“It’s quite possible. It stops her from being difficult, right?”
“Bastards,” the nurse said. “Okay, I’m here, looking at her wrist. What is it you need?”
“Her left wrist,” Kate said. “Can you take a photo of the inside of it and text it to me, please, at this number?”
“Will do,” she said. “A couple scratches are here, but I don’t see anything else.”
“I need to see those scratches,” she said.
“It’s coming your way then. Give it a minute.”
“Thank you.” Kate hung up the phone and laid it on the table beside her. She took another bite of food but kept her gaze on the phone.
“What’s all this about scratches on the wrist?”
She held up her hand like a stop sign. “Remember that part about you not being allowed to hear my phone conversations?”
He fell silent, and, when her phone buzzed, she snatched it up, swiped to open the screen, and accessed the photo. She sank back and nodded, exhaling.
“As much as I didn’t want it to be,” she said, “it confirms what I was really hoping to confirm. Or rather hoping I couldn’t confirm.”
“I still don’t understand. What’s on her wrist?”
“A series of scratches, that’s all,” she said. “And in this case, pretty faint ones.”
“So, old ones?”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah. Old ones.”
“And what is it? What do they mean?” he asked.
“It’s like a club stamp,” she said sadly. She looked up at him. “And this little girl has been part of the club for a long time.”
He winced. “Are you talking about a pedophile ring? Is that what you mean? Are these pedophiles buying and selling children?”
She nodded slowly. “A lot of pedophiles won’t share, but there are others, in groups sometimes, who actually pass around their victims. And it looks like this little girl has been with this one guy for a while.”
“I hope you find him,” he said, “and put a bullet between his eyes.”
She snorted. “Yeah, not likely,” she said. “I have to work within the law.”
“I can do it, if need be,” he said, his tone harsh.
She glared at him. “No vigilante justice,” she snapped. But, inside, she understood his anger and his rage. “I get it,” she said. “We all do. But we still have to make sure we take them all down, not just this one.”
“If I can do something to help,” he said, “you just have to tell me.”
She looked up at him intensely. “Why? Why do you care?”
He said, “Show me that photo first.”
She knew she shouldn’t. But she couldn’tnotdo it either, so she brought it up and showed it to him.
“I need to be in on this,” he said, his gaze rising to stare at her.
“Hell no,” she said. “You don’t need to be in on anything.”
He turned his left wrist up and reached across the table, so she could take a look.