Glenn watched with admiration as Joey's mother took over without hesitation. She introduced herself to Mary while she carefully put one arm around the girl's shoulders. When she said something that was obviously meant for Mary's ears only the girl nodded as she replied.
"Glenn," Joey's mother said as she turned to him, "it might be more comfortable inside, if you don't mind."
"Mom," Joey muttered.
"Well it would be." She walked toward the back porch with her arm now around Mary's waist as she urged her forward.
Glenn had the door open by the time they got there. Soon they were all ensconced in the living room, Miriam on the sofa with Mary, and Joey and Harv in chairs. Glenn stood by the fireplace with his hands behind his back. It took him a moment to realize that Mary was shivering and not just from nerves. She wore only a thin shirt and worn jeans.
"Joey, would you go upstairs and get my robe off the hook on the back of the door, please."
Joey looked at him in surprise and jumped to his feet. He was halfway up the stairs when he turned to look at Glenn.
"First door on the right," Glenn told him with a small grin.
"Thanks." Joey disappeared. He returned a minute later with a heavy wool robe which he handed to Mary.
"Thank you," she whispered as she stood, wrapped it around her, and sat again.
"Now, down to business," Glenn said, looking sharply at Mary, "I don't want you to take this wrong but so far we only have your word for it that you're Mary Nye."
"I… I don't know how to prove it to you," she replied. She stared down at the floor as she twisted her hands together.
Joey's mother put her fingers under the girl's chin to make her look up. Then she studied her face before she said to Glenn, "She is definitely Steven's child. I can see it in the eyes and set of her jaw. And she looks like what little I remember of her from the attack, only older of course."
Glenn nodded. "I'll take your word for it. Now we need to know why she," he looked back at Mary, "why you were with Fairburn."
"Because he found me and made me go with him."
"Why didn't he take you with him when he killed your mother?" Glenn put a tone of questioning disbelief in his voice as he asked. He knew the answer but needed to see what her reply would be.
"I was upstairs in my room. I… I heard loud words then mama screamed… and screamed. I was so scared… so I ran to her room and crawled into her closet and prayed whatever was happening would stop." She wiped one fist across her damp eyes. "All I could think of was the… the way she screamed when he was going to… when he hit me and she tried to stop him then they showed up and…"
"Why didn't you call the police?"
"Because I was scared he'd hear me. I did call when he left." She chewed her lip as she looked up at Glenn. "He searched for me, I heard him. But he didn't come into mama's room."
Glenn nodded. "You were quite lucky.”
"I guess. For a while I thought so even though mama was... was dead." Again she wiped away tears.
"How did he get you to go with him once he found out where they had placed you after your mother's murder?" Glenn asked a moment later.
No comments:
Post a Comment