Alien Rites by Lynn Hightower

Author:Lynn Hightower
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

TWENTY-SEVEN

The last person David expected to see in the homicide bullpen was his daughter Kendra. As soon as she saw him, she swallowed hard, turned her head to one side.

“Uncle Mel wouldn’t mind me sitting at his desk,” she said quickly, chin jutting.

David wondered how their relationship had gotten so adversarial. He perched on the edge of the desk, leg swinging. “Everything okay at home?”

She shrugged. He was aware of the benevolent interest of his coworkers, grateful that they went about their business as if nothing was amiss. Why, he thought, was it such an aberration for a child to visit the bullpen? A lot of the detectives had kids, but you never saw them anywhere but at the annual picnic.

Someone had put three candy bars, two Cokes, and one Dr. Pepper on the desk, next to the phone. David felt a rush of gratitude to whoever had provided the goodies. Della most likely.

“Sisters around?” David asked mildly.

Kendra’s bottom lip quivered.

David leaned toward her. “What’s the matter, Kendra? Tell me.”

She pulled away. “I know you’re going to be mad, so yell at me, okay? Because this was my idea.”

David looked at her. “Is your mother all right?”

Kendra looked guilty, gave him an impatient look.

“She know you’re here?” he asked.

Kendra shook her head. “She had to go out. But she called to see if we were okay. I told her about Pid, but she said to let her worry about it when she got home for supper. She said for us to do our homework and clean our rooms, and not to bother you. But you’re our dad, aren’t you?”

David nodded, wary here. “How’d you get down here, Kendra?”

She gripped the edge of the desk. “We took the SART.”

David opened his mouth. Closed it. “You took the transit? You took SART?”

Kendra nodded and blinked back tears. “I watched both of them the whole way—”

“Both … Lisa and Mattie? You took Mattie on SART?”

“I held her hand and we took the long route, so we wouldn’t go anywhere near Little Saigo.”

People were staring. No doubt, David thought, he had turned chalk-white. He felt chalk-white.

“You know better.” He was aware of the ominous parental overtone in his voice. “Where are your sisters?”

“In the bathroom.”

“But they’re here?”

“Yes. Yes, sir.”

David took a breath. “So all of you are okay, or you will be until I kill you?”

“Daddy, we didn’t have enough money for cab fare all the way in from the house! We were afraid he was going to die. We tried to feed him milk and sugar, just like you showed us, but he wouldn’t eat no matter what.”

David was afraid to ask. He closed his eyes. He? Surely not. He heard a shriek and a squeal and he recognized the distressed and excited voice of his youngest. He hesitated. He did not want to look.

The piglet ran across the floor, small legs pumping. More of a hop than a run, slow but frantic. Mattie and Lisa were right behind him, hot and sweaty, clothes wrinkled and stained, hair windblown and tangled.

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