Page 179 of Guardian Daddy

“I brought some tweezers,” Seth said.

“Here is your water, Polly,” Cate said as she returned. She handed Polly some water.

Polly smiled gratefully.

“Polly, you shouldn’t be making Cate run around after you,” Samantha scolded.

Polly slumped, her head dropping.

“I wasn’t running,” Cate said. “I walked. And Polly didn’t make me do anything. I offered.”

“Well, the letter?” Samantha asked impatiently.

Ethan carefully pulled it out of the plastic bag. “Good job putting it into this bag, Polly.”

Polly smiled shyly.

“Yeah, Pol, that was smart thinking.” Rhodes smiled at her.

“What does it say?” Samantha asked sharply.

Pretty little bird,

Fly, fly away

Or I’ll keep you in a gilded cage

As my sweet pet.

“That’s a terrible poem. It doesn’t even rhyme,” Cate said. “Or make much sense. Why would this person want to trap you?”

“Maybe because they want to use me to trap Rhodes. Or perhaps they’re shifting their attention to me,” Samantha said.

“I don’t know, that doesn’t make sense. And why are they calling you pretty now when before they seemed very angry at you before,” Cate murmured.

“Well, we’re hardly dealing with someone rational, are we?” Samantha snapped.

“We’ll add these to the rest of our evidence and I’ll dust them for prints,” Seth said. “I’ll also call Brody and Ink.”

Ethan nodded at him.

“Polly, thanks for bringing this over on a Sunday,” Rhodes told her. “You were right to be suspicious of it.”

“You’re welcome,” Polly whispered, staring down at her feet.

“She took three buses to get here,” Cate said. “That doesn’t seem very safe, especially at night.”

Rhodes frowned. “No, it doesn’t. I’ll give you a ride back.”

Suddenly, Samantha burst into tears.

Cate stepped back, bumping into Ethan. Her hands went up to her ears and he remembered that she hated loud noises.

He replaced her hands with his own as Rhodes gathered Samantha close to his chest.

“Perhaps you could take Samantha somewhere else,” Ethan suggested.

Rhodes looked over at Cate as Ethan turned her into his chest and picked her up. Rhodes nodded.

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