off an octogenarian. Christ, I hate paperwork.”