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“Mesyatsy,”Tatiana corrected.
Three months. That was enough time to plan a political kidnapping.
“Where were you today when you realized your sister wasn’t with you anymore?”
“We went to an art museum,” she said. “And then after—”
Tatiana looked up when the door opened.
Worth came in, his face red, his voice raised. “Yes, Lieutenant, those are all valid concerns that our translator raised herself, but as you can see, they’re perfectly fine!”
Annie pushed herself up from Worth’s chair and braced to greet whoever they’d wrangled to be in the room. Annie didn’t like working alone, and it wasn’t only because she was interviewing a child. She liked having someone else present to maintain a sense of balance in the room. She liked having someone who could pull her back if she started to lose her way.
Worth stepped aside, his hands held up as if in surrender.
It took a moment for Annie to realize whom she was looking at.
“Annie?”
The “bitch” from IA wore a crisp, dark blue uniform. Her hair was twisted up and pulled back tightly, and her hat was tucked under her arm above the gun on her hip.
The bitch from IA was Helen Everton.
“You’re a cop?” Annie asked, dumbfounded.
“You two know each other?” Worth said. “Good. That’ll make it easier.”
Annie glanced at him, then looked back at Helen. How had she not figured out that Helen was a cop? She knew she had some other job besides teaching, but how had she missed this?
“Annie, you have half an hour, and then I’d like you to check in with me,” Worth said, oblivious to the stunned reactions of the two women. “We have some leads from the mother, but nothing has panned out yet. I want to compare their stories.”
It seemed that Worth didn’t know the girl could speak English.
Tatiana turned to Annie.“Why does he think my mother would tell a different story?”she asked in Russian.
Annie shook her head and replied in the girl’s language.“People remember things differently. We just don’t want to miss an important detail.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Worth said and shut the door.
Helen stared at Annie with a cold expression. “I’d heard they were using a government contractor to get around some of the new use-of-force policies, but I never dreamed…” Helen shook her head.
“Lieutenant Everton,” Annie said. “This is Annika’s sister, Tatiana. She was just telling me about what happened to her sister.”
Helen straightened up, recognizing Annie’s unspoken plea for professionalism, and sat in a chair against the back wall.
Annie continued her questioning where she had left off. She could tell the little girl was holding something back, so she circled around with her questions, tighter and tighter, until Tatiana had nowhere else to go.
“And so you ran,” Annie said. “You ran away.”
Tatiana nodded miserably.
“Did Annika run with you?”
Tatiana shook her head. “I—” She started to cry, and finally the truth slipped out. “I pushed her. I let them take her instead of me.”
Annie leaned back in her chair and picked up the phone.
* * *
