The Summer Children (The Collector #3)(25)
Walking away feels like leaving a piece of me behind, but I don’t look back. I head into the store instead, ordering drinks for Eddison, Sterling, and Vic, and a second one for myself. When I start back to the office, cups carefully slotted into a carrier, Siobhan isn’t at the table anymore.
10
Sarah’s sheer fury at learning her stepfather had cameras hidden around her room takes up pretty much the rest of the day. She’s so angry and so hurt, but she also hasn’t told her sister what happened, so all that rage spirals inward until we take her outside and let her scream. Nancy, a social worker with over thirty years of experience, expertly intercepts the running security guards to let them know what’s going on, and I stay with the shrieking, sobbing preteen in the little garden space that’s probably seen a lot of such things. She calms slowly, more a symptom of exhaustion than any actual calm, I think, and asks if she can see the pictures.
“Do you think it will help you?” Nancy asks evenly.
“They’re pictures of me. How many other people are seeing them?”
“Detective Mignone found them when he was going through your stepfather’s closet, and he immediately put them into an envelope and sealed them,” I explain. “There will be one person who will have the job of cataloguing the pictures into evidence, along with a basic description of the contents, and then the new envelope will be sealed. Given that Mr. Wong is dead and cannot be brought up for trial, there’s no reason for the pictures to ever see the inside of a courtroom. There’s no reason for lawyers to request to review the evidence.”
“What if Samuel showed them to someone else? Like to his friends or something, or shared them online?”
“Detective Holmes is asking her department to let her partner with the FBI cybercrimes division,” I tell her. “We have people who specialize in tracking files and photos online. If he sent them to anyone using his computer, they’ll find out. The police will also be talking to his coworkers and friends.”
“So even if they didn’t get pictures, they’ll know there are pictures?”
“No. They won’t mention the pictures specifically unless they’re pretty sure they’ve got someone. They’ll be very careful, Sarah. No one wants to see you hurt more.”
“And if they do have pictures?”
“They’ll be arrested and tried for possession of child pornography. Sarah, you are twelve years old. No one, and I mean no one, wants those photos out for anyone to see.”
“But I have to know,” she whispers, dropping to the bench like a puppet with severed strings.
“I can understand that.” Nancy leans forward, not crowding Sarah but engaging a little more now that the yelling has stopped. “But they’re trying to protect you. Those photographs are evidence of a crime, Sarah, and they’re not simply going to give them to you, even if you are the one in them. They’re not going to give back child pornography. Do I believe seeing them could help you? Possibly. Do I believe seeing them could hurt you? Probably. Sarah . . .”
Sarah, scratching at her wrist where the plastic hospital band is scraping her skin, waits for her to finish the thought, which is a good sign, I think.
“What your stepfather did to you, what he took from you, was extreme. Do you really want to see how much else he took?”
“I don’t . . .” The girl blows out a frustrated breath. “I don’t like other people seeing a piece of me I don’t know. Samuel hurt me in private, but now these pieces of it are public.”
“They’re not public.”
“But other people are seeing them, other people know they exist and why and how, and I don’t get to see them.”
Nancy considers her for a long moment, and I can almost see her running through options in her mind. “The only thing I can promise you is that we’ll talk to the advocate about it once the court appoints someone. Beyond that it is completely out of my hands. I will promise that one piece, though. We’ll see if there’s any legal basis to request it. What I need from you in return is to prepare yourself for disappointment. If, and that’s a big if, you’re granted permission to see them, that has to be the unexpected outcome.” She reaches out slowly, just two fingers extended, and touches Sarah’s cheek lightly with the backs of her fingers. It’s nonthreatening, a way to touch and reassure without implying the possibility of harm. “You cannot let those pictures be the thing you count on to heal you. You have to find your way without them. Can you work with me on that?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not a good one.”
Sarah huffs out a laugh and looks surprised by it, and I think that’s probably a good sign too.
When I leave them, they’re still in the garden, talking over how best to tell Ashley what their stepfather did. From what Sarah says, Ashley liked Samuel, because he gave her pretty things. She’s going to have a hard time understanding.
I head to Vic’s, because that’s what this team does when we don’t know what to do, and Eddison and Sterling pull up a few minutes behind me. Marlene comes out to meet us, even though we all have keys, and wraps me in a tight hug, her slender arms digging into my back in a way that should be painful but is actually comforting. “How are you doing?” she asks softly.