I heard him coming out of his office and released his wife so fast she almost bumped into the wall, which made her laugh. “Take it easy Todd, his bark’s worst than his bite.”
“Maybe with you, but with me, not so much. Where’s Caitie?”
“Oh, Catalina came and got her as soon as you left to go with her dad.”
I looked up towards the stairs not sure that I should head up there again.
“Go ahead, it’s fine. Caitie will show you to the guestroom so you can bring your stuff in and get settled. Dinner will be ready in a little while, oh, and we’re having company this evening.”
She hurried off somewhere just as her husband came down the stairs. He didn’t even look at me as he passed and I waited until he was gone to head back up to Caitie’s room.
CAITLIN
“What is it Catalina? I have to keep an eye on daddy’s office, Todd’s in there.” She dragged me along to my room as if I hadn’t spoken.
“I told you I was going to tell you something remember.” She pulled me into the room and closed the door after looking around to make sure we weren’t being followed. So dramatic this one.
“You can’t tell daddy that I told you, you can’t tell anyone or I’ll never tell you anything ever again.”
“Okay-okay, what is it? Is this about why daddy refuses to let me go to college early?” She nodded and sat on the bed, patting the space next to her for me to sit.
It’s strange, but then again maybe not, but I didn’t once think of doubting her, that she did in fact know something. Catalina has been different since the day she was born and that’s a fact. I used to be jealous when she first came along, since I’d been the only girl in a sea of boys for the longest.
But she and daddy have a whole different kind of relationship than the one he and I share. Not that he loves her any less of course, it’s just that, well, I think he just might be a little bit afraid of her. The two of them butt heads more than anyone else in the family and he’s more often than not trying to get away from her, whereas with me, he’s always in my room asking me how my day went.
That sounds strange, like daddy doesn’t like her, but nothing could be further from the truth. I guess you have to see it to understand what I’m trying to explain; the bottom line is they just have a very unique father-daughter relationship.
“Okay so tell me.”
“There are some bad men, no bad people, who go around taking girls and selling them to other people. Daddy and the uncles found out and there’s something about you being in a book but I haven’t found the book yet.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t understand.” She pushed her hand under her shirt and pulled out a sheet of paper she had stuck down the front of her pants. I unfolded it when she passed it to me. “Where did you get this?”
She put her finger to her lips to silence me since my voice had gone up an octave. “From daddy’s computer.”
“How…?” I looked down at the piece of paper and saw the name of the group that had sent me the confusing message all those months ago.
That wasn’t all though, she’d done some research and found out a bit more about the group. “Catalina, how did you do all this?”
“I have a friend who tells me how to do stuff.”
“What friend?”
“You don’t know her, she’s part of the gifted program, we met online in the chat room but we might be going to the same school next year if daddy says it’s okay. I already told the principal to tell him but who knows, I think she’s afraid of daddy.”
I looked at her spellbound for a minute before going back to reading her notes. Thankfully she’d typed them out because her handwriting is atrocious, but the things she had written here made no sense, especially for an eight year old to know and understand.
“They’re a human trafficking ring?”
“No-no, not just that, not just them. See…” She pointed to the paper. “The bad guys daddy and the uncles are after and these other groups are all part of the same group, they just have different names. Understand?”
I had to think about what she was saying and try to follow along on the paper where she had a graph set up like a family tree. There was one group at the top with lines and arrows pointing to two more groups, which then branched off into others.
“Wait, does daddy know about all this?”
“Not yet!”
“So how do you know?”
“It took a lotta work but my friend Lily helped, she knows about them too.”