When You See Me (Detective D.D. Warren #11)(112)

“No, no, no!” he tries to scream.

But we hold the mop. We pin him against the rolling dish rack as others lift his feet, helping him along. His face disappears into the spray of boiling water. We listen to him scream and scream. We don’t let go.

I keep my grip until he is so deep inside the scorching spray, the mop can’t reach him anymore.

Then I let it clatter to the floor.



* * *



—

THE GIRLS SIGH THEIR GRATITUDE.

The house shudders back into silence.

Kimberly finally steps forward. She snaps off the machine, looking at me in concern as the steam clears.

D.D.: “Are you okay? Bonita, nod, something!”

“Great job!” Flora’s voice, from the side entrance. The click I had heard earlier had been the door opening. And the shadow in the mist? Definitely not Flora, who looked like she could barely stand. On the other hand, Keith was covered in a sheen of sweat and appeared pleased with himself.

“How the hell did you beat us here?” Kimberly wanted to know.

“Took a shortcut. Who knew?”

“Sorry,” Keith tells me. “I’m not a knife or gun kind of guy. But I knew Special Agent Quincy and the sheriff were on their way here. I figured if I could keep the monster man distracted, buy us some time . . . Except, then you took care of everything. Brilliantly, I might add.”

I don’t deny him his moment of triumph. Keith can take the credit, but I know he wasn’t the only one distracting the Bad Man. Just as I know I wasn’t the only one who finally shoved him into a spray of boiling water. There are others here who needed their revenge. And we are all happy they finally got it.

D.D. steps forward. I still haven’t moved. Now she uses her left hand to brush back my hair, peer at my face.

I finally meet her gaze, smiling tentatively. D.D. looks terrible, blood on her face, her shoulder, her hands. Then there’s Flora, who can barely stand up and appears to have part of her skull cracked open. These are tough women, though. Both of them appear satisfied.

“You did good, Bonita. You did good,” D.D. tells me.

“With some help from my man,” Flora says proudly, pointing at Keith, who promptly blushes.

I smile again. I let them think what they want to think. While around me, I feel the soft caress of my mother’s spirit enfold me in a final embrace. Her silvery shadow gathers in the upper left-hand corner of the kitchen, now joined by purple, then green, then orange. Dozens of colors. Dozens of lost souls finally moving on.

They will wait for me, and watch over me. As I will always wait and watch for them.

A last kiss on my cheek. I feel it like the brush of butterfly wings. Mamita and chiquita. Together again.

Then, D.D.’s arm wraps around my shoulders. She half hugs me, half uses me to hold herself up. I welcome both as I listen to the grumbles and laughter of my new family, easing into the aftermath.

I close my eyes.

I send my love to my mother. I promise her I will live, I will love, I will find a way to be happy.

Then, I let her go.





EPILOGUE





BONITA





HER NAME IS FLORA DANE. Once, she knew a bad man, too. He kidnapped her and hurt her and tried to break her. But she held strong. She survived him. She rebuilt her life. She found people to love, people who love her.

She is not surviving anymore, she explains to me. She is thriving.

And she is going to teach me how to do it, too.

During the day, a new lady comes to visit me. Her name is JoAnn Kelly and she knows the magic of speech. She works with lips and tongues and how to make them do what you want. She is teaching me noises. Puh, puh, puh. Hah, hah, hah.

I haven’t heard myself in so long, the first noise shocks me. The second makes me cry.

Later, when D.D. comes to check on me at lunch, she cries, too.

My new friends are busy.

I can’t tell them where the other girls are, but there is another woman, Dorothea, who works in the town offices and runs some kind of website; she talks enough for everyone. D.D. tells me Franny, the Bad Man’s mother, refuses all conversations. Her man is dead. Her son, too. She doesn’t care about the police, our town, what she did. She sits in silence.

But Flora’s boyfriend, Keith, can make computers do whatever he wants. With some information from Dorothea, he finds everything D.D. and the others want. Now, the FBI agent Kimberly is gone every day, overseeing the dozens of law enforcement experts pouring through our mountains, unearthing sad piles of bones, and helping them find their way home.

I’m called Bonita now. I like this name. I don’t think it’s the one from my mother, but it is the one from my new life with my new family, so I will keep it.

Eventually, D.D. says I can come to a big city called Boston. There is a place there that specializes in injuries like mine. My new therapist tells me they can help me make some progress. Maybe not speech, but I will learn to communicate with pictures and some words and maybe things like sign language. It turns out there are many kinds of talking in the world. I will find a way in the end.

D.D. says I can live with her and her husband, Alex. Her son, Jack, already wants to meet me. He has a dog named Kiko who eats shoes and runs like the wind. I want to meet Alex and Jack and Kiko, even if it means leaving this tiny place that has been both my prison and my home for so long.