Mercy (Atlee Pine #4)(51)

Pine inwardly seethed at these callous remarks. As though Atkins’s misery had been greater than her sister’s. As though Mercy was at fault somehow. But she said nothing. Blum was obviously working on something, and Pine wanted to let it play out.

“And she probably kept secrets from you,” said Blum. “People like that often do.”

“She did!” said a now-animated Atkins. “Exactly. Joe said she didn’t. But what did he know? He tried to trust her when she was still little. She just suckered him.”

Blum said, “Men are clueless about reading women. We both know that. When you get to a certain age, like we both are, it becomes very clear.”

Atkins pointed at Blum and grinned. “You hit it right on the head. Men! They’re moronic when it comes to women. They don’t know how we think. The head games we play. The manipulation we use.” She said in a little-girl voice, “ ‘Oh, big, strong man, you’re so much smarter than me, can you come over here and do everything I tell you to do?’ ” She grimaced. “And see where that got Joe? An early grave.”

“But you weren’t fooled,” said Blum.

Atkins shook her head and tacked on a cackle. “I saw right through her. I knew what she was about. She didn’t fool me for one minute. All this innocent crap. Trying to get Joe on her side. It was disgusting.”

Pine reached into her pocket and her fingers closed around her phone. She slid it out but kept it behind her back.

Blum noted this, but Atkins didn’t. She was staring at the floor, lost in her own self-pity. Blum rose and moved so she was in front of Pine, blocking Atkins’s view of her.

Pine quickly flicked through her screens and tapped on a couple of images.

Blum said, “But unlike Joe you were probably able to get her to talk. To reveal things she didn’t want to reveal because you were smarter than she was.”

Atkins looked up with a desolate expression. “Joe never gave me credit for anything. I was the one who told him to go into the security business when he lost his job. I helped him get started and then got him clients. And I was the one who told him we needed to put that girl in a cage. I knew she was nuts. The man that took her? Wanda said he told her Becky’s parents wanted to kill her. And they probably had good reason. I came to see that. He saved Becky from whatever she was involved in, but he did us no favors, that’s for damn sure.”

“It must have been really intrusive for you.”

“At first, I thought it might be okay, you know. Having a kid. You’re right, I did want children, but I had a problem there and couldn’t. But I wasn’t sure this was the right way.”

“But you still took her in. That was good of you.”

“At first Joe thought it was so great. See, he was the one who really wanted her. A frilly little daughter to dote on. But six months after she came into our lives, it was like I didn’t exist. All Joe saw was cute little Becky,” she added in a derisive tone. “He totally ignored me. And then she grew up. That cute little puppy turned into a wolf. A monster!”

“That all must have been difficult to accept,” said Blum in a supportive tone.

Atkins exclaimed, “It was impossible. Who was this stranger? What right did she have to come into our lives and take my husband away from me? What right? Oh she was so cute, so pretty. And I was what, a lump of coal?”

“Yes, I see that.”

“Well, Joe didn’t. Made me so mad. I wanted to kill him. And her!”

“But you talked to Mercy? You learned things about her?”

Atkins smiled slyly at Pine. “I knew that was her name. She told me it was. But then I spent years wiping that out of her memory, out of her life.”

“How did you do that?” asked Blum, keeping her gaze on Atkins. “It must have been difficult.”

“I had my ways,” said Atkins with a wicked grin. She mimicked a little girl’s voice again. “ ‘Don’t, Mommy, don’t do that. Don’t burn me. Don’t cut me.’ ‘Your name is Becky,’ I would say. ‘Becky. Only Becky. Mercy is dead, do you understand? Mercy is dead.’ Over and over and over. It finally got through. Finally. No more Mercy.” She smiled. “See, I won. I beat the little brat. She thought she was so smart. Well, I was smarter.”

“Did you have to make her forget anything else?” asked Blum.

Atkins’s features calmed and she looked down again. “There was one thing I could never make her forget,” she said.

Pine tensed and said, “What was that?”

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.” She glanced up at Pine. “Stupid nursery rhyme. She read it in a book we had. She went ballistic. She tore the book apart. She was screaming. Joe had to come in and hold her down. And she was only seven or eight at the time. I had no idea what the hell that was about. Crazy, stupid kid. Worst mistake of my life taking her in.”

Blum glanced at Pine, who had closed her eyes and looked away. Blum turned back to Atkins. “So the night Mercy escaped . . . ?”

“Idiot Joe forgot to lock the damn door. Before we knew it here she comes, running past the house. Joe had seen it on his TV screen. He went after her. But the moron didn’t take the gun. I remembered it, though. I went after her with it.”

“Because you couldn’t let her get away?”