Chapter Two

Within the next few hours, Beth was taken to a hospital, and Jillie was taken into custody. While her sister was fighting for her life, Jillie sat in a small room at the police department answering the same questions over and over. A couple of hours later, she was sent to Bernalillo County Youth Services Center in Albuquerque pending a detention hearing. Based on the evidence at the scene, the District Attorney brought Jillie up on charges of murder, and the court assigned her a Public Defender.

Jillie’s attorney requested a female police psychologist to interview her. The woman smiled a lot and talked softly as she asked questions. A one-eyed video camera recorded every sound and movement.

“Were you afraid of your brother-in-law, afraid he was going to hurt you?”

Jillie shook her head. “He yelled, but he never actually hit me. He hurt Beth a lot, though.”

“By a lot, do you mean he hurt her at other times as well?”

“Not as bad as this time, but he’d been getting worse, mostly after he got drunk.”

After several more questions, the psychologist left the room, and Jillie’s attorney returned.

“You’ll have to stay here for a while,” her attorney said.

“I want to see Beth.”

The attorney shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jillie. There are some things that have to be done first.” She promised to check on Beth then left.

Moms Potter was allowed to attend Jillie’s pretrial. She sat silently, smiled, and mouthed the word Courage.

After several minutes of discussion, the judge dismissed the charges, stating the defense had offered a compelling argument against bringing the case to trial. Then he gave Jillie the option of either going into foster care or staying with Cleg and Margo Elliott, Digger’s parents who’d requested custody.

Though Jillie had never really liked Beth’s in-laws, she agreed to stay with them rather than return to juvie to await placement with other foster parents. It wouldn’t be long—just until Beth came for her. And anything would be better than juvie.

She shivered at the memory of her fifteen-year-old juvie roommate’s threat to dig her purple-ass eyes out with a spoon and put them in a baby food jar if she didn’t stop whining and bawling all night.

As Jillie exited the courtroom with the Elliotts, people with cameras shoved microphones toward her face and shouted questions. Others stared at her, held their hands in front of their mouths and whispered. Although she couldn’t understand most of what people were saying because of all the shouting, she overheard one woman call her a murderer, while another said she must be some kind of monster.

Moms Potter made her way through the crowd to Jillie. “Don’t pay any attention to these jerks. Some people get their kicks from other people’s pain.” She patted Jillie’s shoulder. “You did the right thing.”

A young woman squeezed through the herd and approached Jillie. “I’ll be your caseworker.” She pointed to a bench where Jillie’s suitcase and nylon backpack sat. “I got permission to pick these up for you. You’ll want to look it all over, but your stuff ought to be just as you left it.”

Jillie nodded her thanks. “Can I go see my sister now?”

With a sad smile, Moms Potter said, “She isn’t awake yet.”

“I need to be there when she wakes up.”

The caseworker put a warm hand on Jillie’s forearm. “I’m sure your family will take you once you get settled. You’re a smart girl, Jillie, and you’re strong. Beth’s lucky to have you for a sister.”

Having moved to within earshot, Margo Elliott leveled a hard look at the caseworker, and her lips curled like she’d just discovered a maggot in her spaghetti. Cleg’s face was set in its usual blank stare.

“I’ll see to Beth,” Moms Potter said. “And I’ll come see you as often as I can.” She turned her head away, but not before Jillie saw a tear fall onto her shirt front.

“We should get going,” Margo said.

Jillie picked up her suitcase and backpack. She waved goodbye to Mrs. Potter, swallowed hard, and followed the Elliotts to their brown, rusted-out pickup.

As Cleg got into the driver’s seat, Margo motioned for Jillie to scoot in next to him. A satisfied look on her face, Margo squeezed in next to Jillie and slammed the pickup door.

“Now then,” Margo said. “Isn’t this nice?”

Jillie shivered as if someone had run an icicle up her spine.

Please God, make Beth better soon.