Chapter 5

“Estoy un policia. Usted esta seguro.” I’m a cop and you’re safe.He’d practiced the assurance often enough that it came easily.

Although he did not get the sense the person was reassured, the rags and tatters shifted some more as an angular form emerged. He wasn’t sure if it was a child or a very small adult. After the refugee stood, he identified it as female and probably in her early teens.

“?Como se llamo? ?Esta usted herido?”

The girl gathered her hair and shoved it aside, out of her eyes. She stared at him then, tense as a deer in the headlights. She appeared poised to leap, even though she had to see she could not get past him to escape through the door.

He could see smears of blood on her arms and hands, streaks of it on her ragged, too-small dress, but no obvious wounds. “?Esta usted herido?” he repeated.