Page 48 of Keeping Amanda
“I know. But the woman I talked to today wasnothinglike the one I’d gotten to know. She was emotionless. Almost…blank. And when I said I was thinking about adopting Bibi? You know, the youngest little girl? There was a look in her eyes that actually scared me. I think she wants Bibi for herself.”
“So she what, arranged for over twenty kids to be kidnappedbecause she was…jealous?” Buck felt Mandy stiffen against him. “I’m not disagreeing with you,” he said quickly. “Just trying to understand, and playing a bit of devil’s advocate. It’s how my team and I prepare for missions sometimes. When we try to figure out how things might go.”
“Sorry. I just…there’s something else. Blair was explaining that it would be safer if I wasn’t there because when the rebels hear that I was actually in the jungle, and managed to escape from them, they wouldn’t be happy. They’d come back for me in retaliation or something.”
“It’s not an impossible scenario,” Buck said rationally.
“Yeah, but she said when. Notifthey heard, butwhen. How would they find out unless they had some connection to the school?”
It was Buck’s turn to stiffen. She wasn’t wrong. Thatwassuspicious.
“What if she arranged for the rebels to come? To take some of the kids? It’s no secret among the staff that the older kids aren’t her favorite. She seems almost annoyed by them most of the time. I didn’t think much about it, since she left their care to others and spent all her time with the younger ones. But the day we were taken? The older and younger classes were combined for a special art lesson. On a normal day, there only would’ve been eight kids in that classroom—the kids who were ten and up. Six boys and two girls.”
“To what end would she arrange something like this?” Buck asked. He wasn’t feeling warm and fuzzy about anything she was saying. Of course, there was no proof that Blair was involved. But he couldn’t dismiss Mandy’s suspicions.
“To get rid of the older kids? To make more room for younger children?”
“But kids grow up. The girls and boys she loves today will be older in a few years.”
“I realize that, but…God! I don’t know.”
“What about you? Were you supposed to be there that day?”
“Yes. I worked mostly with the older kids.”
“Then what if it wasn’t the kids she was hoping to get rid of…but you?” Buck asked into the quiet of the room.
When Mandy didn’t respond, he went on.
“You said yourself that she was especially fond of Bibi, but the girl had bonded with you. What if she was pissed about that? What if she arranged for the rebels to come to the school, but they were only supposed to takeyou? Or maybe you and some of the older boys, to make it look legit?”
Mandy shook her head. “They ordered me to leave with the rest of the staff. I refused.”
But she sounded unsure about that…
Buck urged Mandy to roll to her back. He was hovering over her now. Her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were red. Her hair was once again sticking up all over the place, which he found endearing and adorable.
“Close your eyes. Think back to that day. I know it’s difficult, because it was extremely chaotic. Think about what was said, what the rebels did. This time, keeping in mind your suspicions about Blair…look at the scene from a new perspective.”
She did as he requested, closing her eyes and furrowing her brow as she thought back to that day.
“They burst into the room, scaring everyone half to death. They had rifles and they pointed them at all of us. They ordered the children to one side of the room and the adults to the other. Then started separating the boys from the girls. They…” She hesitated, then gasped slightly. “One came over to where I was standing with Bibi, kind of in the middle of the adults and kids. Bibi was crying and wouldn’t let go of me. The man grabbed my arm and shoved us both toward the door.
“Things got crazy and confusing then, Barry tried to bum-rush one of the men and he was shot, freaking out all the kids even more. They all started screaming. The rebels seemed topanic, and they started pushingeveryonetoward the door, all the kids. The guy still had a hold of my arm. He was pulling me along, but he didn’t have to bother. I went willingly. I didn’t want to leave the children.”
“Did they try to take any of the other volunteers?”
“No. They all ran out a side door as soon as the kids started screaming.”
“And was Blair there?”
“No. But that’s not unusual. She didn’t teach on a daily basis. She was probably in her office in the other building.”
Mandy’s eyes opened, and she stared up at him. “If she did arrange the kidnapping, what now? We have no proof. Nothing to prove that I was the target, or that she wanted the older children gone for some reason.”
Buck hated this. Hated that Blair had hurt Mandy’s feelings by dismissing her so abruptly today. And now she’d caught on to the fact that there was potentially something really bad going on at the orphanage. That a woman she knew and trusted might have betrayed her in the worst way. But they didn’t have proof, and Buck wasn’t sure what, if anything, could be done about it.
“Tomorrow, we head home. I’ll talk to my friends, see if we can’t get someone to look into what’s going on down here.”
