Mind Games - Page 211

“Watch, watch what I can do. Watch, Grammie,” he shouted as he ran for the play set.

“I’m watching.”

She wandered over as Ty walked down.

“It’s good to see you, Lucy.”

“Good to see both of you.” She threw up her hands in amazement as Bray came down the slide backward.

“I owe you an apology, too.”

“You don’t, but I’ll take it. It’s between you and Thea.”

“I tossed you and Rem in there.”

“Well, we do seem to be one big ball of wax.” Then she cheered as Bray came down the slide headfirst. “Lord, but that boy is thriving.”

“Lucy.” Ty put a hand on her arm. “You’d have talked to her. Is she all right? She looked— I know part of it’s on me, but since I know the rest now. She didn’t look well. Like she’s not sleeping, and then the headaches.”

“I’m going to go see for myself, but I have talked to her.” She lifted her eyebrows at him. “And I have other ways of seeing and knowing.”

“Right.”

“She’s better, by far, than she was. And doing what she needs to do to stay that way.”

“This Riggs.” He shifted his gaze to make sure Bray remained out of earshot. “I hit the internet, looked up more about the case. More about him. He’s a monster.”

“He is. I question why such a thing as him was given a gift, but I don’t have any answer.”

“He killed more people, several more people, and he was only eighteen when he went to prison.”

“Thea, still just a child, saw that, saw what he’d done to others. She contacted the detectives, did that on her own, and told them what she saw.”

“I should’ve known,” Ty murmured. “There were a couple stories, more sensational sorts, that claimed he could read minds, but there’s no mention I found of Thea in any of them. I mean, as the daughter of two of his victims, yeah, but not as a witness.”

She looked back at Ty as Bray climbed onto a swing. “Detectives Howard and Musk never brought her name into it. We owe them for that. I’m grateful for that.”

“She helped them again—like with that girl who was abducted.”

“She told you about that.” A good sign, to Lucy’s mind. “Yes, she helped them. With or without the gift, but maybe more with it, when someone needs help, you help. A witness—that’s the right word for it. When you see, you witness, someone needing help, you give it.”

“Not everyone does.”

“Those who don’t have to live with the choice of turning away. It can be as big as stopping a monster, or as small as telling a little boy where to find his toy.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I screwed up there.”

She nodded, but patted his arm with it. “Well, you did, darling, but you had a reason. He’s playing on that swing over there. I know what it is to protect a child, and to be the only one who can.”

“I … Thea told me about her dad’s family. I just can’t understand how…”

“They’re not his family.” Lucy snapped it out. “We’re his family. I didn’t carry John in my womb, but he was my son the same as the children I bore.”

“It made me think about my family. We’re not that big ball of wax. When Bray walked into my life, they were shocked. But they were there, right there. They didn’t turn away, they embraced. They love him. They helped me when I really needed it—and boy, did I need it. I started off the dad thing on the ground floor, and they were there for us.”

“That’s family. Are you going up north for Thanksgiving?”

“We’re scattered for that. Not that big ball of wax,” he repeated. “A resort for my sister, in-laws’ for my brother, my aunt in Maine for my parents.”