Read The Darkest Evening of the Year for Free Online Page A

wood ladle against the pan…
    The sounds seemed to come to Amy from a distance, to arise in a room far removed from this one, and when she heard her name, she realized that Lottie had spoken it more than once.
    “Oh. Sorry. What did you say?”
    “Why don’t you and Janet take their bags upstairs while I tend to the children. You know the way.”
    “All right. Sure.”
    Upstairs, two secondary bedrooms were connected by a bath. One had twin beds suitable for the kids.
    “If you leave both doors open to the shared bath,” Amy said, “you’ll be able to hear them if they call out.”
    In the room that had one bed, Janet sat on the arm of a plump upholstered chair. She looked exhausted and bewildered, as if she had walked a hundred miles while under a spell and did not know where she was or why she had come here.
    “What now?”
    “The police will take at least a day to decide on charges. Then Carl will need to make bail.”
    “He’ll come looking for you to find me.”
    “By then, you won’t be next door anymore.”
    “Where?”
    “Over a hundred sixty people volunteer for Golden Heart. Some of them foster incoming dogs until we can find each one’s forever home.”
    “Forever home?”
    “Before we make a permanent placement of a rescued dog, we have a vet make sure it’s healthy, up-to-date on all its shots.”
    “One day when he was gone, I took Nickie for her shots. He was furious about the cost.”
    “The foster parents evaluate the dog and make a report on the extent of its training—is it housebroken, leash friendly….”
    “Nickie’s housebroken. She’s the sweetest girl.”
    “If the dog has no serious behavioral problems, we find what we hope will be its forever home. Some of our fostering volunteers have room for more than visiting dogs. One of them will take in you and the kids for a few weeks, till you get on your feet.”
    “Why would they do that?”
    “Most golden-rescue people are a class apart. You’ll see.”
    In Janet’s lap, her hands worried at each other. “What a mess.”
    “It would have been worse to stay with him.”
    “Just me, I might’ve stayed. But not with the kids. Not anymore. I’m…ashamed, how I let him treat them.”
    “You’d need to be ashamed if you stayed. But not now. Not unless you let him sweet-talk you back.”
    “Won’t happen.”
    “Glad to hear it. There’s always a way forward. But there’s no way back.”
    Janet nodded. Perhaps she understood. Most likely not.
    To many people, free will is a license to rebel not against what is unjust or hard in life but against what is best for them and true.
    Amy said, “It might be too late to help the swelling, but you ought to try putting some ice on that split lip.”
    Rising from the arm of the chair, moving toward the bedroom door, Janet said, “All right. But I heal fast. I’ve had to.”
    Putting one hand on the woman’s shoulder, staying her for a moment, Amy said, “Your daughter, is she autistic?”
    “One doctor said so. Others don’t agree.”
    “What do the others say?”
    “Different things. Various developmental disabilities with long names and no hope.”
    “Has she had any kind of treatment?”
    “None that’s brought her out of herself. But Reesa—she’s some kind of prodigy, too. She hears a song once, she can sing it or play it note-perfect on a child’s flute I bought her.”
    “Earlier, was she singing in Celtic?”
    “Back at the house. Yes.”
    “She knows the language?”
    “No. But Maev Gallagher, our neighbor, loves Celtic music, plays it all the time. She sometimes baby-sits Reesa.”
    “So once she’s heard a song, she can also sing it word-perfect in a language she doesn’t know.”
    “It’s a little eerie sometimes,” Janet said. “That high sweet voice in a foreign tongue.”
    Amy removed her hand from Janet’s shoulder. “Has she ever…”
    “Ever what?”
    “Has she ever done anything else that strikes you as eerie?”
    Janet frowned.