Page 130 of The Newcomer
“Had you ever seen the man before?”
Maya nodded. “Uh-huh. I mean, yes. At the store Letty took me to. When we hided in the bathroom. I’m not s’posed to talk to strangers.”
“That’s right. If I showed you a picture of some strangers, could you tell me if one of them was the man you saw in the store?”
“Uh-huh.”
Joe held out his phone and scrolled through the photo lineup he’d hastily assembled. White males, age thirty-five to forty.
She studied each of the six photos, finally pointing at one. “That’s the bad man.”
“Okay.” He held the photo up to the video camera. “She’s identified a photo of Declan Rooney.
“Is this the same man who grabbed you this morning?”
“Yes.”
Letty hadn’t realized she was holding her breath, but now she exhaled.
“Good work,” Joe said. “What happened after the man picked you up? Where did you go?”
“We went to the cave.” She clamped her hand over her nose. “It was stinky in there. Like poo-poo.”
“By cave, do you mean the big concrete pipe? The culvert at the edge of the parking lot at the motel?”
“Yes. It was dark.”
“What happened next?”
Maya scrunched up her face as she thought back to the morning’s events. “He taked my picture with his phone.”
Letty leaned forward and exchanged a worried glance with Joe.
“What happened after that, Maya?”
“He said, ‘Say “Hi, Daddy.”’”
“Dear God,” Letty murmured.
Joe motioned for Shauna to stop recording.
“What happened to Rooney’s phone? Is it with his effects?”
“It’s in the trunk of my vehicle in an evidence bag,” Shauna said.“I’ll get it.” She rushed from the room and five minutes later handed the phone to DeCurtis.
He thumbed through the camera roll on the phone. The most recent photos were a series of three blurry photos of the little girl, wide-eyed with terror. One was a video. He tapped the arrow. “Hi Daddy,” Maya said, choking on the words.
“Look at this,” Joe said, handing the phone to Letty. He tapped the text button. A phone number appeared, along with the video of Maya. “Recognize that number?”
“That’s Evan’s number,” Letty whispered. She could hear the roar of blood in her ears. How many times had that number popped up in her own phone logs while she worked for Evan? Hundreds probably. “He was texting a video of Maya to Evan.”
Joe shook his head. “But it looks like the text didn’t transmit.” He displayed the text message to Letty and Shauna. “Maybe because he was still in that concrete culvert.”
“I don’t understand. How did Rooney know about Evan?” Letty asked.
Maya put her milkshake cup down on the table. “I wanna watchPAW Patrol.”
“Okay,” Shauna said, her tone bright. She unclipped the video camera from the tripod and extended a hand to the child. “Can I watch with you?”
