8

The Children’s Justice Center stood on a quiet street, its brick facade blending in with the surrounding trees bathed in the midday sunlight. The gentle rustle of leaves in the breeze and a few birds chirping in the branches were the only sounds.

The central edifice had gentle hues, a departure from the cold functionality of government institutions. Inside was a play of colors, a conscious effort to soften the blow of having to stay here because there was nowhere else to go.

For a lot of women and children, it was the only place in the city where violent fathers and husbands couldn’t reach them. Piper had been here dozens of times as a GAL, and many times more before that when she worked as a crisis counselor at the local children’s hospital.

The first time Piper had come here in her official capacity as a guardian, she was visiting a young boy and his two siblings who had been living in a storage shed with their parents. The kids were eating garbage out of some nearby bins when they were spotted by a couple of patrol officers who were at the scene of a car accident.

The parents were too junked up on fentanyl to notice their children were slowly starving to death.

Piper had to recommend to the court whether to abolish the parental rights of the mother and father. She hadn’t slept that night and didn’t know what to do the moment in court when it was her turn to speak on behalf of the children. But the parents made it easier for her: they didn’t come to their children’s parental rights hearing. She asked that their rights be terminated, and the judge agreed. With a single judge’s signature, the government took away their children. Piper had never forgotten the children’s faces when they were told they wouldn’t be going back to their parents. Despite the neglect, there was no one else in the world they knew.

A voice startled her.

“Piper, is that you?”

A kindly old woman named Carol who worked at the CJC as a social worker came up behind them in the lobby. She wrapped her arms around Piper, who hugged her back. The woman pulled away and said, “Where have you been? It’s been weeks.”

“I had a couple cases up north to handle. How’s everything here?”

“Puttering along. Who’s your handsome friend?”

He said, “Detective Holloway.”

“You have a first name, Detective Holloway?”

The bluntness of Carol’s comment made him grin.

“Lazarus.”

“Oh, I love that name. Now why would you want to hide that for Detective Holloway ? Be proud of your uniqueness.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Carol looked back to Piper and said, “Who are you here for, dear?”

“Sophie Grace.”

A look of concern came over her face, and then sadness. “I was wondering who would be assigned to her. I’m glad it’s you.” She motioned with her hand and turned away without another word.

Lazarus looked at Piper and then followed behind the two women. The halls echoed with their footsteps. Piper passed by a door and saw a young girl playing with dolls. She had bruising around her cheekbones. Piper glanced back and noticed that Lazarus kept his gaze forward and didn’t look into the rooms.

They stopped outside a door near the end of the hall on the second floor. It was closed. Carol turned to them and said, “She’s not speaking much, of course, but we got her out of her room yesterday, so at least she’s mobile a little bit. Now, if you two upset her, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“We won’t,” Piper said with a warm smile. “Thank you, Carol.”

She nodded. “Be gentle with her. This one’s ... just be gentle.”

Carol opened the door.

Sitting on the bed looking out the only window in the room was a girl who looked younger than her fifteen years. She had long brown hair and a cherubic, pretty face. Her hair was messy, unkempt, and her ankles looked twisted in odd angles from the way she sat cross-legged with Converse sneakers on her feet.

“Sophie,” Carol said, “some people are here to see you.”

Lazarus stepped farther into the room and said, “Sophie, it’s good to see you again. I wanted to come talk to you about a few things we didn’t get to discuss the first time we met. You feeling up to it?”

She looked at him, her eyes weary and red. She blinked slowly and then nervously wrapped her arms around her knees.

Lazarus looked at Carol, whose face was a mask of sadness.

“Sophie, we need to know more about the man that did this to your family. We need you to answer some questions. You think you can do that?”

She didn’t say anything and looked down to the floor.

“Sophie, I need to hear you say yes. I need your help.”

“Detective,” Piper said, “can I see you privately a moment?”

They stepped out into the hall. Though Piper took a few paces away from the door, she kept her voice low.

“She’s not a suspect,” she said.

“I know.”

“You’re talking to her like she is.”

“Her memory will never be as fresh as it is right now. We need to press her and get as much as we can.”

“No.”

“She’s a witness to a double murder.”

“She’s also my ward and I’m her guardian.”

Lazarus took a step closer to her, his voice low. He didn’t meet her eyes, instead fixing his gaze on the floor. “You wanna catch this guy or not?”

“That’s not my job. My job is to protect that girl, and I will protect her from everyone. Even the police if I have to.”

Lazarus put his hands on his hips as he stared at her. She stared back, and then walked around him and went into the room.

