“You were . . .” I looked at Simon. “Busy with your own problems. At least, that was what Kaylee thought, and I did, too. She convinced me that you’d only start worrying so much about us that you would be unhappy again, and we were both upset at how horribly Daddy had treated you. She said that would all be my fault if I told.”
“This is so unlike them,” Mother told Simon. “They’ve never done anything even remotely like this.”
“Do you know his name?” Simon asked.
“She told me a name, but I’m not sure it’s his real name.”
“What does that mean?” Mother demanded.
“He could have made up a name,” Simon said, “or your sister could have made one up. Right?” he asked, as if I was now the expert.
“Maybe,” I said. I turned back to Mother. “He might be right. I don’t know if she wanted to tell me his real name, so she could have made it up just to shut me up because I kept asking her.”
“Nevertheless, what name did she tell you?” Simon demanded.
“Bob Brukowski,” I said. “It never sounded real to me.”
“I can’t believe this,” Mother said, shaking her head. “This is not happening. It’s not happening.” She put her hands over her ears as if she could block out reality and return to our perfect world by closing and opening her eyes.
“It’s a problem all over the country now,” Simon said. “Young girls being exploited through computers.”
She pulled her hands from her ears as if they had been glued to them and made two fists.
“It’s not a problem for me! Or it shouldn’t be,” Mother said. The veins in her neck looked like they might burst. Her eyes were bulging, and her nostrils widened.
He pressed his thin lips together and nodded. A police patrol car pulled up to the curb, and two officers got out quickly. Simon turned and hurried to them, happy, I thought, to get away from Mother. He explained what was happening, and the officers came over to us.
“Mrs. Fitzgerald,” the taller one said, “I’m Officer Donald, and this is Officer Monday.” He took out a small notepad. “What’s your daughter’s name and age?”
“Her name is Kaylee Blossom Fitzgerald, and she’s sixteen. This is her sister, Haylee. They are identical twins, so you don’t need a photograph to recognize her,” Mother said. “Or you can take one of Haylee with your cell phone. There’s not an iota of difference between them, down to how many freckles they each have. They wear their hair the same way, and they are dressed in the same outfit, the same color tonight. They sound the same, too.”
Both policemen looked at me, astounded. The shorter one almost smiled at how ridiculous Mother sounded.
“Haylee,” Officer Donald said, “why don’t you tell us everything that went on between your sister and this man. Don’t leave out anything because you think it’s too small a detail or not important, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Why don’t you sit in our car?” he said, stepping to the side so I could do that.
When I started for it, Mother began to follow, but Officer Monday asked her to wait. I knew why. They thought I wouldn’t say things in front of my mother. Simon took her hand. When I looked back at them, their roles appeared reversed. She suddenly looked like his charity date. How ironic, I thought. He’s the one using psychology on her. It brought a smile to my face that I wiped away instantly as I got into the patrol car. The two officers got in and turned to me.
“So,” Officer Donald began, “tell us how this all started and everything you know about the man. We understand your sister told you his name?”
“She told me a name, but as I told my mother, I don’t know if that’s his real name. It was Bob Brukowski.”
“Did he send her a picture of himself over the Internet?” Officer Monday asked.
“I guess he did, but I never saw anything on her computer. I know only what she told me about him. Maybe she thought if she showed me his picture, I’d tell her he was too old for her or something.”
“So tonight you just know she was meeting this Bob Brukowski somewhere in this neighborhood, and the man was definitely older, and he was going to take her to his house?”
“Yes. She made a big deal about him being an older man and not a high school student. She was bragging about how much a mature man was attracted to her. I kept warning her, but she wouldn’t listen.”
“So what happened tonight?” Officer Monday asked. “How was this all set up?”
“She had a plan,” I began, and started to describe it. As I spoke, the belief that Kaylee really would never be back grew stronger and stronger. I half wished that I had been there hiding in the shadows and watching, like the director of a movie, when Kaylee had met him.
“Does your sister have a cell phone?” Officer Donald asked.