Page 56 of The Little Things
“We need to talk,” I said as soon as the line connected.
Lennix’s sigh carried heavily through the line and I could feel the weight of it from all the way over here. “I know.”
“Your place or mine?”
Sadness dripped from her words as she answered. “I’ll be there in ten.”
When she showed up at my door ten minutes later, I was already half a wine glass in. I opened the door for her, thrusting the second glass into her hand before she’d even had a chance to enter. I had a feeling we were both going to need it.
She took two deep gulps while still standing on the front porch before finally moving inside. She sat on one side of the tiny sofa while I took the other cushion.
“I assume you’ve already heard about what happened in town earlier today?”
She nodded. “Small towns. My parents and I started getting phone calls almost as soon as it happened.”
I wasn’t surprised. The sidewalks had been busy when the whole thing went down, and it seemed like everyone in this town knew the Paulsons.
“Who was she?” I might have worded it like a question, but there was no mistaking I was demanding to know.
Lennix’s chest deflated as she heaved out a breath. She finished off the glass of wine in seconds, then collapsed against the back of the sofa, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them, curling in on herself.
“Obviously, you know my brother was adopted. Before my mom and dad found him, he was living with another foster family. Have you heard the name Caswells?”
I shook my head, my stomach sinking with each word she spoke. I didn’t know where she was going with this, but I knew it wasn’t going to be good.
“Doreen and Charles Caswell were his foster parents at the time. He and a few other kids were living in that house. I didn’t see it, but my dad did, and I’ve heard stories. That house was a nightmare, Rae. If hell on earth existed, it was that house.”
Tears welled in my eyes, fat and hot. I did nothing to try and stop them from breaking free and slipping down my cheeks as I sniffled. “Tell me.”
“They forced those kids to live in their own filth. I mean that literally and in every way you could possibly imagine. Zach was one of the oldest, so he got it the worst. They beat them, starved them, locked them in a dark room with no food or water or bathroom. They were tortured, basically. That was how my parents came to find him.”
My brows pulled together in confusion. “He told me it was because he threw a rock through the window of the bar.”
“That’s true. But he threw that rock because he’d been digging through the dumpster in the alley every night, looking for food. Mom thought it was racoons or something so she locked it up. The night he found it locked, he panicked. He threw the rock out of anger.”
My hands slapped over my mouth, trapping in my sharp gasp as more tears spilled free. “Oh my God.”
Lennix’s eyes grew red and wet as she continued to recount the nightmare Zach had lived through. “My mom lost it when she found out what was happening to him. She and my dad weren’t even together at the time. He was in the middle of trying to win her over, but they became a team after they found my brother. My mom was fierce. She demanded that CPS let her take him that very night. The next day my dad went with the police to the house and found all the other kids. Turns out, the woman, Doreen Caswell, was the cousin of Zach’s caseworker. She’d been falsifying her reports to make it seem like they were a healthy, stable couple and they’d split the money they got for each of the kids they listed on the reports.
“They ended up going to prison where they all belonged.” She sniffed and batted the tears off her cheeks as she shifted her body to face me. “There’s a special place in hell for people like them. The caseworker is still locked up, but unfortunately, the Caswells were released shortly before you got here.”
It was a strange thing to feel such a deep, gnawing sadness at the same time my entire body was lit from within with fury so strong it was a wonder smoke wasn’t pouring from my ears. I’d never met these people, but I hated them. Hated... them. I wanted them to hurt. To feel the same kind of pain they’d caused Zach.
“It was her, wasn’t it? Doreen Caswell.”
Lennix nodded. “That was her. She’s sick. Sick and twisted. She never should have gotten out.”
That was the understatement of the century. “Have you talked to him?” I asked once my tears had run dry. “Have any of you?”
She shook her head, her shoulders sinking forward with sadness. “We’ve tried, but I think he turned his phone off. He gets like this sometimes. We try to let him work it out on his own, but if my folks think it’s taking too long, they intervene. They didn’t want to wait this time, but we don’t know where he is.”
I nodded, understanding that we were all in the same boat, all feeling a level of helplessness that was nearly debilitating.
Lennix stayed a while longer, both of us using the others’ presence to fill the gaping hole in our chests. But none of it would get any better until Zach came back. I walked her to the door, standing on the front porch and looking out toward Zach’s house. His truck was still gone and the whole house was dark.
“Don’t give up on him,” Lennix called out, something in her tone slamming into me. It almost sounded like desperation. “I know it’s hard when he shuts you out over things like this, but other than finding my parents, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him. So just... don’t give up, okay?”
“I won’t,” I assured her.