Page 96 of See How They Hide

Present Day

Kara sat across from Riley, who was still unmoving on the couch.

They were alone. Matt and Michael were working with security to identify the truck Anton escaped in. With luck, they’d get the plates and maybe a witness.

To Riley she said, “You’re safe here with me.”

Riley didn’t say anything, nor did she look at her.

Kara wasn’t good at playing games. She was good at playingparts. She could work undercover and adopt any number of personas. But she was straightforward when dealing with suspects and witnesses. She didn’t like coddling or placating or pretending that everything was going to be fine. But she had to find a way to get through to Riley.

She thought about Riley’s sketches. The girl had talent, but more than talent, she observed what couldn’t be easily seen. Like the sketch of Kara and Matt. She may have occasionally looked at Matt as Riley depicted, and Matt may have looked at her with that expression of...love. But they hadn’t been staring at each other like two lovesick teenagers, not in front of Riley. Which meant she picked up on an undercurrent and put two and two together.

Riley saw a lot more than most people. Maybe because she was an artist, she saw what people didn’t want to share.

Kara brought a chair over near the small couch, where she could still see the door, but also focus on Riley.

“We need to establish trust,” Kara said.

Riley blinked, looked at her. “I trust you.”

“When you saw Anton, you couldn’t move. I pushed you up those damn stairs, and if Anton had a gun, he had the time to shoot you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Okay. Good. I need you to listen to me.”

“I have been.”

“Listen again. I will protect you. When I can’t—when I need to sleep—my team will protect you. Sloane, Michael, Matt, they’re all trained to make sure you stay safe.”

“Not Dean?”

Kara smiled, not surprised she had singled him out. “Him, too, but he hasn’t been in the field in a long time, and he’s not a part of my team. I’m not going to leave you with him, not until I trust him. He’s been a good cop, has a record of helping people like you free themselves from places like Havenwood. But he’s been sitting behind a desk for too long.”

“Oh.”

“When I say run, you run. When I say stop, you stop. If I say drop, you drop. Do you understand me?”

“Yes. I’m sorry,” she said again.

“We’ve already established that,” Kara said. “I don’t do psychology well. I’m sure our team shrink will tell me I have to talk to you this way or that way and she might be right. But I think you would know if I lied. You see people as they are.”

Riley didn’t say anything, but looked down at the closed sketchbook she held tightly on her lap.

“I know you’ve grown up in an environment that is completely foreign to me,” Kara said. “I lived in Los Angeles for twelve years, and I loved having people everywhere to the point that individuals disappeared in the masses. I also lived in a very small town in Washington—not as small as Havenwood, but small enough that I recognized half the people at the grocery store and knew everyone in our neighborhood by name. One thing we have in common is our grandmothers. I love my grams. She was there for me when my mother left because I was cramping her style. You loved your grandmother. Mine is still alive, and I miss her because I can’t be there all the time. So I know you really miss yours.”

“If she was still alive, I never would have left Havenwood.”

Kara believed her. “We have a woman who is a person of interest in the attempted murder of Andrew Gardner.”

Riley frowned. “You said he was okay.”

“I said he was alive and in the hospital. I don’t know if he’s going to be okay. He tried to kill himself. I told you that yesterday. Last night, someone tried to kill him. That is the reason we transferred him. Other people didn’t want to tell you because they thought you might get scared, and I agreed with them at the time. Now I think you need to know. So you can protect yourself.”

Riley frowned, her bottom lip quivering.

“I need to know right now if you don’t care about your life.”

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