The Stillwater Girls(35)

I’m not sure what I expected, but all this is happening so fast. One minute they’re knocking at my door asking for help and shaking like scrawny little leaves; the next minute they’re eating like they haven’t eaten in years. And the fact that I had to show Sage how to use a modern-day bathroom adds a whole new level of peculiarity to this situation.

“Can I go with them?” I ask.

May raises her left brow.

“I know I don’t know them, but they’re alone,” I say. “They’re scared. They should have someone . . . someone who isn’t in a uniform . . . someone who can stay with them, answer their questions, tell them everything’s going to be okay.”

“Ms. Gideon, I appreciate your concern, but—”

“Please,” I say, cutting her off. “I won’t intervene. I’ll stay out of your way—I just . . . I think they need someone who’s not on the clock—no offense . . . and right now I’m all they have.”

May gives me a tight-lipped smile as if to appease me as she pauses. “All right. Fine. If the girls want you there, you can be there. But you won’t be privy to any of their medical data or any nonpublic information related to our investigation.”

“I completely understand.” I lift my right hand to my heart.

A knock at the front door interrupts our conversation, followed by footsteps a moment later. I glance past her shoulder to find two male deputies trekking across my foyer, their heavy-booted footsteps echoing along with the squawk of their radios.

“In here,” May calls, hands moving to her duty belt.

A deafening shriek fills my left ear, coming from the hallway near the powder room, and without pause, I run toward the awful noise only to find Sage slumped up against the wall, her hands cupping her ears and her eyes squeezed tight, wailing.

The two deputies stand over her before glancing to May.

Sage’s sister squeezes between them to get to her, and the deputy motions for the men to step away, out of sight.

Wren’s lanky arms wrap around Sage, and she whispers something in her ear. A moment later the crying stops, though her chest rises and falls so fast I fear she might hyperventilate.

“Girls . . . girls,” May says, lowering herself to their level. “What’s going on? Those are Deputies Alvarez and Thomason. They’re here to help. You have no reason to be scared of them, I promise. They’re just going to try to trace your footprints, maybe see if they can find something to help us figure out where you came from.”

The little one buries her face into Wren’s lithe shoulders, and Wren holds her tight. “She thought . . . she thought it was . . . there was a man . . . at our cabin . . .”

Her voice is shaky and she struggles to finish her thought, so May cuts them off. “It’s okay, it’s okay. One thing at a time. You don’t have to be around men if you don’t want to. Once we get to the hospital, we’ll request only female doctors and nurses.”

May turns, giving me a wordless look as if to suggest this entire thing goes much deeper than either of us could’ve imagined.

“There are doctors?” Wren asks, brows lifted. “There are doctors at this . . . hospital?”

Drying her tears on her sleeve, Sage glances up at her sister. “Wren, maybe Evie is there?”

The deputy’s hands rest at her hips. “Who’s Evie?”

Wren turns to her. “Our other sister.”

May pinches the bridge of her nose. “There are three of you?”

Wren nods. “Evie was sick. Mama took her to town to see if a doctor could help her. That was months ago. They never came back.”

May’s hands rest on her hips, and the elevens between her eyebrows deepen. The four of us bask in a soundless moment until someone calls May on the radio and she walks into the next room as she responds. A moment later she returns.

“We should go now,” she says. “The hospital’s expecting us.”



“I’m with them.” I point to the girls and Deputy May once I arrive at the main desk at Mercy General.

May nods, waving me over.

The ride to town was silent in an eerie sort of way yet kissed with the warm glow of a late-winter sunrise filtering through barren landscapes. It seemed fitting, like a grim illustration that could be interpreted twenty different ways.

Wren and Sage rode in the back of Deputy May’s cruiser, and I followed in my SUV. From a few car lengths back, I watched as the two of them wrapped their arms around each other, occasionally staring back at me with their hollow eyes.

I imagine they’re terrified.

A young nurse in pink scrubs with a tight blonde ponytail emerges from behind an automatic door, her wide gaze honing in on the girls.

“It’s okay. She’s a nurse,” May says. “She’s come to take you back.”

Wren turns to me. “Will you come with us?”

I glance at the deputy. “If Deputy May says it’s all right.”

May nods, and while I’m sure it isn’t protocol, the situation is unique enough that I imagine she’s willing to put her neck out there to ensure the girls have whatever they need to feel comfortable enough to cooperate.

“If you need me, I’ll be here,” she says to the nurse as she checks her phone. “Going to wait for the social worker. Thought she’d be here by now.”