Page 22 of Savage Justice
The four men exchange a look. I can’t decipher it, but I get the distinct sense they know something I don’t. I’d ask, but I’m pretty certain I don’t want to know the answer. I settle for plugging the bottle teat into Noah’s mouth. “I hope Lucy hasn’t been making a nuisance of herself.” Not entirely fair, I know that. Lucy is never a nuisance.
She’s quick to set me straight. “I had toast and juice. And I’ve been learning to play chess, Mummy. Ethan taught me.”
Ethan, is it?
“That’s nice, love. Maybe you can show me later.”
“Ethan will show you,” she declares confidently. “But he has to go out just now, so we’ll play with Robbie until he gets back.”
“Lucy, we have to go home. We—” I break off at the sight of her stricken face. “Sweetheart, we can’t stay here. We don’t live here.”
“I know, but, what if he’s still there?”
“I don’t think…” I glance around me for confirmation.
“He’s… gone.” The man who gave me the toast delivers that shred of comfort. “He won’t be back. But it still isn’t safe for you to go home.”
“Why not?” I demand. “I can improve my security. Buy more locks.” I definitely intend to do that, whatever they tell me. “I could get a better alarm installed.”
No one speaks, but I can tell Lucy is far from convinced by anything I’ve said.
I try another tack. “I don’t know who you are, but I’m thankful for what you did. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there and I don’t want to seem ungrateful…” I’ve yet to get my head around precisely why they were at my house last night, but I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Something occurs to me suddenly. “Are you police?”
“No, Mummy. This is Nico. I told you about him.”
“Nico? I don’t… Oh.” I turn to stare at the man behind me and recognise him at last. “He’s the one who brought you home. That day…”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs Lowe,” he rumbles.’
Lucy chatters on. “Yes. And Tony was there, too. I told you about him as well. He caught the man and…”
“Yes. I know.” Broke both his legs to stop him getting away. “But I don’t understand. Why were you there, at my house? I mean, I’m glad you were, but…”
Nico supplies the explanation. “Lucy came to find us. She asked for our help, so we came.”
My head is spinning. I try to cobble together something coherent in all of this. “Lucy? Lucy came and…? But how did she know where…?”
“I knew where Nico lived,” she announces proudly. “He told me, when he dropped Tony off. I remembered, and I came here last night, with Noah. I hid from all the cars that passed me and I waited for Nico to come home. And when he did, I told him about the man at our house.”
“Oh my God. You came all this way, on your own…”
“It wasn’t far. I ran.”
“It’s about three miles,” Nico says. “She was really brave. She thought your intruder meant to take Noah and she wasn’t going to let him.”
I hug my baby to my chest.
Nico pulls up a chair and straddles it. “Was she right, Molly? Was he after the baby?”
“I… I don’t. I mean, he couldn’t…”
“Was he?”
I catch sight of Lucy’s anxious little face, staring at me, willing me to tell the truth, to trust someone. Anyone.
I can’t let her down, can’t let all she went through last night be for nothing. So, I nod. “Yes, I think so. I—”
“Robbie? Will you take Lucy up to our apartment to teach her chess? Jenna’s up there, and she’ll be wondering where you got to.” The other man, Tony, ushers the two children out of the kitchen then returns to join us. “They’re great kids, but there’s some stuff it’s best they don’t hear.”