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Brian trailed after her, and less than a minute after ringing the bell a harried woman appeared from the next room.
“Oh, Hayley,” she said, smiling when she saw them. “I heard a little girl’s father in one of your cases assaulted you.”
“He did. And he made it clear he’s not done with me yet. This is Brian Xander, he’s my bodyguard until the man is in custody.” Xander was a well-known last name in these circles since the Xander family and her own had been in law enforcement for many years as well as running a center for abused women and children, and from the look in the woman’s eyes it clicked with her, and she smiled at Brian.
“Who are you here to see?”
“Kinsley Turner.”
The woman checked a computer, then said, “She’s staying in room 212, but she might be in the playroom.”
“Thanks,” she said to the woman, then to Brian, “let’s check her room first.”
If she had been brought to a place like this after she and her sisters had been rescued instead of going home with her adoptive parents, she wouldn’t have felt comfortable around other children. While she and Kinsley had had very different experiences, she suspected the child would feel the same way.
When they walked into room 212 they did indeed find Kinsley Turner. The little girl was curled up on one of the bunk beds—there were four in the room—with a pile of books.
“Hey, Kinsley.” She smiled, unsure how she would be received by the child.
The little girl looked up, recognition flashed through her blue eyes, and a small smile lit her lips. She reached behind the pile of books and pulled out the brown teddy bear she’d given her the day she had removed Kinsley from her home.
“Oh, you still have Brownie.” She smiled and went to sit beside the girl. That Kinsley had kept the teddy bear had to be a good sign. “How does he like it here?”
“It’s okay,” Kinsley said slowly. “But I miss my house, and I miss my toys, and I miss Leah. The dark is scary, and Leah used to sing me a song when I got scared.”
“Well, you know what you do, when you get scared, you hold onto Brownie real tight and you remember when you and your sister used to bake brownies, okay?”
“Okay,” Kinsley agreed, her little face so serious.
In a way it was like looking in a mirror. When she was a little girl, she’d had the same serious, grown-up eyes that Kinsley did. The kind of eyes a child could only have when they lived through something no one—especially a little kid—should ever have to.
“When am I going to go home?” Kinsley asked.
Resisting the urge to just reassure the child, Kinsley needed honesty right now if she was going to survive the next few months. “I don’t know, honey. You might go back home, but you might not. If you don’t, you’ll probably stay here for a while and then maybe go and live with a nice family.” Hayley prayed it would be a nice family. If Kinsley couldn’t return home to her mother, she prayed that the child would be adopted by a wonderful family just like she and Arianna had been.
She couldn’t ask Kinsley any questions about Leah and her death because without a cop or a child advocate present anything that Kinsley told her could be considered inadmissible in court, but she could hang out here for a while, maybe read some stories, or play a game. It wasn't like she had anything else to do, she couldn’t go to work until this situation with Kinsley’s father was resolved, and she felt an affinity with the child because their early life experiences were so similar. Kinsley was the same age that she had been when she was rescued and adopted.
“You want to play for a while?” Hayley asked Kinsley.
The little girl smiled up at her. “Can you read to me?”
“I sure can.” As she stretched out onto the bed, resting back against the wall, just able to sit up under the top bunk, Kinsley immediately curled up at her side. She really hoped that the sweet little girl was lucky enough to end up with a family who would love and care for her like she deserved.
* * * * *
10:44 A.M.
“And I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night,” Hayley read the last line of T’was the Night Before Christmas and set the book down.
For the last almost two hours, he and Hayley had been playing with Kinsley Turner. They’d read books, played dolls, built a tower out of Lego, played go fish, and snap. They’d giggled and talked and had fun. Hayley was a natural with little kids, she was going to make a great mom one day.
Brian loved kids too, he couldn’t wait to have a child of his own. If he hadn't decided to go and work at his uncle’s private security firm, he would probably have gone into pediatrics. When Elise had given birth to her daughter, he had been so excited to become an uncle to the first little Xander grandchild. Eve would soon be adding baby number two to their clan. He hoped it wouldn’t be too much longer before he wasn't just Uncle Brian, but Dad Brian too.
“Can we read another story?” Kinsley asked.
He knew that Hayley would have said yes, but the longer she was out in the open the more she was in danger. Kinsley was at a group home. Maria Turner no doubt knew that her daughter was here, and since they knew she had been with her husband since Kinsley had been removed from their care there was every chance that Jay knew where his daughter was.
Which was why he hadn't wanted to come.
