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Rita swallowed thickly. “She was?”
“Yeah. We were fifteen. The cops tried, but they never caught her killer.”
“They didn’t try hard enough, then.”
“You sound like I did back then. I thought that, too. Pop and I looked for her killer. The detective who handled her case helped us. He tried and we tried, but we’ve never found the guy who did it.”
“Not all cops are like you.”
She sighed. “I suppose that’s true.”
Rita drew a breath and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Is that why you became a cop?”
“It is. After Wren died, it was all I ever wanted to be.”
“You did it,” she said, sounding a little awed. “You came from this place, from the system, and now you’re... important.”
Kit’s first reflex was to deny that she was important. Her job was important. But this girl needed to know that she could be important, too, so Kit nodded.
“Never could have done it without Mom and Pop. I know the others have already told you this, but you’re in a good place, Rita. The McKittricks are the very best people on the planet. So many of us have gone on to have amazing lives and they are the reason. I mean, we’ve put in the work, but they’ve given us support all along the way. What do you want to do?”
She shrugged again. “I like dogs.”
“And cats?”
Her smile was small, but true. “Cats are pretty cool.”
“Then aim to be a vet. Or a vet tech. Or work in a shelter. That’s probably something you can do right now, the shelter bit. I happen to know that one of the teachers at your new school organizes a group of volunteers who work at the animal shelter every Saturday morning.”
Rita’s eyes, still a little wet, widened. “Really? Who?”
“Miss Hubbard.”
“I have her for social studies. She’s old.”
Kit leaned in a little closer. “Spoiler alert: she was my teacher, too, way back in the day. She is getting older, but she’s really nice. Five stars. Would totally recommend.”
“I’ll ask her.”
“You got a phone?”
Rita pulled an older-model smartphone from her pocket. “My mom got it for me, but I couldn’t use it for a long time after she was gone. No plan. Mr.McK helped me get a new plan.” She seemed suspicious of the kindness. Kit understood that, too.
“You want my number? You can call me if you need to talk. If you get my voice mail, I’m probably working, but I’ll call you back as soon as I can.”
Rita’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You do that for all the strays here?”
Strays. It was what Kit had called herself for years after arriving at the McKittricks’ home. “You sound so much like I did at your age. And how old does that make me sound?”
Rita smirked. “Pretty fuckin’ old.”
Kit ignored the profanity. At Rita’s age, she’d said so much worse. She mock scowled instead. “You want my number or not?”
“Sure, why not?”
Rita’s careless tone didn’t fool her. “Then let’s do the AirDrop thing.”
They exchanged numbers and fell into a comfortable silence, Rita lazily petting Snickerdoodle, who soaked in the attention.
