Dark Places

trust?”
    “You know, gum, candy, saying nice things to me.”
    “And how did he molest you?”
    “He’d take me into the closet where he kept his janitor stuff, he was a janitor at the school, I remember he always smelled horrible, like dirty bleach. He’d take me in there after school and make me perform oral sex on him and then he’d perform oral sex on me and he’d make me swear allegiance to Satan. I was so so scared. He’d tell me, you know, that he’d hurt my parents if I told.”
    “How did he make you go into the closet?” Lyle asked. “If it was at school?”
    Krissi turtled her neck at that, the same angry gesture I’ve always made when anyone questioned my testimony about Ben.
    “Just, you know, threaten me. He had an altar in there, he’d pull it out, it was an upside-down cross. I think some dead animals too that he’d killed were in there. A sacrifice thing. That’s why I think he was working up to killing me. But he got his family instead. The whole family was into it, that’s what I heard. That the whole family was worshiping the Devil and stuff.” She licked chip shards off her thick plastic fingernails.
    “I doubt that,” I muttered.
    “Well, how do you know?” Krissi snapped. “I lived through this, OK?”
    I kept waiting for her to figure out who I was, to let my face— not so different from Ben’s face—float into her memory, to notice the wide hairline of red roots springing from my head.
    “So how many times did Ben molest you?”
    “Countless. Countless.” She nodded somberly.
    “How did your dad react when you told him what Ben had done to you?” Lyle asked.
    “Oh my god he was so protective of me, he freaked, went totally ballistic. He drove around town that day, the day of the murders, looking for Ben. I always think if he’d only found Ben, he’d have killed him, and then Ben’s family would still be alive. Isn’t that sad?”
    My gut clenched at that and then my anger flared back.
    “Ben’s family—the horrible Devil worshipers?”
    “Well, maybe I was exaggerating on that.” Krissi cocked herhead, the way grown-ups do when they’re trying to placate a child. “I’m sure they were nice Christian people. Just think, if my dad had found Ben though …”
    Just think if your dad didn’t find Ben and instead found my family. Found a gun, found an axe, wiped us out. Almost wiped us out.
    “Did your dad come back to your house that night?” Lyle asked. “Did you see him after midnight?”
    Krissi lowered her chin again, raised her eyebrows at me, and I added a more reassuring, “I mean, how did you know he never made contact with any of the Days?”
    “Because I’m serious, he would have done some serious damage. I was like, the apple of his eye. It killed him, what happened to me. Killed him.”
    “He live around here?” Lyle was freaking her out, his intensity was laserlike.
    “Uh, we’ve lost touch,” she said, already looking around the bar for the next score. “I think it was all too much for him.”
    “Your family sued the school district, didn’t they?” Lyle said, leaning in, getting greedy. I moved my stool so I blocked him off a bit, hoping he’d get the idea.
    “Hell yeah. They needed to be sued, letting someone like that work there, letting a little girl get molested right under their noses. I came from a really good family—”
    Lyle cut her off. “Do you mind if I ask, with the settlement … how did you end up, uh, here?” The customer at the table was now turned around entirely in his chair, watching us, belligerent.
    “My family had some business setbacks. The money’s been gone a long time. It’s not like it’s a bad thing, working here. People always think that. It’s not, it’s empowering, it’s fun, it makes people happy. How many people can say all that about their jobs? It’s not like I’m a whore.”
    I frowned before I could help myself, looked in the direction of the truck park.
    “That?” Krissi fake-whispered. “I was just getting a hold of a little something for tonight. I wasn’t … oh God. No. Some girls do, but I don’t. There’s some poor girl, sixteen years old, works it with her mom. I try to look out for her. Colleen. I keep thinking I should callchild services on her or something? Who do you even call for something like that?”
    Krissi asked it with all the concern of finding a new gynecologist.
    “Can we get your dad’s address?” Lyle asked.
    Krissi stood up, about