wrath of the Sea Queen (149 page)

"
It looks like she tr
ied
to protect Max; to hide him away; maybe draw somebody away from him.  It's hard to read because it happened several hours ago. 
At least, that's how long I think it
ha
s been.  Blood takes a little while to dry.
"

"
Blood?  Whose blood?
"
  Vin was alarmed by
the
limited
number of
possible answers
.

"
Easy
,
Vin
.  It wasn't much
;
a few drops on the floor in my room.  She might have cut herself on the
boards
she
pulled
loose
in order to escape
. 
Apparently, Max has been hiding in his room ever since, but I don't know
about
C
a
eli.  We need to find out what Max knows, but Vin, we need to go easy.  The boy has clearly been traumatized.  Did you see how he ran
directly out here
? 
This must be where he last saw her
.
"

"
Up there.
"
  Max wiped tears from his eyes, gasped out the words, and pointed to a spot on the top of the ridge.

"
What w
as she
doing
on the ridge
?
"
  Apela asked calmly.
 

"
She made the bad man let me go
.  Pretty C
a
eli
told me to run and hide.  S
he s
aid not to come out until
you
opened the door
, Papa
. 
She didn
'
t c
om
e
back to get me.  I've been waiting a long time.  I did what she said
, Papa
.  I was quiet and didn't come out.  Pretty C
a
eli will come back, won't she, Papa?
  The
S
ea
Q
ueen won't keep
her
, too
,
will she
,
Papa?
"
Max was sobbing again, and Apela was rubbing his back to calm him down. 

At the first mention of the ridge, b
oth Vin and Ben immediately climbed to the top and searched from one end to the other.  They
found only
a piece of
blue and
green fabric that looked like the same material as the blouse C
a
eli
was
wearing that morning
.  B
lood
, more than a few drops,
stained it
.  They returned as Apela was finally getting Max settled down.

"
There now, Max.  It's ok.  You're safe.  Mrs. C
a
eli made sure you were safe, didn't she?
"

"
Yes, Papa.
"

"
Good. 
You're all right,
S
on.  I
t's ok now.
  You did well.  I'm proud of you.
"
 

Vin added a comforting breeze around Max to hel
p settle the small boy's nerves and to help keep the increasing rain at bay.

"
C
a
eli
!
  C
a
eli, please answer me.  C
a
eli, where are you?
"  Vin attempted to reach C
a
eli through their link, but received only silence in response.  He could not hear her thoughts, nor could he feel any emotion from her.  Vin's first assumption was that C
a
eli must be unconscious.

Apela was able to get Max to tell them about baking cookies, the man in black coming into the lounge, and C
a
eli hiding him in the laundry room.  Max wasn't sure what happened after she left the laundry room
.  He only knew
that C
a
eli said she was going to lead the bad man away.  Max waited in the cabinet, but the bad man came back and grabbed him by the throat, carrying him down to the end of the ridge.

"
I thought he was going to throw me to the
S
ea
Q
ueen
, and I would never see Papa again, but pretty C
a
eli found us.  She would
n
o
t let him take me.  She said that he could not take me to pay for her, and she looked really mad at him.  I think she scared him,
and then
he let me go.  That's when she told me to hide
a
nd wait for Papa.
"

Vin's brow furrowed as he tried to sort through what Max was saying.  Only pieces of it made sense.  The rest of it
would have
to be
translated from
a child's
perspective
and was more difficult to
understand
.  He glanced over at Ben, hoping that he might be having better luck
with the translation
.  Ben was
rubbing his chin.  It was Salma who finally came through with the proper questions to ask.  Salma walked over and laid her hand gently on Max's shoulder as he
clung
tightly to his father
's neck
.

"
Max, did the bad man hurt you?
"

"
He pinched my neck, and I got cuts when he pulled me out of the cabinet, but they don't hurt anymore.
  I tried to be brave like pretty C
a
eli.
"

"
I will
get you some Band-Aids in a few minutes.  You
ha
ve been very brave to wait this long.  Max, can you tell me if the bad man w
as th
e
same man that
was
on the beach when you went for a walk with C
a
eli
this morning
?
"

Max's eyes got very big around as he nodded his head to confirm
Salma's suspicion
. 
Until she
called to him at the seminar
,
Vin hadn't even known that C
a
eli left the room.
  He must have been sleeping like a brick not to
have
notice
d
.

"
Salma, what
did C
a
eli tell you about that
man?
"

Vin wanted to
know
as much about the
encounter
as possible
.  He wanted to know if this man
did or said
anything to threaten C
a
eli. 
C
a
eli told him that nothing happened, but sometimes the things that C
a
eli considered to be nothing were more important than she realized.
  She often had a tendency to see the good a
nd overlook the bad in people.

Salma didn't answer.  Instead, she gave him a
stern
look
he
h
ad
already s
een
once on this trip
;
so Vin withheld any further interruptions.

"
Max, can you tell me one more thing?  Do you know if this man hurt C
a
eli?
"
  Salma asked in a very soft and sweet voice.

"Pretty C
a
eli
will need a bigger Band-Aid."

Tears welled up in Max's eyes again as he looked at Salma and then over at Vin.  Ben put a supportive hand on Vin's shoulder as he watched
shades of
anger and fear run across Vin's face.

"
C
a
eli, please!  Can you hear me?  Please, please answer me, Honey,
" Vin called desperately.

"It's ok, Max.  Can you tell me how she got hurt?"  Salma continued.

"
T
he
bad
man
hit her when she left
me in the towel cabinet
. 
T
hen she told me with her secret voice that
she
was
all right; that I should
not
be
scared
.  She told me
not to come out.
"
  Max seemed to gather his courage with that last statement and climbed down from his father's arms.  He walked over to Vin, who
had
turned away with his hand over his eyes.  Max tugged on Vin's pant leg
.  Vin made an effort to set his anger
and fear
aside before turning
to look down at the boy.