“Sophie, my name’s Piper. It’s a gorgeous day outside. I’d like to take a walk to that store on the corner and get a Coke. Would you come with me?”

She looked to Carol, as though for approval, and then started getting off the bed.

The day really was gorgeous, with a light-blue sky and puffy white clouds scattered from horizon to horizon. They walked along the sidewalk and Piper strolled slowly, getting Sophie’s rhythm and pace down so they could walk in a way that made her more comfortable.

“The first time I came here,” Piper said, “I went to the little garden in the back and I read a book while I waited to meet somebody. It was one of the most pleasant hours reading I’ve ever had.”

She swallowed and then said nervously, “It’s quiet back there.”

“It is. But what I like most is that it smells like apples there in the fall.” They stopped at an intersection. “Have you explored the center at all?”

Sophie kept her gaze low as she said, “No.”

“That’s a shame because they have a pretty cool library. Do you like to read?”

She nodded as the light turned and they began crossing the street.

“What do you like to read?”

“Fantasy,” she said softly. “I like Percy Jackson.”

“I haven’t read much fantasy. I liked Lord of the Rings .”

“It’s all right. Kinda too much singing.”

They resumed their path on the sidewalk, heading toward a Chevron. Under the store’s bright fluorescent lights, Piper thought their skin looked a different tint.

Piper went to the sodas and got two cups, handing Sophie one. She filled her own and waited while the young teen got something fruity. She seemed younger than she was, and Piper couldn’t picture her driving a car, though her sixteenth birthday was only a couple of months away.

Piper paid for the drinks, and they went outside. They stood in front of the convenience store, watching a man on a Harley pull up for some gas. The bike was loud and Piper didn’t want loud around Sophie right now, so they strolled across the street to a small park. They sipped their drinks slowly in the hot sun.

“I lost my parents, too,” Piper said. The girl looked up at her. “I guess more accurately they lost me. My father left when I was young, and my mother lost custody of me, so I went to live with my grandma. She’s the one who raised me. I don’t know what happened to my dad. He never reached out to me. Do you know where your dad is?”

Sophie shrugged and left it at that.

There was a pause in the conversation before the girl said, “Why did your mom lose you?”

They walked past a small fountain that had the water turned off.

“There’s something called neglect, where a parent doesn’t meet the needs of their child. Doesn’t feed them or clothe them or provide a place to live. She didn’t do that for me.”

“Do you talk to her anymore?”

She shook her head. “No. If she wanted anything to do with me, she would’ve let me know by now.” She watched the girl. “Your mother and brother weren’t like that. They loved you very much. I can tell.”

She didn’t respond.

“Sophie, you don’t have to talk, but I’m here to listen to you. I’m a lawyer appointed by the court to represent you. That means I’m only here to help you. Not to judge you, or to tell you what to do or what to feel. I’m here to listen.”

In front of them, a playground bustled with children, watched by mothers chatting on park benches.

Piper settled on a worn bench, Sophie following her lead.

Piper looked at the teen and felt a tug in her heart that almost pained her. She knew exactly what the girl was about to go through.

Her nervous system would have dissociated on the night of her family’s slayings and put her in survival mode. She wouldn’t feel the full impact of what had happened for a long time, and when it came, it would come in pieces that wouldn’t make sense until the whole was revealed in one painful moment. A mess of all the emotions her body wasn’t letting her feel would pour out, which could easily lead to addictive behavior, even suicidal behavior if untreated. One young boy Piper had worked with had gone catatonic when he saw his parents die in a car accident that he survived. The boy never spoke a word. The fact that Sophie could even function was amazing, and Piper was impressed with her strength.

“What’s going to happen to me?” Sophie said.

“Well, me and you are going to spend some time together, and I’m going to talk to your teachers and friends and follow the investigation into finding the person that did this to your family. That police officer that was with me is going to try to catch whoever this was, and we can talk later about where you can go until you turn eighteen and can live on your own.”

“Where would I go?”

“Most kids go to another relative. Your father has no known address or employment, and I only saw your uncle Bill listed, but he won’t be able to take you.”

“I wouldn’t want to go with him anyway.”

Piper didn’t have the heart to tell her that Bill had told Carol he wasn’t interested in seeing his niece, much less taking custody of her.

“Was there anybody else your mom mentioned taking you if anything happened to her?”

She shook her head.

There was a long beat of silence, and Sophie, her arms folded tightly over her chest with her drink set next to her, was unable to look Piper in the eyes when she said, “I saw him. The man that killed my family.”