Where the Forest Meets the Stars(82)


“Did you pull out your IV?” Jo asked.
She nodded. “I wanted to find you and Gabe.”
“We were out in the waiting room. You have to stop pulling out your IV. It hurts when they put it back, doesn’t it?”
“Yes! They’re mean here! They held me down!”
“They had to because we couldn’t sedate her,” Lenora explained.
Because they had to keep her awake for their statement.
“I want to leave!” Ursa said. “I hate it here! I want to go with you and Gabe!”
“You aren’t well enough yet,” Jo said.
“Can I go with you when I am? Please?”
Jo wouldn’t lie. “I wish you could, but it’s not up to me.”
Dr. Shaley pressed her red lips tight, clearly unhappy with Jo’s answer.
“Who is it up to?” Ursa asked.
“You have visitors, Ursa,” Lenora said to distract her. “Do you mind if they come in?”
Ursa turned a suspicious stare at the door. “Who?”
“Do you remember Josh Kellen?”
“The man with the gun?”
“He wears it because he’s a police officer,” Dr. Shaley said. “He’s one of the good guys.”
She’d said it in a voice one used to speak to a toddler. And Ursa was smarter than all of them.
Lenora stepped outside and told Kellen and McNabb to come in. Jo looked at Gabe. He seemed as dismayed as she was. Two cops, a counselor, and a shrink would stare at Ursa while she talked about how her mother had died.
Ursa’s eyes flooded with fear. She knew why they were there.
Lenora approached the bed. “Ursa . . . Jo and Gabe want you to tell them what happened the night you ran away.”
Ursa turned a stunned look on Jo, as if she suddenly saw her as the enemy. Jo nodded at Gabe, gesturing him to one side of Ursa’s bed while she sat on the other. He saw what she had in mind. He sat close to Ursa, his body and Jo’s obstructing her view of the other four people in the room.
Jo held Ursa’s hand. “Everyone wants to keep you safe,” she said. “And to do that, the police have to know what happened the night you ran away from home.”
“You know why I left Hetrayeh. I left my home to get my PhD.”
“Ursa . . . I know Hetrayeh is Earth spelled backwards.”
“I had to do that! People on Earth can’t say what my planet is called. We don’t use words.”
“You told me your name backwards, too.”
“Don’t you get it? I do everything Ursa used to do. Her brain is my brain.”
“Joanna . . . ,” Dr. Shaley said.
Jo looked at her.
“We don’t need to talk about this right now. I’m helping her with it.”
Jo turned back to Ursa. “They need to know what happened because they’re afraid to let you out of here. They’re worried there are other men who might be after you.”
She looked at Gabe. “You killed them.”
“Did I kill them all?” he asked.
She nodded.
“What about the man we saw at the restaurant?” Jo said.
Ursa didn’t answer.
“The police worry he might be dangerous. They’re afraid for you—and so are Gabe and I.”
“Gabe killed the really bad ones,” Ursa said.
“But why did the man in the restaurant call them and tell them you were there?”
“He was their friend.”
Detective Kellen stepped closer, unfortunately drawing Ursa’s attention away from Jo. “Do you know the man’s name?” Kellen asked.
“Tell him,” Jo said. “It’s okay.”
“If I tell him, will he leave?”
“No. The police have to know what happened to your mother.”
“I don’t have a mother,” Ursa said in a quiet voice.
Jo squeezed her hand. “Please get this thing out. It’s hurting you to keep it inside. Don’t do it for them or for me and Gabe. Do it for yourself.”
“I told them I would only tell them if they let me live with you and Tabby in Urbana.”
“We’re working on that,” Lenora said.
Jo bit back an urge to call her a liar.
“I’ll run away if you don’t let me,” Ursa told Lenora.
“I know. You told me a few times,” Lenora said.
Jo put her hand on Ursa’s cheek. “Tell us so we can get you out of this hospital without being afraid for you. Forget they’re all here and just say it to Gabe and me. Why did you run away that night? Did something happen to your mother?”
“She wasn’t my mother.”
“Portia wasn’t your mother?”
Ursa reacted to the name, apparently surprised that Jo knew it. But Jo couldn’t worry about breaking one of their rules. She had to follow her instincts. “Why do you say Portia wasn’t your mother?”
“Because she was Ursa’s mother. I wasn’t in Ursa’s body yet. I didn’t take it over until after the men killed her.”
“You mean they killed your mother?”
“I meant Ursa.”
“What about Portia?”
“They killed her first.”
“Did you see that happen?”
“Ursa saw it happen. And when I went in her body, I saw it because it was still in her brain.”
Jo somehow kept going without crying. “Tell me what you saw in her brain. Tell me everything that happened that night.”
Ursa looked away from Jo. She grabbed the stuffed cat Tabby had given her, the only distraction at hand, and she tilted her head backward as she spread the plush animal’s body over her face.

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