Poppy froze. What the hell was Katie’s mother doing here? In this store? Despite the hair and boy clothes, had she recognized Katie and followed them in? Poppy couldn’t see how anyone could spot Katie unless they were right on top of her, but maybe mothers had like an instinct for their own child.
All right, she told herself, stay calm.
Still holding Katie against her pounding heart, she made a half turn, slow and casual like.
The store was filled with.women. None of them seemed to be staring at her or Katie.
“Don’t point,” Poppy whispered. “Just tell me who it is.”
“By the door,” Katie said softly in her ear. “With the big hat.”
Poppy saw her now: Big dark glasses, wide floppy straw sun hat, the kind you could buy anywhere along the boardwalk, worn over a silk scarf wrapped around her head. Either she was allergic to the sun or thought she was like in disguise.
And she didn’t even know they were here, right behind her. She was too busy staring out the door, watching the man who had to be Katie’s father.
That was it. Dear old Dad must have told Mom that they were getting their daughter back today and the poor woman just couldn’t stay away.
That lump in her throat again: She absolutely had to give Katie back to her folks. It was the only right thing to do.
And suddenly Poppy realized she’d been presented with a totally golden opportunity to do just that.
“Look, honey bunch,” she whispered, “I’m gonna put you down and let you go to your mother. You—”
“No!” Katie’s arms tightened around her neck. “I don’t want to!”
“You gotta, honey bunch,” Poppy said, deeply moved that Katie wanted to stay with her. “You gotta go back. Your mom will take you back to your dad.”
Katie straightened and looked around. “Daddy? Is my daddy here?” Poppy wondered at the change in Katie at the mention of her father. This was definitely Daddy’s little girl.
Like I was… once.
“Not right here. But he’s close by. You go with your mom and soon you’ll be with your dad too. Okay?
“ ‘Kay.” Poppy put her down and straightened her Jets shirt.
She bit her lip to keep from crying. I gotta get out of here before I start blubbering.
“You be a good girl, now,” she told Katie, crouching before her and smoothing her Chopped hair. “And you have a good life. And maybe you think of me once in a while, okay?”
“ ‘Kay.”
Poppy gathered her in her arms again and held her tight, never wanting to let her go, but knowing if she didn’t get out of here right now she’d explode.
“I love you, little girl.”
“I love you too. Poppy.” She forced herself to release Katie.
“Why are you crying?”
“Because I’m going to miss you.” She wiped her eyes on her flannel sleeve. “But here’s what you do. Wait a second or two while I go outside, then go up to your mother and say, ‘Hi, Mom.’ Can you do that?”
Katie nodded, her blue eyes flicking back and forth between her mother and Poppy. “But where will you be?”
“I’ll be outside.” Not a lie. She would be outside—far outside, and getting farther every second. “Got that? Wait till I’m outside; then go up to her.”
“Kay.” Poppy straightened and took one last look into that little face.
She touched her cheek, then somewhere found the strength to turn and hurry past Katie’s mother—still fixated on the phones outside—and stumble into the afternoon sunlight.
Feeling as if she’d torn out her heart and left it behind, among the souvenirs, she made a sharp right and kept her head down as she forced one foot in front of the other away from the boardwalk.
She made it down the ramp to street level, was vaguely aware of the mass of Rally’s on her right and a vacant lot to her left, but then the building pressure in her chest wouldn’t let her go any farther. She stumbled into the shadow of an empty loading dock, sagged against a wall, and began to sob.
9
“Hi, Mom.” Mamie started and turned. This little boy, this ragamuffin with orange hair was tugging on her skirt and looking up at her. She brushed his hand off.
“Get away,” she said. “I’m not your—” Those eyes… those blue, blue eyes…
She looked closer.
“Oh… my… God!” It was Katie! Feeling faint, she dropped to one knee and grasped both her shoulders.
“What has he done to you? Your hair! Your clothes!”
“Poppy—”
“Is that what he has you calling him now? Poppy? What else does he have you doing?” She wrapped Katie in her arms, but the child didn’t return the embrace. She remained stiff, wooden. Almost as if she were afraid. John’s work—no question about it. Here was proof positive of how he’d been filling the child’s head with terrible lies about her mother.
Suddenly Mamie was furious. John was such an expert at twisting the truth. And now he was twisting Katie—in body as well as soul. Look at her! How could he do this to his own daughter? What sort of perversion was this? Coloring her hair and dressing her like a boy? She sensed sickness here.Deep sickness. Sickness the courts should know about, should see with their own eyes…
A wonderful idea leaped full blown into her mind.
“Katie,” she said. “I’m going to take you home.”
Suddenly Katie seemed to relax. “Goodie! I want to see Daddy!”
Poppy… Daddy… the poor child didn’t know what to call her father.
Mamie glanced out at the boardwalk. John was still by the phones. The negligent bastard! Leaving poor Katie alone in here while he waits for a call. But from whom? Some bimbo? Or worse—someone who liked little girls dressed up to look like boys?
Her stomach turned. It was a sick, sick world out there, and little girls like Katie needed to be protected from exploiters—especially if their father was doing the exploiting.
John was staring out at the ocean. Now seemed like the best time to move. Mamie lifted Katie and carried her from the store, keeping Katie’s face and her own averted from John.
A matter of fifteen seconds and they were down on the street and out of sight of the boardwalk.
Mamie breathed a sigh of relief and set Katie back on the ground. She took a firm grip on her hand and led her toward Bally’s parking garage.
“Where are we going?” Katie said.
“To get the car.”
“And then we’re gonna see Daddy?”
“No. Then we’re going to the airport. We’re flying back home.” I’ve got a lawyer and a judge who’ll be very interested in seeing you just as you are. And then they’ll change their exalted opinion of Dr. John Vanduyne.
Katie pulled her hand free. “No! I want to see Daddy!”
“You will. I promise you.” When he has to appear in court.
“I want to see him now!” Mamie grabbed Katie’s upper arm and yanked her to ward the garage’s glass-enclosed elevator area.
“No arguing now. Come along.”
“No!” Mamie felt her anger rising. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed people standing nearby on the sidewalk. She didn’t want a scene here. As she pulled Katie inside the glass enclosure, she raised her voice, yet kept it cloyingly sweet for the benefit of anyone within earshot.
“Come on, baby,” she said. “You can press the button when we get into the elevator. It’s three. You know three, don’t you?” An elevator stood open and Mamie gave Katie the bum’s rush through the doors.
“No!” Katie cried. “I don’t want to be with you! I want to be with Daddy!”
That did it. Before she knew what she was doing, Mamie jabbed the“3” button herself, then gave Katie a well-deserved slap across her whiny little face. The sound echoing harshly in the tiny elevator cab as the doors slid closed.