Damian: Unimaginable by Marti Shane

Author:Marti Shane [Shane, Marti]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Damian preferred the mats in the washer, but he knew Butch had just finished a session with Maddie. He leaned back in the lounger on the stern of the houseboat and propped his boots on the back railing. Butch did the same next to him, pulling a beer from the cooler between them.

“Do you remember that paper a few years back about kids without roots?” Butch asked. “Was it Schiefer?”

“Horseshit,” Damian said. “The study was too small and the kids from too different of backgrounds to generalize to a population.”

“I’m starting to drink the Kool-Aid after working with Maddie. I agree that not all foster kids have the same experience. There are good, focused foster parents out there. For kids that get jerked around from home to home based on their behavior, I think his study has merit. Opened this old dog’s eyes.”

“How?”

“It’s like the mice in a maze. They have to acclimate and learn new patterns, and the goal is always to get out. It doesn’t matter if the next maze is more comfortable than the last maze. It’s just a maze they want to get out of.”

“Mice are rodents looking for food,” Damian reminded him. “Kids are humans, looking for connection, affirmation, and security.”

“Security first,” Butch agreed. “Maddie came here counting down the days until she could leave. The difference is that she has to follow the rules instead of break them to get out of the maze.”

Damian recalled Mack making him pull over. “Mack freaked out about fifteen miles out. She said it reminded her of a deployment because she wasn’t sure when she could leave.”

“I pulled Maddie in for a session to prepare her.”

Damian took a pull from his beer. “Mack was nervous. I should’ve prepped her some, but I had a mindfuck going on.”

“You get over it?”

“Security,” he said with a laugh. “The minute we pulled into Pearl, I could think straight again.” He could see the room Maddie and Mack were in from the dock. Rocco was stretched across the welcome mat, having attached himself to Mack. He tipped his bottle in their direction. “How do you think that’s going?”

“I didn’t tell Maddie Mack was coming. I thought it would be best for her to ask why she was here.” Butch tipped his bottle to his lips, his dark eyes glinting with mischief.

“Mack is quick to the point. She’ll ask if Gail contacted her.”

“And I worked on trust with Maddie in session.”

“See the person, not their role,” Damian recited the moral of the lesson. “Don’t trust a priest because he’s a priest or cop because he’s a cop.”

“She had plenty of references to pull from. None of them her mother.”

“Did you ask if she contacted her?”

“Nope. Once she tells a lie, she’ll commit to it. Plus, she might be afraid it would threaten her staying here. We have a greater chance of her confessing to Mack.”

Damian looked back at the door, remembering Maddie and Mack embracing. “Mack witnessed the murder,” he said, hearing Butch curse.

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