Scream for Me by Karen Rose Page A

she held herself together well.”
    “I was actually talking about it being a shock for you.” Luke swung his feet off the desk and stood up. “I’ve got to be getting back now. Break’s over.”
    Daniel narrowed his eyes. “You gonna be okay?”
    Luke nodded. “Sure.” But there was little conviction in his voice. “I’ll see you later.”
    Daniel lifted the papers. “Thanks, Luke.”
    “Don’t mention it.”
    Ripples,
Daniel thought as he watched him go. They changed the lives of the victims and their families.
And sometimes they change us. Usually they change us
. With a sigh he turned to his own computer to look up the number for Fun-N-Sun. He had a victim to identify.
    Dutton, Monday, January 29, 1:00 p.m.
    “Here’s all the stuff.” Alex dumped it on the sofa in her hotel room. “Play-Doh, Legos, Mr. Potato Head, more crayons, paper, and more coloring books.”
    Meredith was sitting next to Hope at the little dinette table. “And the Barbie head?”
    “In the bag, but they were out of Barbies. You got Princess Fiona from
Shrek
.”
    “But she has hair we can cut? I’m thinking since Bailey was a hairdresser they might have played that way together.”
    “Yep. I checked. And I got Hope some clothes. Man, kids’ clothes are expensive.”
    “Get used to it, Auntie.”
    “You moved her from the desk in the bedroom.”
    “Had to. Wasn’t room for both of us to color in there and I needed a change in scenery.” Meredith chose a blue crayon from a pile. “Hope, I’m picking periwinkle this time. Periwinkle sounds like a happy color, like it’s winking at me.”
    Meredith continued to chatter as she colored and Alex could see this had been going on for some time while she’d been gone. There was a stack of pages with ragged edges that Meredith had torn from Hope’s coloring book. All were colored with blue.
    “Can we talk while you color?”
    Meredith smiled. “Sure. Or you can sit down and color with us. Hope and I don’t mind, do we, Hope?”
    Hope didn’t appear to even hear her. Alex dragged the chair from the bedroom desk up to the dinette and sat down, meeting Meredith’s eyes over Hope’s head. “Anything?”
    “Nope,” Meredith said cheerfully. “There are no magic wands, Alex.”
    Hope’s hand stopped abruptly, still clutching the red crayon in her small fist. She kept her eyes on the coloring book, but she’d gone completely still. Alex opened her mouth, but Meredith shot her a warning glance and Alex remained silent.
    “At least not in that sack from the store,” Meredith went on. “I like magic wands.” Hope didn’t move a muscle. “When I was little, I used to pretend celery stalks were magic wands. My mom would get so mad when she’d go to make a salad and all the celery was gone.” Meredith chuckled and kept coloring with her periwinkle. “She’d fuss, but she’d play with me. Celery was cheap, she’d say, but playtime was precious.”
    Alex swallowed hard. “My mom used to say that, too. ‘Playtime is precious.’ ”
    “Probably because our moms were sisters. Did your mom say that, too, Hope?”
    Slowly, Hope’s crayon began to move again, then faster, until she colored with the same focus as before. Alex wanted to sigh, but Meredith was smiling.
    “Baby steps,” she murmured. “Sometimes the best therapy’s just in being there, Alex.” She tore a page from her coloring book. “Try it. It’s really very relaxing.”
    Alex drew a deep breath, steadying herself. “You did that for me. Sat with me, when I first came to live with you. Every day after school and all that summer. You’d just come into my room and read a book. You never said a word.”
    “I didn’t know what to say,” Meredith said. “But you were sad and you seemed happier when I sat with you. Then one day you said, ‘Hi.’ It was days later before you said any more and weeks before you were carrying on any conversation at all.”
    “I think you saved my life,” Alex