Part 26 (1/2)
Jamie nodded slowly. ”Okay, then someone else. You can tell me who.”
He shook his head.
Tony s.h.i.+fted against the doorway but said nothing.
Jamie turned to the candy bars. ”I think my favorite is Twix. Is that yours?”
He shook his head quickly.
She lifted another. ”Snickers?”
He hesitated, then shook his head again. ”Reese's,” he said, p.r.o.nouncing it ”Rees-eys.”
She lifted the peanut b.u.t.ter cups, cold to her touch, pushed the package toward him. ”There are two in there-one for each name. You tell me your first name, you get one. Another for your last name.”
His gaze narrowed. ”You going to call those folks with the foster houses?”
She glanced at Tony, then back to the boy. ”Tonight you can stay here with me and Tony.”
She didn't want to promise anything else. If the boy knew what a foster home was, he'd been in one. And that meant there might not be a family waiting for him.
He started to reach for the candy bar.
She pushed it toward him.
”Zephenaya.”
She frowned.
The boy looked up at her, furrowed his brow. ”That's my name. It's from the bible.”
”Your first name?”
He nodded. ”You can call me Z. That's what Shawna calls me.”
”Shawna's your friend?”
”No,” he said as though not knowing who Shawna was made her stupid. ”My sister. You know. That's why I came here.”
Jamie nodded. Now they were getting somewhere. ”Where is Shawna?”
He shrugged. ”Last time I saw her was with you.”
Jamie frowned. She didn't remember her. Child victims weren't usually handled by s.e.x Crimes. ”How old is she?”
He didn't answer. Instead he focused on the candy bar and took small drinks from the c.o.ke.
Jamie tore open the Reese's Peanut b.u.t.ter Cups and pushed them toward Zephenaya. ”Here, Z. You can have one.”
He reached in and took one of the brown cups out. Using both hands, he unwrapped it like a present.
”How old are you, Z?”
”Ten,” he said matter-of-factly.
d.a.m.n, he was small.
”How old are you?”
Jamie laughed and Z smiled sheepishly.
”She's almost forty,” Tony called out.
She shot him a glare. ”I'm thirty-four, thank you very much.”
”Forty,” Z said. ”What's that come after?”
”Thirty-nine,” Jamie told him.
He nodded slowly, chewing. ”Forty. I forget that one.” Z glanced out at the back of the house and Jamie wondered what he was thinking about. She glanced over at Tony, but he was focused on the kid, a half smile on his face.
He hesitated then and looked up at her. ”I got something to tell you.”
”Okay.”
”It's about your dog.”
Jamie felt her stomach clench. Not trusting herself to speak, she simply nodded.
”I was here when he got hurt.”
She nodded again. ”What happened?”
He shook his head. ”I didn't do it.”
”Who did?”
”A man. A white man with a knife.”
He looked over at Tony. ”Wasn't him, though. Another white man.” He turned to Jamie. ”Wasn't the first time someone been in your yard, neither. Another time a man was looking in your windows, but it wasn't the same one as hurt the dog.”
Jamie considered who might have been watching her house, suppressed a shudder. ”The one with the knife, what did he look like?”
”Lightish hair and kinda small. He came around the house when I was getting ready for bed. It was real late. I was tired and my eyes get all itchy. I'd gone to take a-to do some business by the tree and he came around the house.”
The description sounded like Scott Scanlan. ”He had a knife?”