“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jude said nothing but walked to the door when the bell rang. “You’re going to regret this. See if you don’t. You have no idea what you’re stepping into with your lies.”
The police, about a dozen or so of them, walked into the main hallway where she and Hanna had been speaking. Jamie Nolan, a friend of Duncan’s, was front and center. Jude introduced him to Hanna Holloway.
“Yes, ma’am, she’s who we’re here for.” Reading Hanna her rights didn’t take all that long. Hanna only glared at her the entire time. Jamie had to ask her twice if she understood her rights as they’d been read to her. “You have to give me an answer, Ms. Holloway. One way or the other. You either understand them, or you don’t. Just tell me.”
“Oh, I understand a great many things right now. I understand that I’m going to sue each and every one of you for this. I’m going to own this castle once I’m finished with you and that so-called king that you’re married to. I have a lot of big names on my list of clients, and I plan to make full use of them. As soon as I make my first phone call, I’m going to be out and coming for the children again. It will be a sad shame if I have to cut costs any way I can.”
“You mean the mayor? He’s been arrested too. Or do you mean the county seat judge? Sorry to tell you this, but earlier today, he committed suicide. He left a note telling anyone who read it he was sorry for what he’d done.” Jude looked at Jamie as she continued. “Your man Peterson and I have been in contact since you were called to the home for children. He’s been remarkably busy on his end as well for me.”
“I thank you for that, Mrs. Dante. We’ll be taking her off your hands now. Also, we’ve arrested her driver out front. Put up a fuss when we asked him to let us look in the car they came here in. She was apparently making some deliveries. In the name of the Christmas spirit and all, I guess.”
Jude couldn’t help it, she laughed. It wasn’t really funny, but the way he said it, the deadpan look on his face, just tickled her. When they had Hanna in cuffs, Abe came out from behind her and Jude didn’t know what to think, or whether to be worried he’d heard too much. But when he stepped up to Hanna, Jude let him have his say.
“She let them hurt me. All the time.” Jude got down on her knees and turned Abe to look at her. She asked him what he meant. “They had sex with me, the men she invited to the home—all the time. I’m glad she is going to be gone. I want her dead.”
Jude didn’t know what to say to the young boy. Pulling him to her, his little body was stiff, ungiving. Holding him, she felt her eyes fill with tears when his tiny arms came up and wrapped around her. Standing with him still in her arm, she turned to Jamie.
“Get this monster out of my home. Now.” Jamie hustled her out, not taking the time to allow Hanna to keep up with his long strides. When she fell down, the man dragged her out of the house. The men leaving with her closed the door quietly after they were all gone. “It’s never going to happen to you again, Abe. I promise you this on my life, she will never hurt you or any other children so long as I have breath in my body.”
“I believe you.” He lifted his head from her shoulder and looked at her. “I want you to be my mommy, Judith. I want to live here with you and Mr. Duncan with my— Tracy isn’t really my sister. She was helping me get some food when my parents went away, and I went to the home. I love her like my sister. I’m sorry we lied to you.”
“It was a good lie, Abe. I’m so incredibly happy she was there for you. And Duncan and I would be happy if you were to be our son and Tracy our daughter. That would make it real—she’d be your sister for real then.” He nodded and laid his head back on her shoulder.
Instead of going to the dining room where all the other kids were, she went to the living room and sat down on the couch with Abe still in her arms. There was just too much going on right now, and she needed a moment. More than a moment, she supposed.
“When I was just a bird, an eagle, I would soar up into the clouds to get away from my thoughts. There is nothing more beautiful than a sky beneath you with lines of trees and other things growing in the soil.” Thinking of that now, she continued speaking. Jude didn’t care if Abe understood what she was telling him, but she did feel better just with the talking. “Once I was changed into a larger bird, bigger than any other creature in the world, I was able to save people from all sorts of things. Once, when a huge storm came up off the water, I sat down on the ground, and hundreds of people came and hid from the
