Read Promise for Free Online Page B

of deep, shaky breaths. She dialled the FACS number and planted her feet firmly on the cool tiles.
    The woman who answered was reassuringly businesslike. ‘How can I help you?’
    Anna described Charlie turning up at her place the night before and the bite on her leg.
    ‘How big was the bite?’ asked the woman.
    ‘Well, I think it was the size of an adult bite. I bit myself . . .’ She paused. Did this make her sound a bit nutty? ‘. . . just to compare and it looked like an adult one.’
    ‘And what was the colour of the bruising on the bite?’ The woman was typing.
    ‘Oh. Quite dark. Purply-black. And there was a little bit of broken skin and old blood . . .’
    ‘Did the child say anything to you about the bite?’
    ‘No. She was asleep.’
    ‘Alright.’
    The woman’s voice was neutral but Anna couldn’t help feeling that she should have woken Charlie and asked her. And she should have taken a photo.
    ‘And how did she come to be at your house?’
    ‘She just turned up on my back doorstep. There was no one at home with her. I took her over to her place and went inside but there was no one there. They only moved in a day ago.’
    ‘What day was this that she turned up at your house?’
    Anna felt less shaky as the phone call went on. The woman had an air of efficiency and competence.
    ‘Did the mother seem drug-affected when she arrived home?’ she asked.
    ‘Well . . . maybe. She seemed a bit . . . out of it.’
    The woman asked detailed questions about what the man next door said when Dave and Anna knocked on his door.
    ‘And do you know if the girl goes to school or preschool?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Anna said. ‘I was at work yesterday. But it didn’t look like she was getting ready to go to school.’
    ‘Okay.’ The woman typed some more.
    ‘We’ve also called the police.’ Shit. The police would be there soon.
    ‘Alright. That’s good.’
    ‘So what happens now?’
    ‘Your report will be forwarded to the local office for further assessment. And please, do call back if you have any reason to suspect that the child’s at risk.’
    Anna hung up and sat there for a while, listening to the sounds of Dave washing up. How many reports would it take before they helped that little girl next door?
    She was making a cup of chamomile tea when she heard a car pull up outside. From the front window she saw a cop car, double parked. Somehow, the fluorescent markings and shape of its rooftop lights were the opposite of reassuring. Dave stood barefoot on the footpath and spoke briefly to the male and female cop. Anna watched from the window, hoping the guy next door wasn’t also looking out. Dave seemed satisfied when he came back inside.
    ‘They’ll notify FACS too,’ he said and poured himself a glass of water.
    ‘Good.’
    She dropped her teabag into the compost bin. ‘What if he does something crazy after the cops go?’
    ‘I’ll be here. And if he does, then he’s even more of a moron than he seems.’ He rinsed out his glass. ‘Your house is secure. We can call the cops again if need be. We’ll be right. And I think you should stay at my house tomorrow.’
    He smiled and pulled her into a warm hug. He’d once said that he loved that she was so self-sufficient. She felt far from self-sufficient tonight. She really needed him there.
    •
    She lay beside Dave in bed, her veins still zinging, listening for anything from next door that might indicate what the police were doing. All she heard was someone walking up the hall and the occasional rumble of a man’s voice. The cops must have laid eyes on Charlie already. She must be okay.
    Dave lay with his back to her, his breath already steady and slow. She spooned behind him and pressed her nose against his back.
    Anna’s mum and dad would step in whenever they saw kids in trouble. Even the day after her mother’s death, Anna’s dad pulled the car over for a lost-looking kid on Byng Street. Anna was in the back – there was no way she