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I scrunch my face trying to recall. “‘Toda sola,’ I think.”
Maceo squeezes my hands tight. “Are you sure? Are you sure it wasn’ttutto solo? They are very close and mean the same thing, but the second is Italian.”
My face twists up in memory. “I’m not sure,” I admit.
“What’s it mean?” Eagle asks.
“‘All alone,’” Maceo translates.
“Did he say anything else?” Gauge asks.
I nod. “‘Ven aquí’, something, something, something.”
Maceo’s eyes narrow with fury. “Are you sure it wasn’tvieni qui. Again, it’s Italian and means the same thing, but you could have misheard and thought it was Spanish. It’s important to know which one because it would eliminate or point to a suspect.”
“Okay, again, what does it mean? Not everyone here speaks more than one language,” Eagle gripes.
“‘Come here,’” Gauge offers, looking as stressed as Maceo.
I shake my head and start to cry. “I—I don’t know,” I stutter on a sob.
Maceo grabs me from the stool and holds me to his chest, kissing the top of my head and shushing me softly. “It’s okay.”
“This doesn’t rule either of them out. We need more to go on,” Chase says to no one in particular before looking at me over his thick black framed glasses. “Did he say anything else? The smallest detail could help.”
Choking back my tears, I recall more. “He said my name, but it wasn’t right.”
“What do you mean?” Gauge questions with furrowed brows.
“He called me ‘Josefina.’”
Maceo stiffens around me, his arms constricting like a boa. He’s shaking, really shaking, and because I’m in his embrace, I’m vibrating right along with him. It takes me a moment for me to register he’s angry,no, he’s furious.
“I’M GOING TO KILL HIM!” he roars.
