Chapter13
E?ARL, IS ANYTHING WRONG?” SAIDDecker anxiously.
“It’s Sandy, Amos.”
Decker felt his gut clinch. “Sandy! What’s the matter? Is she okay?”
“I tried to talk to her about her mom. But I could make no headway.”
Decker relaxed. “Earl, the police department has some really good grief counselors. They can talk to Sandy—”
A clearly desperate Earl Lancaster interrupted. “We’ve tried that, Amos, it was no good. The thing is—”
“What?”
“Sandy wants to talk toyou.”
“To me!”
Decker looked up as Andrews started the car. White was looking at Decker curiously.
He lowered his voice. “Why does she want to talk to me?”
“Because she says you never lie to her.”
“The thing is, Earl, I’m down in Florida on a case. I can’t get away right now.”
“That’s okay. She just wants totalkto you. Can you do it now? She’s very insistent.”
Decker looked up at White, who was still staring at him. “She wants to talk to me now? What am I supposed to say?”
“That—” Earl’s voice dropped. “That her mom had to go away but will always be looking down on her, watching her, something like that.” Decker heard a noise. “All right, Sandy, all right, here he is.”
Decker heard some shuffling as the phone was passed over.
Then Sandy’s voice came on. “Are you Amos Decker?”
Decker thought about clicking off. But then he imagined Sandy’s small, hopeful face and he just couldn’t. “Yeah, Sandy, this is Amos Decker.”
“I want my mommy, Amos Decker, but nobody will tell me where she is. Will you tell me where she went? Please?”
As per her nature, Sandy was speaking loudly, and by the expression on White’s face she could hear it all. She noted Decker staring at her helplessly, and quickly looked away.
Decker said, “She…your…mommy had to go away, Sandy.”
“No! That’s what they said, but Mommy would never, ever go away without saying goodbye to me. She loves me. You’re lying to me and you never lie.” She began to cry.
Decker thought about the words Earl had suggested he use but he knew that Sandy would see right through that and things would only get worse. She might have mental disabilities, but in some ways she was far sharper than he was. And this was one of those ways because it dealt right with the heart.
“Sandy, will you listen to me?”
“Not if you say Mommy went away, I won’t,” she said in a choked voice.
“Do you…” Decker could barely believe he was about to say this, but he could think of nothing else. He didn’t want to fail Sandy, as he had her mother. “Do you remember my daughter, Molly? You two played together.”
Sandy’s tone instantly brightened. “Sure, I remember Molly. She was very nice to me.”
“And then you remember that Molly went away one day, right?”