Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(80)
Maya wrenched herself away from the deputy who’d been holding on to her arm—not very tightly, since she appeared so slight and harmless—and threw herself down at Callahan’s feet in a theatrical move guaranteed to draw all eyes.
“Please, Peter, you can’t believe him! I’m innocent! I was passing by the Turners’ house and saw the sheriff’s car hidden halfway up a vacant driveway. When I spotted him hiding up in a tree, I went in closer to see what he was doing, and then,” she paused dramatically, “I looked through the fence and saw him climb down into the yard and grab poor little Davy!”
There was a unified gasp from the gathered crowd, although Molly, and Nina behind her, just rolled their eyes and most of the deputies seemed unimpressed by her story.
Callahan helped Maya up from the floor. “What happened then?”
She fluttered her lashes, blinking back tears that only served to magnify the beauty of her stormy gray eyes. “I didn’t even think of my own safety, I just ran back there to try and stop him. I was going to yell for help, but he Tasered me, and threw me down into the mud! If Mrs. Turner hadn’t come out and seen us, I just don’t know what would have happened to me.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Liam said. He turned to Davy, getting down on one knee so he was the same height as the child, and speaking gently. “Honey, can you tell these people what happened to you? It’s okay, you’re safe now.”
The little boy peered shyly out from behind his mother’s leg and shook his head. “I don’t ’member,” he whispered. “Trevor was being a bad dog and I had to go outside in the rain and get him, so Mommy wouldn’t yell.” His mother squeezed him even tighter, sobbing quietly. “I saw a shiny light in a puddle. And then Mommy was holding me and crying. I don’t ’member anything else.”
Liam wasn’t surprised, although the boy’s lack of recollection might complicate things. Even a few seconds under the influence of whatever that ball of light was had scrambled his brains. He couldn’t imagine what it would do to a small boy at full force.
“That’s okay, Davy,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. You did just fine.”
He turned to Callahan, and said, “You are welcome to call Ms. Freeman a lawyer, but in the meanwhile, she’s going to sit in a cell where she belongs, and she is going to tell us what she did with those other children.”
Baba’s grim face stared at Maya from a few feet away, making it clear that a cell was the safest place for her. Her arms were crossed over her chest as if to keep them from involuntarily reaching out and strangling the other woman.
As Liam put out a hand to take Maya, lifting her up off the floor, she said plaintively, “It wasn’t me, I swear! It was him all along. He’s been stealing children and killing them, and now he’s using me as a scapegoat to take the blame. As sheriff, he’s got the perfect cover—pretending to search for the children he’s already murdered and looking for new victims along the way. No one would ever suspect him.” She paused, took a deep breath, and added, “What’s more, he killed his own child three years ago, and I can prove it!”
*
LIAM FELT AS though someone had slapped him, the blood draining from his face like water from a breached dike. His fingers tightened involuntarily around Maya’s wrist and she let out a gasp of pain that was only partly feigned.
“That’s enough,” he said in a voice like sandpaper. “More than enough.” Out of long habit, he schooled his features into a mask that hid the anguish ripping through his heart, and marched her over to the nearest intake desk. With an efficient twist, he unlocked the manacle from one slender wrist and reattached it to the circle imbedded there for the purpose, placing her firmly in the seat facing the desk.
“Watch her,” he said through gritted teeth to the deputy who had allowed her to slip away earlier. “As if your life depended on it. I will be right back. You can start on her fingerprints while you wait for me.”
He turned back to talk to Peter Callahan, only to see the tall businessman disappearing out the door. On his way to go get a fancy lawyer, no doubt. Fine. Whatever.
Clive Matthews was busy reassuring the parents of the missing children and his fellow board members that every measure would be taken to discover the location of the other victims. His smug and self-congratulatory air made it seem as though he personally had been responsible for the apprehension of the culprit, while at the same time snidely insinuating that if Liam had been a little more on the ball, they would have caught her long before this. It all made Liam sick.
He swallowed bile as Baba came up and laid a gentle hand on his arm. Her touch seemed to send waves of comfort straight to his battered heart.
“No one believed her,” Baba said. “They could see she was just trying to shift the blame to you. She’s a desperate woman, and desperate people will say anything to try to talk their way out of trouble.” Her amber eyes gazed at him with concern.
He shrugged, as if Maya’s words—and the momentary doubt on the faces all around them—hadn’t stung like aftershave on a fresh cut. “I know. And at least we’ve got her. She won’t steal any more children, and that’s what matters. That, and getting her to tell us where she stashed the first three.” Across the room, he could see Belinda Shields and her parents, standing together by Belinda’s desk and glaring at Maya.