Alec looked over to see Jake taking notes then looked up to see the camera in the corner, the green light indicated it was recording. “Where were your mother and father when you yelled?” Alec asked Keely.
Keely shrugged. “It was too dark outside. I don’t know. We passed a McDonald’s.”
Alec gave her a small smile, and she smiled back at him. Her leg moved back and forth again. “How did you get the gun you were holding?” Alec asked, with no clear direction to his line of questioning. He’d keep the little girl talking until the story came together more clearly.
“My daddy was reaching for it to yell at the policeman like he yelled at his bad friend, so I took it to keep it safe so he didn’t shoot the policeman.” Keely explained all of this so simply, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary for her. “My finger made the gun go off, and the gun hurt my side.” Her free hand went to the side of the body.
“You’ve never told me that before,” Rosa said, concern evident in her voice.
“Because he said he was going to give me a spanking if I say things, but you said he can’t spank me anymore,” Keely said. Unable to argue with her logic, Alec nodded once at her explanation. Children were incredible little people.
“You’re brave to tell the truth,” Alec said to Keely as his phone chirped, alerting him it was time for his next meeting. “Jake, we need to get this in an affidavit.” He decided then, he’d have to ask Janice to take this case. Since Alec had been moved into CPS, he’d been treated like a leper in the office. No one other than Janice spoke to him for fear his reprimand—aka demotion—might rub off on them. Alec pulled a business card from the front pocket of his portfolio and handed it to Rosa as he got to his feet. “Can you stay for a bit longer?”
Rosa nodded, looking relieved. “I knew I should come.”
“Yes. We always need to know these things. Hang tight for me.” Alec turned to Jake at the closed door. “Can you stay with them until I get someone in here to help?”
Jake nodded, his fingers moving efficiently over the keyboard. Alec turned back to Keely. “You did good today.”
Keely nodded her agreement.
Alec left the room, shoving his notepad under his arm, and reached for his cell phone to call Janice. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted CPS. In less than a ten-minute conversation with the child, Alec was ready to promise the moon and the stars to get Janice to handle this case—nothing ever got past the woman. She wouldn’t allow Keely to slip through the cracks. As he lifted the phone to his ear, he wondered what he’d have to promise to get her to stop everything and handle this matter.
=?=
After a quick rap of his knuckles against the brightly painted wood, Keyes took a step backward, staring speculatively at the front door of a fancy apartment building in Uptown Dallas. It had taken him a good fifteen minutes of driving through the neighborhood, then another five more of checking the address, walking the length of the whole building, looking for Dev’s bike to prove he’d come to the right place. He hadn’t found the bike but went ahead and knocked on the apartment door. Worst thing that could happen was that he’d freak the shit out of the tenants with his scary biker exterior, and while they shrieked their horror, he could bounce, get the hell out of dodge, and call Dev the pussy he was for setting him up on this weird, not funny, practical joke.
A cute little blonde opened the door, and Keyes prepared for the inevitable fear to manifest in her eyes. Instead, he got a genuine smile. Though a good sign, it still didn’t answer whether he had ended up in the right place, so he stayed quiet and waited, ready to bolt if need be.
“You must be Keyes.”
His brows lifted. Okay. Keyes nodded and looked past the woman to see Dev walking toward the front door holding a blonde child in his arms. She couldn’t have been more than three years old and had her arms wrapped tightly around Dev’s neck.
Dev was easily six foot to the woman’s maybe five foot height. She reminded him of sweetness and sunshine. Keyes knew firsthand that Dev was covered in tattoos, neck to waist. His legs were his newest canvas, and his dark hair was a short, tousled mess that somehow looked naturally styled, but not by anything Dev did himself. The contrast between the two people standing before him was stark and made little sense. They were as opposite as two people could be.
“Come in, brother,” Dev said. The child actually fought to stay in his arms as he handed her over to the blonde, before moving past the woman and giving Keyes their standard slap hand greeting.