"What's that from?" he asked.
And then I told him. He listened, his face changing from mere curiosity to concern and then anger. He signed with Echo and learned her story as well.
"You were right not going directly to Mrs. Westington with all this." he said. "Wait here,'
He left us and when he returned, he had two hospital security guards with him.
"I've called the police," he said. "They're on their way. I just spoke with Mrs. Westington and without revealing anything, asked her when her daughter was coming to see her. She told me she was supposed to be here in about twenty minutes. She had phoned her from some attorney's office."
"What should we do?" I asked him.
"Just wait here. I'm having one of the nurses bring you something to drink and eat. I've asked her to attend to your wrists as well. Just sit in that chair and rest," he said, his face taut with anger.
"We would like to see Mrs. Westington."
"Soon," he said.
He pulled the security guards aside and spoke to them before leaving again. The nurse brought us some food and juice and we ate and waited. She put some antiseptic on my wrists where they were skinned and then bandaged them.
A policeman arrived with a detective shortly afterward. She introduced herself as Detective Temple. I told her what had been done to us. She was yen' interested in knowing more about this man Bill, who supposedly was keeping my car. I told her I didn't know anything else. She asked me a lot of questions about Skeeter. When I described his tattoos, she looked very happy.
She stopped talking when we heard Doctor Battie in the hallway. He was speaking to Rhona and Skeeter, who had just stepped out of the elevator.
"Your mother has been moved to another room," he said loudly enough for us to hear. "The first door on the left down the hall," he told them, which was where we were.
The hate, anger, and fury I had in me was soon to plant a smile of satisfaction on my face, a smile as full of delight and contentment as one on a well-fed cat. Rhona, her right hand grasping her portfolio of documents, entered first. Skeeter followed with his hands in his pockets, his eves down, his lips in a grin. She stopped and gasped and he looked up, the shock reverberating through his lips and into his eves.
"How the hell did you two--" he began.
"Shut up." Rhona said, looking at the policeman standing to their right and the detective on their left. The hospital security guards stepped up behind them.
"Sanford Bickers." Detective Temple said, "you're under arrest for parole violation, suspicion of drug trafficking, grand-theft auto, and illegal detention of a minor."
The policeman with her stepped up to Skeeter and put his hands in cuffs.
"Rhona Westington, you're under arrest for illegal detention of a minor and suspicion of accessory to drug trafficking and grand- theft auto."
She was placed in handcuffs as well.
"This is ridiculous," Rhona said. "That girl is making all this up. She's a lesbian, a stray my foolish and sick mother took in, and she was raping my daughter. We caught her in bed with her. Just ask my daughter. Go on. Ask her." she said,
Detective Temple ignored her and recited their Miranda rights. All the while Rhona glared at me and I stared back at her. I had Brenda's eyes now. They wouldn't waver.
"You won't get away with this!" she screamed at me. Skeeter kept his head down.
They were both led back to the elevator,
"I'll be up to the house in about two hours," Detective Temple told me. "I'll get a full, detailed statement from you and I'd like you to show me where you were kept and with what you were tied up as well."
All the while I hadn't looked at Echo, who had been sitting frozen in the chair to my right. No one had really looked at her. While Rhona and Skeeter were arrested and read their rights, she had been crying and she still was. I jumped up to comfort her. Doctor Battie came in and helped me calm her. He told her that her grandmother was asking for her and it was very, very important that she not look upset or it would agitate her grandmother. She sucked back her tears quickly. I took her into the bathroom and helped her wash her face and fix her hair.
"Don't tell her anything about what they did to us." I signed and spoke. "It could make her sicker." She understood and nodded.
Then we went to see Mrs. Westington. The moment she set eyes on us, her face lit up with such joy that it brought tears to mine. Aside from my own parents. I doubted anyone would be as happy to set eyes on the likes of me. Echo ran to her and hugged her.
"I knew that girl was lying to me about you. I pretended to believe her," she said. "There's more than one way to skin a cat and she's a cat that needs skinning. Now what's going on here? When am I going to hear the whole truth, every nitty-gritty detail?"
Doctor Battie, who was standing right behind me, cleared his throat. I looked up at him.