One of the women that we had met earlier raced in front of us holding her hands out to us pleadingly.
“Please! Don’t kill her. Please!” she begged. “She’s my daughter!”
Craig immediately lowered his weapon. I let out an odd sigh of relief. I had saved this young girl’s life by forcing Craig to hesitate and stand down.
“Fine!” he growled and kicked the ground in frustration. “You just need to take her and lock her up!”
“She was! She got out when I was trying to bath her. She always loved her baths,” the woman began to mutter as if she was speaking to herself. “And when I got back, I couldn’t find her until-” she choked off and tears fell from her eyes in torrents.
“Until…” I promoted gently.