“One mistake and I’m here,” Kari said in a low tone, shame radiating from
every pore. “I made one mistake and now I’m at a place so low that God can’t
even find me.”
“Don’t believe that,” the blonde said in a hushed whisper, and for a moment
Kari thought the woman wanted to say more. A police officer who’d probably
seen things worse than Kari had ever laid eyes still believed in God?
“Look at me.” Kari held her arms out in front of her letting the woman get a
good look at a sampling of what she had endured. “Who’s gonna love me like
this?” she asked, more about the damage done to her soul than the bruises and
welts on her body. “Who’s gonna care about me? With the things I’ve done. With
the things they made me do.” She lowered her hands to the table, brittle nails
once polished with an innocent pink blush now broken to the quick.
“At least I was lucky,” she admitted, trying to find a shred of light in the
darkness. “When Mindy got pregnant, he beat the baby right out of her. She
lost that baby and her life. When Kimmie made a client angry by refusing to
do something he demanded, Daddy put a bullet in her knees and said she’d
be perfect for clients who preferred a cripple.” Kari lifted her head and locked
gazes with the woman. “Bet you never thought there were men who wanted
handicapped children. But there were. You can’t imagine some of the things they
wanted from us.” She inhaled again; finding some balance, then let it out in a
long stream. “I didn’t care what happened to me, but that little girl …”
“You listen to me,” the blonde said, and this time she took Kari’s hands in her
own. They were soft, warm and the only gentle touch she’d had in the last few
hours. “First, you’re wrong. God cares. Second, I’m going to need you to adjust
your story a little.”
Kari’s head whipped toward the woman, taking in the furrowed brow, eyes the
color of a morning sky, lips with a hard edge, and ivory skin that reddened with
every mention of the child Kari had saved or hint of the danger she’d been in.
I cut him until I felt better …
This woman had been the one who’d taken the knife from Kari’s hand, then
managed to have the decency to cover Kari’s blood-splattered body with a sheet
from the medical examiner’s van when the crime lab had taken her clothes for
evidence.
70 Naleighna Kai Literary Cafe Magazine July/August 2017