The Dollmaker's Daughters (Bo Bradley Mysteries, Book Five) Read Online Free Page A

pretended not to notice the fabric restraint vest across the girl's chest or the sheepskin-lined leather wrist cuffs belted loosely to the bed frame. She knew what they felt like. It wasn't good.
    "You might not remember me, but I saw you last night at Goblin Market," Bo began. "I work for Child Protective Services, and—"
    "Kimmy's gone," the girl said, her voice whispery and too high. "Kimmy isn't here anymore."
    In the pitch and childlike delivery of this news Bo recognized the flutter of hysteria. If the desperate train of thought, whatever it was, were not derailed, the girl's anxiety might escalate beyond her control, carrying her body with it. The predictable thrashing about for which restraints had been invented.
    "I like the name you chose—Fianna," Bo said clearly and with no emotion. "The Fianna were brave and strong, long, long ago. Let me tell you a story about the Fianna. About the battle the Fianna waged against Murf, the Norse king, and his fleet of big ships with iron shields on their sides."
    "Murf" had come from nowhere, and the battle Bo described as monotonously as possible had never happened. The point was to bore the girl down from hysteria with a flat, sequential, and impersonal narrative. Like most of the female gender, Bo guessed, Fianna would find descriptions of men throwing spears at each other a total yawn. But tracking the boring story might have a calming effect.
    "And that's how the Fianna saved Ulster," she finished without noticeable punctuation, "and I want you to tell me your real name."
    "Janny," the girl answered sleepily. "Or Janet or Janice. I don't know. I think it's always been Janny, though."
    "And your last name?"
    "Malcolm. Like Malcolm X. You know."
    "Yes," Bo droned on, "a black political leader who was raised in foster homes in three different states before going to prison for robbery. I'm going to make a phone call right now, and then I'm going to come back and teach you how to stay calm. While I'm gone you're to repeat to yourself the story of the Fianna and King Murf, okay?"
    "I don't believe his name was Murf."
    "Might've been Wurf. Just do it."
    "Wurf?"
    "Just do it," Bo insisted from the hall. "It will help you keep it together until I get back."
    The girl wasn't psychotic. Bo felt a certain pride in having been right all along. Something was wrong, something so frightening that Janny Malcolm had no resources for coping with it. But with help she could follow a distracting story, regain control of herself, answer questions.
    "Madge," Bo said from the phone at the nurses' station, "I've got the girl's name. You can track her through the foster care office and call the foster parents. Something's happened to this kid, but right now what she needs most is security and familiarity. And I'll need to talk with her caseworker about getting her in to work with a psychologist. She's messed up, but I think it's situational rather than a real psychiatric problem."
    "Good work. Bo," the supervisor answered. "What's the name?"
    "Malcolm. Janny Malcolm."
    Bo heard a sharp intake of breath, followed by silence.
    "Madge?” she said. "What's the matter?"
    "I... I just tore a nail on the edge of my desk," Madge said, her voice shrill. "And it won't be necessary for you to stay on this case any longer. It can be closed now that the foster parents are available. I want you to come back to the office immediately. Estrella just got a case I feel is too dangerous for her in her condition. I want you to go out with her on the preliminary investigation."
    "Sure," Bo said. "It'll just take me a few minutes to document the reasons for releasing the hospital hold." Then she replaced the phone thoughtfully in its cradle.
    There wasn't any hospital hold, Bo knew. Janny Malcolm's paper workup at St. Mary's had never been done because the staff had assumed the girl would be transferred to another hospital after the shift change. And there would have been no reason for a legal hold in any event, since