Bringing All the Bad, стр. 17
The woman went silent all of the sudden, staring at Mel. Or rather, she was staring at the space around Mel, her eyes flitting from spot to spot as if she saw something physical. Mel resisted the urge to look back and see what was there. Seeing weird things wasn’t actually weird for victims. It happened when the brain raced too long while in a fearful state. For a mere fraction of a second, the woman’s face looked eager, like she wanted to reach out and touch whatever it was she saw back there.
The woman squeezed her eyes shut, shook her head, then opened her eyes again. Whatever it was she thought she saw must have been gone, because she shook her head again and plopped down into the chair.
Mel leaned over and asked, “Are you okay?”
The woman grimaced. “No, I’m not okay, but I’m not going to pass out or anything. I just…just thought I saw something. I haven’t been sleeping.”
Paul and Mel shared a glance, then Mel seated herself in the other chair at her soon-to-be ex-partner’s desk. “I know you’re very upset and you have every right to be, but the noise doesn’t really help anyone to help you. It interferes with that process. We can better help you when you help us to do it. Can you stay calm for me? For us? Take a deep breath for me. Can you do that?”
Looking into Mel’s eyes, the woman drew in a shaky breath, then let it out.
“Again.”
She did, and this time it was less shaky. The breath she blew out smelled sour with fear and anger.
“Good. Now, let’s start again.”
The First Girl
Baby was leaning against a tree in the park, letting the dappled sunshine play against her face through the new leaves. Spring had been promising to come for a while, but today, it finally sprang. The park was full of people enjoying the first day of the year that didn’t require a big coat. Sweaters and hoodies and light jackets had been brought out to play, the big puffy coats of winter finally left behind in closets.
Mel watched the people and Baby. Rather than ruin yet another restaurant for the future, she’d brought sandwiches and soft drinks. They’d eaten outside. It was still chilly, but it didn’t feel that way as long as they stayed in the sunshine. It was even better because this was a city park. No ads allowed. It was all just new spring grass and trees and walkways.
She’d decided not to push Baby, to let her tell it as she felt like it. The girl looked as calm and unflappable as ever, but Mel couldn’t see inside her. For all she knew, she was a boiling mass of pain. That was probably more likely than this calm exterior she projected.
The day had begun to lull her, so she startled when Baby said, “Would you like to hear about Raymond?”
Baby’s eyes were still closed and her face tilted upward. The speckled light danced across her face as the leaves rustled in the lightest of breezes above her. Mel watched her for a moment, then answered, “If you can tell me.”
The girl paused for long enough that Mel thought she might have decided she couldn’t share the story after all. Eventually, she said, “He found me when I was swapping hotels. Things weren’t like they are now. I could usually last a few days in a hotel, sometimes a lot longer. No one in a nice place would ever expect a well-dressed girl to be alone, so they simply never questioned it. Well, not right away anyway. I could tell I was getting noticed in my latest hotel, so I grabbed my bag from where I’d stashed it and was ready to move on to the next one. I had started to think about winter by then. Most of those places shut down over the winter, you know.”
She opened one eye and looked at Mel, so she said, “Holiday season? Summer hotels?”
“Right,” Baby answered, then shut her eye again. “I guess he’d noticed me. Maybe he saw me swapping hotels. Things were starting to get bad in other places with the Depression, but in that place, there were still people holidaying. I was walking along near the beach, considering my options, when he simply started walking beside me. I took no notice of him at first, hoping he’d go away, but he didn’t. Eventually, he said he knew I was alone and asked if I wanted him to get me a room. I knew it wasn’t right, but I was tired of looking over my shoulder, of sleeping with one ear open in case someone came to whatever empty room I was in. I told him yes.”
“So you went with him?”
She sighed heavily. “I did.”
“What happened then?”
Baby shrugged. “I realized I wasn’t going to be able to leave.”
“I’m sorry that happened,” Mel said, wishing she could turn back the clock and be there to stop that moment from ever happening. Even if it was a fictitious moment, she wished she could erase it.
With a smile, Baby opened her eyes and said, “Thank you for saying that.” The smile faded and she went on. “He had a lot of women. Not girls, women. They went from town to town and they worked for him willingly. I was different. I think he saw an opportunity. Later on, I understood a little better. The younger women were often dressed up like they were younger girls, bows in their hair, curls, frilly dresses that showed their knees. You know the type I mean?”
Mel did. She nodded.
“I think Raymond saw an opportunity for the real deal. I don’t think he had any idea that I’d just come from a house where that had happened to me for years and years. I think he simply saw a pretty girl of the right age with no adults to interfere. At first, I