Page 15 of Bad Mother

Kat took a step back, taking out her badge and holding it up. She smiled and gestured for him to open the door. His eyes were wide andscared, and he hesitated, but then the curtain fell back into place, and a second after that, they heard the lock disengaging from inside.

The child, a boy, was wearing Marvel pajamas, his hair sticking in all directions, his eyes rimmed in red as though he’d been crying. “Hi, sweetheart,” Kat said. “Is your mom or dad home?”

The little boy shook his head, his lip trembling slightly.

“Is anyone home?”

He shook his head again.

“You’re all alone here?”

He nodded.

“When did your mom leave, sweetie?”

“My grandmom left lots of days ago,” he said, a small hiccup following the words. Sienna’s heart squeezed.Oh God, this little boy is all alone? For...days? Surely not.She hoped to God the woman they’d found murdered under the overpass wasn’t his grandmother, but if she wasn’t, some monster had left this tiny boy to fend for himself.

“Is your grandmom’s name Reva?” Kat asked, and the little boy blinked and then nodded.

“Has your grandmom left you alone before?”

His eyes welled up. “She leaved me alone when she goes to work, but not for this many days.”

Her heart cracked.Not this many days.This small child shouldn’t have been left alone for a few hours, much less an entire workday. “How old are you?” Sienna asked gently.

His eyes lingered on her a moment before he answered. “F-five and a half.”

“What’s your name, honey?” Kat asked.

“Trevor.”

“Trevor, may we come inside? It’s okay. We want to help you.”

He looked briefly uncertain but then nodded, opening the door wider so they could enter. The apartment reeked. Of what combination of noxious odors, Sienna couldn’t quite say—old food, dirty laundry,a pet of some kind? What she could identify was the distinct smell of urine coming from Trevor. He was obviously unbathed and had likely wet himself at some point. But even though the collective stink made her want to run for the nearest exit that offered fresh, clean air to fill her lungs with, she was grateful for one thing: it didn’t smell like a dead body.

Trevor sat on the couch. It looked like he’d made a nest of sorts with three stuffed animals, a well-worn blanket, and the TV remote. The television was currently off, and there were fast-food wrappers and drink cups on the coffee table.

Sienna’s eyes did a quick sweep of the cluttered room. Every surface was covered withstuff: piles of magazines, opened mail and other papers, a Starbucks cup with the nameAllegrawritten on the side in black Sharpie, a bottle of sunscreen, a random tennis ball, an empty jar, what looked like a bracelet that had fallen apart, the beads scattered...God, there was too muchjunkto try to categorize. She didn’t understand people who lived like this. Then again, she was currently using cardboard boxes as furniture, so maybe she shouldn’t judge. Sienna’s gaze returned to the boy.

“What about your mom or dad, honey?” Kat asked, taking a seat on a chair across from the little boy.

“I don’t have a dad or mom, and my grandmom didn’t never come home from work.”

Oh no.Sienna’s heart sank, and her muscles tensed.

“Do you have a picture of your grandmom, Trevor?” Kat asked.

The boy nodded and then jumped up and walked into a room beyond before returning just as quickly, a photo frame in his hand. He handed it to Kat, and Sienna stepped forward so she was standing over Kat’s shoulder. The picture featured Trevor, smiling shyly, and his grandmother, leaning into the boy, one eye half-closed, an expression on her face that made Sienna think she’d been unprepared for the photo. An odd picture to put in a frame. But that fleeting reaction was quicklyreplaced by sadness. The woman in the photo was the same one she’d first seen dead and posed with a handful of cards.

Kat set the photo down gently on the coffee table. “Trevor, have you ever ridden in a detective car?”

His red-rimmed eyes widened. “No.”

“Would you like to?”

He smiled for the first time, the barely there, thin-lipped expression from the photograph, and nodded. But then his smile fell. “Do you know where my grandmom is?”

“No, honey,” Kat said. “But don’t you worry right now. We’re going to take care of you. You won’t be alone here anymore.”

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