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“No. She’s a minor.”

“Yeah,” he said, dragging his uninjured hand over his head, “but I don’t wanna break her trust.”

Frank’s eyebrows did a little dance. He was just as surprised as I was.

“Wow, Red. Maybe this switcheroo has done you good. That’s somethin’ I never imagined you’d say about some ‘punk’ kid.” Frank and I had heard him complain at one time or another about every teenager in town.

He didn’t even acknowledge what I’d said. His eyes darted back and forth between my face and Sylvie’s.

Finally, taking care to keep his voice low, he said, “I’ll tell you ’cause I’m worried this will happen again if I don’t.” He took a deep breath. “Sylvie was here when I got here this mornin’. She was shook up, cryin’. Her father did that to her. He slapped and punched her. She said he knocked her to the ground. Her mother was there when it happened, but she didn’t lift a finger to stop it. She watched it happen. And then he came here lookin’ for Sylvie so he could hit her and yell at her some more.” Red looked over at Sylvie standing with Theo and Brady now. They’d wrapped her up in a blanket, and it looked like Brady was trying to make her drink water from a plastic bottle. Red cringed and said, “She drove, but she doesn’t have a license.”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Frank said. “She’s not in trouble.”

Closing my eyes, the anger rose up inside me. That feeling of betrayal all over again. The loss of the love you were supposed to be able to count on your whole life. Goddammit. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids.

“Do you know why he did this?” I asked.

Red nodded, but he didn’t add anything.

“Red, it’s kinda important. Do you know where they live? I recognize her from the center, but she doesn’t live in Wisper, so I don’t know her dad.”

“David Locke’s been comin’ into my store for years. They live out west of Barton, right near the Idaho border. I can’t believe he raised his hands to me. The rage in his eyes when I warned him to take his hands off her… That’s when I noticed his gun. He was mad enough to use it.”

Yeah. I’d noticed that, too, which was why David Locke now had a hole in his leg.

I’d heard his name before from some of the Game and Fish guys. If I remembered right, they’d caught David Locke hunting without tags and in places he shouldn’t have been. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

“You did the right thing, Red. Thank you.”

As the adrenaline began to leave my body, I blew out a big breath. The last five minutes were like a tornado raging around inside me. A small part of my mind flipped through every move I’d made, like a slideshow, but I knew in my gut I’d done what I had to do. I’d give Ranger Summers a call. Maybe he could fill me in a little more about Mr. Locke. But it was done now. And the kid was safe. So was Red, and so was I. That was all that really mattered.

I turned to go back to Sylvie. I wanted to drive her over to see Doc Whitley so he could X-ray her shoulder and wrist while we waited for CPS to get here, but Red reached for my arm and locked the rough pads of his fingers around it to stop me.

“Her daddy did that to her ’cause she’s—because she told him she’s…”

“What?” I said, turning back to him. “She’s what?”

Red looked at the building in the background, lifting his eyebrows, like I should understand from where we were.

“You’re gonna have to say it, Red. I don’t understand.”

He whispered, “She’s a… lesbian.”

And suddenly, it all made sense. Red’s unease, the reason David Locke had hunted his daughter down to dish out what he probably considered discipline, and why Red was whispering. He could barely say the word.

“Her parents found out she’s gay, and her daddy hit her.” I didn’t ask it as a question. I already knew the answer. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard this story. Parents beating or disowning their kids ’cause they identified as something other than “normal” wasn’t an uncommon occurrence either.

And it hit closer to home than I wanted to think about.

“Yeah,” said Red. “But his own daughter? I’ve known Dave a long time. I didn’t know he was capable of this.”

“It happens,” I said, so fucking sorry that it did.

“She’s just a kid,” he said, getting angrier the more he thought about it. Apparently, Red really had learned a lesson here.

“Where was he tryin’ to take her?” Frank asked.

“To his church. The preacher there says he can fix kids like… like Sylvie.”