Chapter 8: I Picked Her Up Before The Last Bell
I left the mansion at two thirty to get Sofia, even though school didn't end until three fifteen. I told Mrs. Keller I wanted to be early and she didn't ask why. She just handed me the spare key to the garage apartment and said, "Take your time."
I drove our old Civic down the county road past the vineyards and the new subdivision with the half-built model homes. The elementary school parking lot was already filling with parents in SUVs, but the pickup line hadn't started moving yet. I parked and signed in at the front office. The secretary knew me by now.
"Early pickup for Sofia Reyes?" she said.
"Yes," I said. "Family appointment."
She called the classroom. I stood by the counter with my hands in my jacket pockets, my right wrist hidden. The bandage itched. When Sofia came down the hall with her backpack half-zipped and her pink water bottle swinging, she saw my face and stopped smiling the way kids do when they sense an adult is holding something.
In the car I didn't drive right away. I turned the heat on and let it idle.
"Sofia," I said, "do you remember when you called for help yesterday on my phone? The pretty lady part?"
She nodded and looked at her shoes. "I heard you on the phone with Mrs. Keller. You said the pretty lady said you would disappear."
My chest went tight. "You heard that yesterday? While you were at after-care?"
"I was by your phone," she whispered. "It was on speaker while you were folding towels. She said if you told, I would disappear. I thought she meant like magic."
I reached over and fixed her seatbelt even though it was already fixed. "That was Bianca," I said. "She's not here anymore. She won't be coming back to the house where we live. But I need you to tell me exactly what you heard, so I can keep you safe."
Sofia twisted the strap of her backpack. "She said, 'She said my daughter would disappear if I told.' Then you were quiet."
That was my own voice she was quoting back to me. From the night before, when I had been standing in the kitchen with Alessandro and finally said it out loud.
"That's right," I said. "That is what she said to me. And I told Mr. Alessandro. And he believed me. Mrs. Keller believes me too."
"Are we in trouble?" she asked.
"No," I said. "But we have new rules. Only me or Mrs. Keller picks you up. Not anyone else, even if they say I asked them to. If someone you don't know says to go with them, you tell your teacher. Okay?"
She nodded, serious now. "Okay."
We made a pact there in the parking lot before the other cars started honking. We pressed our pinkies together the way we did when she lost a tooth.
"If anything scares you, you tell me right away," I said. "Even if someone says don't tell."
"Even if it's a pretty lady?" she asked.
May you like
"Even then," I said.
She leaned over and hugged me across the console, careful of my wrist. The bell rang then, loud through the school walls, and the parking lot filled with kids shouting. I pulled out of the space and drove back toward the mansion, but in my head I was already picturing the apartment we hadn't yet found, with a different parking lot where I wouldn't have to worry about who was watching the pickup line.
