Say the Word(49)

Her eyes opened slowly. “There’s a man,” she began, visibly shaken. “He watches us — the young girls. We don’t know why… But he’s always there. He’s always watching.” Her breath caught in her throat. “I told Vera not to walk by herself. I told her not to go.”

I nodded, my chest beginning to ache with foreboding at the direction her words were taking. I didn’t want to hear the rest of this story any more, since it likely didn’t have a happy ending for Vera — but I knew that I needed to.

“She didn’t listen. It was Roza’s birthday, and she wanted to get ingredients for a cake. To surprise Roza, you know?” Miri’s eyes filled with tears that quickly spilled over her lashes, leaving wet trails streaking down her cheekbones.

I squeezed her hand a little tighter, transfixed by her hushed words. Blood pounded in my veins as I watched tears drip from her chin onto the tabletop, polka-dotting it with tiny puddles of grief.

“She’s my cousin. My best friend. We do everything together.” Miri’s voice was hollow, her expression one of clear self-blame. “Normally, I would’ve gone with her that day. I should have been with her. But I had the flu, so I stayed home in bed. And she never came back.”

The ache in my chest began to spread through the entire cavity, as though someone had sucker-punched me in the stomach and knocked the breath from my lungs. I fought hard to keep the tears out of my eyes, looking up at the ceiling for nearly a minute to stem their flow. I had to be strong — Miri was practically a child, and she was somehow managing to maintain control.

“What—” My voice cracked, betraying my internal struggle. “What happened?”

“The man,” Miri said. “The one who watches. It was him.”

“How do you know?”

There was a beat of silence, as our eyes caught once again across the tabletop.

“Because,” Miri whispered. “He takes all the girls.”

Five words. Eighteen letters. They changed everything.

The air around me seemed to still, her words triggering within me a cataclysmic reaction that set my world atilt on its axis and blanketed my atmosphere in an overcast cloud cover that shaded everything a hue darker. When I once again found the ability to speak, my words were a study of restraint, each pushed out through my lips without emotion.

“Vera wasn’t the first to disappear.” It wasn’t a question; it was an affirmation.

Miri nodded.

“How many gi—?” My voice broke on the last word, and I quickly reined myself in. “How many others have been taken?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Miri whispered. “Three or four from our neighborhood, maybe more.”

Three or four. Maybe more. I clasped my hands together in my lap beneath the table where Miri couldn’t see them, and felt blood well as my nails cut harshly into my palms.

“Do you know what happens to them, Miri?” I swallowed. “After they’re taken?”

Miri shook her head. “Nothing good,” she murmured sadly. “They never come back.”

“Why aren’t the police involved?” I asked, trying to reconcile what I was hearing with the world I thought I lived in. This was America - girls didn’t just disappear here, without anyone noticing. If this were true, where were the news crews? Where were the human rights activists, with their picket signs and protests? Surely, this must be a mistake. Some grand misunderstanding.

My paltry reassurances sounded trivial even in my own mind.

“We can’t trust the police,” Miri whispered. “Can’t trust anyone.”

“Why not, Miri?”

“Santos,” she told me. “The man who watches…”

I nodded, storing that name away in my mind.

“He is the police.”





Chapter Seventeen





Now


“So she just left?”

“Yeah,” I told Fae, shaking my head back and forth. “She dropped the bomb about Santos and then said she had to go. She was gone within minutes.”

“You didn’t try to stop her?” Fae asked.

“What was I supposed to do, tackle her?”

She shrugged lightly before pouring us each a glass of wine and turning to face me on the couch. “So what’s next?”

“Well, Miri promised that she’d meet me again at the coffee shop on Tuesday night, after I get out of work. Hopefully she’ll be able to tell me more then.”

Fae was staring at me intently. “Aren’t you going to talk to someone? The authorities, or maybe just someone over the age of fifteen who knows what’s been going on?”

“You saw those women in Two Bridges — they didn’t exactly throw down the welcome mat or invite us in for supper. I doubt they’d be very helpful if I showed up again. And if Miri is right — if the police are involved in this — who knows how high up the corruption goes? I could end up causing more problems for these girls than I’d solve.”

Fae sighed. “Well, that doesn’t exactly give us many options.”

“Tell me about it,” I said, taking a sip of my Merlot. “All I know is, there’s a story here.”

“What if she’s making it all up?” Fae asked. “What if Vera ran away with her boyfriend and she’s jealous? Or what if she’s a compulsive liar? She’s young. Maybe she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”