me.
“There was a man here?” I tried to keep my tone light.
She nodded, her lip quivering.
Did the panther belong to someone? I’d have to ask Alec if any of the other witnesses mentioned a man with the cat. “Did this man hurt you, Ella?”
“No. But he was going to.” The certainty in her voice was chilling.
I plastered on a smile I definitely wasn’t feeling and extended my hand to her. “Whoever it was is gone now. It’s safe to come out.”
Warily, she took it and let me guide her out of her hiding place. I helped her up onto the floral print cushion of the swing and then took her hands in mine. “Do you think you could tell the nice police officers what happened?”
Her haired fanned out around her as she shook her head vigorously from side to side.
“Why not, sweetheart?”
“Cause I wasn’t supposed to be outside. I was supposed to be in bed. If I tell them, they’ll tell Daddy and Mommy and I’ll get in trouble.” Fresh tears sprang to her eyes.
“Okay, we won’t talk to the officers.” I reassured her. “Could you at least tell me?”
She dried her eyes on the back of her hand. “I wasn’t sleepy, so I took my baby doll outside. I was showing her the stars, like Mommy does with me. That’s when I saw the man. He had scary eyes. They were black. He started asking me all sorts of questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Stuff I didn’t understand. He asked me if I was the…the one. If I had the power. I didn’t know what he meant. I told him I didn...didn’t understand. That made him laugh, but it wasn’t a nice laugh. He said he knew how to find out for sure. Then he disappeared and the panther came.” Tears zigzagged down her flushed cheeks.
“He sicced his panther on you?” My astonishment caused my voice to come out a high-pitched squeak.
She gazed up at me as if contemplating a painful truth and shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She lowered her voice to a soft barely audible whisper. This confidential secret was meant solely for me. “I think he was the panther.”
The image of the eagle transforming into a woman flashed before my eyes. There had to be a connection. It was too much of a coincidence. “What happened next?” I croaked.
“Daddy came outside with his gun. He saw the cat, but not me. He shot at it and I r…r…ran and hid. I dropped my baby doll in the backyard.” She sobbed.
I cupped Ella’s face in my hands and wiped her tears away with my thumbs. “Shh, shh, shh. That man won’t bother you again. I promise. I’ll make sure he can never hurt you or threaten you again.” I had no idea how I intended to keep that promise, but I felt compelled to say it. “And we’ll find your dolly.”
I held up my little finger to pinkie swear on it. As she linked her finger with mine, I opened the link between us. I needed to know she was okay. Her knot of fear loosened, then fell away. For a split second I got the crazy notion that I had altered her emotions somehow. Huh.
Ella cocked her head to the side and peered up at me. “It’s you, isn’t it?”
“What’s me?”
“You’re the one he was looking for.”
A simple sentence spoken from the innocent mind of a child, yet all the weird stuff compiling around me added a weight of believability to it. “I…I think I might be.”
She graced me with an angelic grin. “You’ll stop him, Celeste. I know you will.” At least one of us had faith in me.
My time with Ella came to an abrupt end when the front door of the house flew open and a frantic looking woman in her bathrobe raced out. “Ray! Ray! Ella’s not in her room! And I found this in the backyard!” She raised a baby doll up for her husband to see.
“My Cindy doll!” Ella chirped.
The woman’s head swiveled to Ella and I. Relief cast her eyes to the heavens and her hands to cover her heart. “Oh, thank you, God!” She rushed to Ella’s side where she scooped her daughter up and showered her with kisses. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”
“I’m sorry Momma.” Ella hugged her mother, and Cindy, tightly.
Ray, Alec and the police officers joined us on the porch. Making sure little Ella was safe trumped everything else.
Ella’s mother turned to