Free The Longest Winter by Harrison Drake Page B

asked if we could help him look. I felt bad so we did. We went to a parking lot because he said that’s where she usually walks. I don’t know what happened. I just remember waking up in the room and my neck was sore. Jacques was there too and we were both…”
    “It’s okay, Claude. You can tell me. I want to help.”
    “We were tied up, but not like for fun. One time Jacques and I played cowboys and he tied me up but it wasn’t tight and I got out without even trying. It hurt when we woke up though. The ropes were tight and scratchy. They really hurt to get out of.”
    “I’m sure they did, but it was very brave of you. I don’t know if I could have done it.” Claude beamed a little. Even if it was hard for him to think about, and even if he didn’t always feel strong, it made him happy to hear how proud people were of his strength. “Did he ever tell you his name?”
    Claude shook his head. “We just called him ‘the man’.”
    “What did he look like?”
    “He just looked mean.”
    “How so?”
    Claude thought for a minute. “Just scary. He was really big and he always looked angry or sad, never happy. I tried to be nice to him. I thought if he was happy he would let us go. It just made him madder.”
    “Some people are like that. It’s sad, but you did a nice thing trying to make him happy.”
    “I didn’t want to be nice, I just wanted him to let us go.”
    Kara put her hand on Claude’s knee. “I know. But still, you’re a good kid.” Kara paused for a moment. “I have to ask you a harder question now, okay? I know you can answer it though, you’re pretty tough.”
    Claude nodded. “I… I think I’ll be okay.”
    “Do you remember anything else about how he looked? Anything unusual?”
    “Oh, he had a broken tooth at the front. One of the kids in my class has one but he wears a retainer with a fake tooth. And he had a scar under his eye.”
    “Do you remember which side?”
    Claude pointed to his right cheek. “Right here.”
    Kara was elated. Claude’s description, though vague, matched what Virginie had said back at the house. Max was their suspect.
    “Okay. I need to know what he did to you. Can you tell me that?”
    Claude took a deep breath and gulped, then he reached for his Jello and took a spoonful. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “I know, but remember that anything you tell me might help us catch the man and bring Jacques back, okay? You’re the only one who can help us right now.”
    Claude finished his Jello and looked at Kara with tears in his eyes. “He hit us, a lot. Jacques would try to make him mad so that he wouldn’t hurt me, but that meant Jacques got hurt a lot worse.”
    “What did he hit you with?”
    “Just his hands. And sometimes he kicked us. Like if we were lying down when he came in, he’d kick our legs and tell us to sit up. He kicked really hard though.”
    “Was he wearing boots?”
    “Yeah, big ones. Like construction workers wear. The beige ones.”
    Kara nodded. “Did he do anything else to you?”
    Claude shook his head, but Kara knew he was trying to hide from the truth. “I need to know, Claude. I can’t imagine how hard it is, but I really need you to tell me what happened. Did he touch you,” her eyes moved to below his stomach, “there?”
    Claude started to cry, his face scrunched in a mix of fear and confusion. “I don’t want to talk anymore. I want to watch TV.”
    Kara shifted in her chair. “Okay, that’s okay. If you remember anything else though, if you want to talk about it later, you tell your parents to call me, all right? I know it’s really hard to talk about some things, but I just want to help.”
    Claude nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. There was sadness written all over his face. Kara could see in his little brown eyes the sense of failure that had taken over, a sense that he had failed not only her but his brother.
    “It’s okay, you gave me a lot of good