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“Yeah, boss?”

“Will you send Dan to the hospital with Roxanne, please? I don’t trust Mr. Locke farther than I can throw him.”

“Done.”

I heard gravel shifting under his boots as he stepped away to make the call, and I lowered myself beside Sylvie. The gravel beneath me bit into my ass cheek, but I shifted a little, and it wasn’t so bad.

The danger was gone, but Sylvie still seemed scared, kind of turning in on herself, but more than that, she looked sad.

I smiled at her gently. “I’m Deputy—” I cleared my throat and changed my approach. Introducing myself as the sheriff or the acting sheriff still didn’t sound right to my ears, and I doubted she cared either way. “I’m Abey. Can you tell me what happened please?”

When she looked into my eyes, I saw a lot of pain in hers. She kind of reminded me of myself when I was her age, her long, blond hair naturally wavy, and she’d twisted little braids into the ends here and there. She was innocent, a baby to my eyes, but from the feeling of disappointment and hurt radiating out all around her, I had a feeling that tonight she’d learned more about growing up than she’d ever wanted to know.

She didn’t answer my question, so I asked, “Can you move your arm?”

She nodded and whispered, “I told Red not to call 911.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t listen. It tracks, don’tcha think? He rarely does what I want him to either.”

She smiled but said nothing. Not a peep.

“Can you stand?”

She did what I asked, and we got up slowly. My ass was screaming at me now, but I tried to ignore it, because Sylvie winced when she put pressure on her hands to push herself up off the ground.

“What hurts?”

“My wrist. It’s not broken. Just sore.” She held it out in front of her.

Holding my hand above her wrist, I reached for it but waited till she looked at me. “Okay if I touch your arm?” I asked, and she nodded.

Her skin was red and raw, but she pulled her wrist from my hand gently before I could get a good look. She rolled it. “Like I said, just sore.”

“How old are you, Sylvie?”

“Fifteen. Almost sixteen.”

“Was anyone else involved tonight? Do you have brothers or sisters at home?”

“No, ma’am. My brother’s grown. He’s married now, and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have helped anyway.”

Looking at her busted lip, the tiny trickle of blood below it, and at the welt starting to swell on the side of her face, I asked, “Your daddy do that to you?”

She shrugged.

“Is there anything you can tell me?”

“I’m fine,” she said, looking at the ground again, trying to hide behind the strands of hair falling in front of her face.

Changing my tack ’cause I didn’t want to push too hard too fast till I knew more about what had happened, I said, “Gimme a minute, Sylvie. I’ll be right back.”

I caught Theo’s eye behind Sylvie, and he left Brady standing in the doorway when I nodded toward Sylvie. He could probably guess she needed a familiar face right about now.

Red stood next to Frank, still guarding his left arm, but they weren’t talking. It looked like he might have been waiting for me.

“What the hell, Red?” I whispered. “What happened? She won’t say.”

“I dunno what the… protocol is. She told me, but ain’t that breakin’ the law if I tell you?”