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“You never miss a beat, Wil,” Rick said gruffly, a hint of a smile on his hard face. “And you’re right. I did need something from you, if you don’t mind. I mean, if you’re not busy.”
A crackle, and then, “Shoot, sug. Until this is over, we’re all on duty, whether I’m at home or the station house. Busy nothin’, right? What can I do for you?”
“Remember that business card that Sly brought in for evidence? It’s down at the station house.”
“I do.”
“I was hoping you could read the back out for me so the good doctor could hear what it said. I remember some of it, but…”
“I gotcha. You don’t want to get it wrong for Lucas.” Raising her voice, as though she knew he was close by but wanted to make sure he heard him anyway. “I can’t belive what’s been going on. I’m so sorry for the circumstances, but it’s still good to hear you’re back in Hamlet. You got that sweet little wife with you?”
Lucas had to resist the urge to snap and tell Willie to just get the damn card. She worked down at the station house under Sheriff McKinley for years, then stayed on when Caitlin took over as sheriff. Same thing when Sly was appointed the new sheriff by the town council. He’d known her since he was a boy, and usually didn’t mind the boisterous older woman.
Usually, though, he wasn’t on the edge of his patience, trying to locate his missing sister.
Willie had been good to Tessa, he reminded himself. She was asking after his wife genuinely, and if for only that reason, he managed to sound friendly enough as he said into the communicator Rick angled toward him, “Tessa is with me, yes. I’ll bring her by to see you once Maria is safe and sound again.”
“I look forward to it,” Willie said, still shouting. “And good on ya, hon. You know we’ll be getting our Maria back. Sly won’t stop looking until we do. Ricky?”
Rick positioned the radio so it was back by his mouth. “Yeah, Wil?”
“You’re in luck. I’m still at the station house and I got that card you were asking about. You boys ready?”
Boys, thought Lucas. He was firmly in his mid-thirties, Rick a year or so older, and they were both married… and, still, to Willie Parker, they would always be ‘boys’.
“We’re ready.”
“Okay. Here goes:
‘Little girl, little girl, did you step out of line?
I went out of Hamlet, to buy paint for my sign.
Little girl, little girl, what will you do?
Pray they find me before I am through…’”
Willie huffed out a breath that turned to static over the line. “Ain’t that something. I told Sly it sounded familiar, but he thinks that it’s just some joker trying to make light of the fact that they took our Maria. ‘Pray they find me’... Lord knows I’m doing just that.”
“Us, too, Willie. Thanks. I’ll check in with you later. Get home safe now.”
“I’ll do that, sug. Keep the line open,” she added before Rick cut the connection.
His gaze slid over to Lucas again. “There you go. I told you that it was fucking creepy.”
It wasn’t just creepy. Like Willie told them, itwasfamiliar. “‘Little girl, little girl, where have you been…’”
Rick set the communicator in his lap. “What was that, doc?”
“The rhyme,” Lucas answered. “Willie said it sounded familiar. That’s because it is. You should know that, Rick. Remember Mrs. Walsh?”
“You mean Mase’s mom?”
Lucas nodded. “She taught the elementary classes. I remember… she used to read us a book of rhymes when she was teaching us to read. That was one of them.”
“How do you remember that shit,” marveled Rick. “I can barely remember what I had for dinner two nights ago, and you’re telling me that you remember our first grade teacher reading us nursery rhymes?”
He shrugged. “I used to repeat it to Maria when she was younger.”
