Scarlett that her words had carried her through so much. She was going to try to be the person Scarlett believed she could be. In the meantime, Kandace was going to hold on to that moment like a promise.
They had both been quiet for the last few minutes, each lost in his and her own thoughts. When Kandace looked up at him, she smiled. In some inexplicable way, he reminded her of Scarlett. They both had the same deeply sensitive heart, the same steady presence, the same overt trustworthiness. “I’ve got this friend, Dreamboat, and she’s just your age. If I can arrange it, I’m going to make sure you meet. I think you’d get along. She’s brave like you. I act brave, but it’s a show. You and this friend of mine? You’re the real deal.”
He offered her a small, confused smile, but it quickly dwindled. “You’re brave too, Kandace. What do you need me to do to help you escape?”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Scarlett pulled up in front of Millie’s house, getting out of the car and beginning to walk toward the front door when she spotted the woman pushing a stroller toward her on the opposite side of the sidewalk. The woman smiled and Scarlett looked closer, realizing that the stroller she was pushing was for a special needs child, and the boy sitting in it—who looked to be a pre-teen—was clearly disabled.
“If you’re going to visit Vicky Schmidt, she won’t be home. She attends a church meeting every Thursday at five. We usually take our walk a little earlier and we see her leaving.” She smiled, ruffling the boy’s hair. He craned his neck, his mouth opening as he gazed at his mother with clear adoration.
“Oh, thank you,” Scarlett said, changing direction and walking toward her. “Do you, by chance, live in the blue house a few blocks over?”
“Yes. Do I know you?”
“No. I’m Scarlett Lattimore. We, um, moved to town very recently. Millie babysits my daughter, Haddie, and she mentioned you.”
“Welcome to town. I’m Dotty and this is Roger.”
Scarlett smiled down at the boy whose arms were folded inward, head slanted, tongue protruding through the same open-mouthed smile. He was obviously non-verbal. “Hi, Roger.” When she looked at his mother, she said, “I just wanted to say I’m sorry in person. Millie told me Haddie made Roger scream. I don’t know what came over my daughter that would cause her to upset him like that. She’s usually kind and very accepting—”
“Oh, Ms. Lattimore.” Dotty laughed, shaking her head. “I don’t think Millie understood. Haddie didn’t upset Roger.” She ran a hand over her son’s brown hair again. “He does that when he’s excited or . . . overcome with happiness.” Her smile widened. “It’s loud, and can be disconcerting if you don’t know him well, but it’s joyful. Haddie didn’t hurt him. Far from it. Whatever your daughter said made him overwhelmingly happy.”
Scarlett blinked in stunned wonder, her spirit lifting to hear what this mother was telling her. “Oh, I see.” She let out a breath, putting her hand over her heart. “I can’t tell you how relieved that makes me feel.” Oh, Haddie, I’m sorry I doubted you. Again.
Dotty gave her another grin. “I’d like to know what it was Haddie said so we can repeat it. Daily. He so rarely has a reaction like that. It was precious to me.” She gazed down at her child. “Roger is a handful some days, but he’s a gift.” She met Scarlett’s eyes. “He was taken, you know, a few days after his birth.” She swallowed, obviously reliving the memory.
“Taken?” Scarlett whispered.
“By a wild animal. I was napping and my husband was with him in our backyard. They’d said he needed sunlight . . . for his jaundice. He only turned away for a moment, but when he turned back, Roger was gone. The sheriff never could quite figure out what it was. There were no tracks . . . nothing. But . . . there had been other abductions like it in Farrow. Animals take babies sometimes, you know, just like they take cats and small dogs. Especially when they’re hungry.”
“Oh my God,” Scarlett said, putting her hand over her heart to imagine the horror of a moment like that for a new mother. The pictures that must have come to mind. The absolute torture she must have experienced.
“But he was found. Obviously.”
Dotty bobbed her head. “Yes. A hunter out near Lilith House heard an infant wailing. When