Baltimore 03 - Did You Miss Me?

developed more. It wasn’t like he was going to let me go.’
    ‘He needs to die.’
    His expression was deadly, but Daphne felt safer than she ever had in her entire life. ‘I completely agree. But I don’t want you to do it.’
    Dark, determined eyes met hers. ‘Why not?’
    ‘One, it’s against the law. Which I know I’m supposed to say, but which doesn’t make it less true. Two . . . I’m very much an eye-for-an-eye kind of girl. But there are consequences to every decision we make. I don’t want you to have to live with any negative consequences on my account. At least that aren’t absolutely necessary.’
    ‘Killing him feels necessary,’ he said darkly.
    ‘Stopping him is necessary. Justice is necessary.’ She ran her finger over his frowning lip. ‘Giving the victims the closure of a guilty verdict is necessary.’
    He closed his eyes. ‘You’re right. I still want to kill him, though.’
    ‘So do I, but I only told you about the needing-to-cook comment because it might help you catch him. Kelly was seventeen and so was . . . is Heather. He might have only shown interest in me because I was convenient. But his attraction may not be based on chronological age. So don’t narrow your field on possible victims.’
    ‘I understand,’ he said grimly. ‘Is there any more you remember?’
    ‘His smile. When he’d come back up the stairs from . . . from raping Kelly, he’d smile at me like everything was normal. Like he was . . . Ward Cleaver or something. Later when I’d come home and he wanted to keep me in check—’
    ‘You mean terrorize you?’ Joseph interrupted harshly. ‘Because that’s what it was. An innocent child being terrorized by an adult with all the power.’
    Another voice punched through the memory of Beckett, echoing Joseph’s words. ‘That’s exactly what Maggie said.’
    She could feel his momentary surprise. ‘Maggie knows?’
    ‘She and the FBI agent I gave my statement to are the only ones who did.’
    ‘His name, too?’
    ‘No. Maggie couldn’t get me to say his name. My statement to Agent Baker was the only time I gave his name to anyone. Until tonight.’
    He processed this. ‘So he’d smile when he terrorized you?’
    ‘Yes. It would make me throw up. The last time was the day before I met Travis. I was walking to the bus stop after work and there Beckett was, standing under a streetlamp. He smiled at me and drew a line across his throat. I ran back to the restaurant, got sick. Called Maggie to come get me. She begged me to tell her the name of the man but I was too terrified.’
    ‘Maggie told me she was your adopted grandma. How did you meet her?’
    ‘After my father left us and Mama moved us to Riverdale, she’d rented a little apartment in this nice woman’s basement.’
    ‘Maggie was the nice woman?’
    ‘Yes, she was. She had a big farmhouse with a lot of land. And horses.’
    ‘Ah, I wondered how the horses factored in.’
    ‘They were Maggie’s. Her husband had been a breeder, pretty famous in their neck of the woods. Anyway, Mama and I arrived in our station wagon, which was packed full of everything we owned. She took me into the house, introduced me to Maggie, and started down the basement stairs. I freaked out.’
    ‘I can understand why.’
    ‘I still have trouble being underground. Mama was trying to calm me and Maggie was staring. Not like she was appalled, but like she was assessing. I was having a major meltdown without saying a word or even making a sound.’
    ‘You said you didn’t speak for eight months. You mean nothing? No words?’
    ‘Not one. Mama was getting frantic, telling me that I was going to get us thrown out. And Maggie stopped her. Told her that nobody was throwing us out and that I didn’t have to go down the stairs. She gave me a room, decorated for a girl who loved horses. Maggie was a social worker and she and her husband had been foster parents. Her house had always been filled with kids. Now it was empty because her husband had died and she hadn’t had the heart to take in anyone new.’
    ‘Until you and your mother.’
    ‘Yes. She’d decided that her time for grieving was past. She was so patient with me, taking care of me so that Mama could work. When the husband walks out, it’s sometimes financially worse than if he’d died. We were destitute.’
    ‘If he’d died, you would have at least had his pension.’
    ‘Exactly. After a few months, I ventured into the barn.