Page 33 of Professor Next Door

18. Tara

“Hey guys! What’s up?” Amanda came bouncing in, her face going blank as she saw our intense gazes.

“Galen’s been accused of murdering Kayla.” I didn’t speak loudly because Rikki was playing on the floor with her dolls. I knew little pitchers have big ears.

“What? What are you talking about?” Her gaze skittered to Rikki before coming back to me.

“It’s not clear right now. I think they’re trying to claim some kind of neglect led to her... demise.” My own eyes skidded to the little girl I adored, not wanting her to hear anything.

“Ah! Gotcha! John, do you want to come in the living room with me?”

We had piles of papers stacked on the kitchen table and we’d been going through them for hours now. Financial reports, work schedules, tax papers, police reports, photographs, testimonies, legal documents regarding Galen’s parental rights—it was all there, but nothing had struck a spark of interest yet. We were going through some papers that had obviously been Kayla’s before she married Galen when Amanda came in.

John went into the living room with Amanda, their words low and quiet, and I glanced over at Rikki.

“You alright, baby?” I gave her a smile and held my hand out to her. She got up from the floor and came to me, her grin missing a tooth or two still. She hadn’t grown them yet, poor little angel.

“Missh Daddy, Tar-wah!” She was used to her father being home by now and she’d woken from her nap early, she was going to hit cranky-land soon.

“I know, baby, I do too. Do you want to have a snack while we wait?” I pulled her up to my lap and she rested there happily, pushing the papers in front of me.

“Who’s Kayla?” She asked the innocent question but it made me freeze. How could she not know her mother’s name?

“What do you mean, honey? Don’t you know who Kayla is?” That was just weird.

“No, is she pretty?” She looked up at me from underneath my chin, her fingers still pushing at papers.

“Yes, she was. I’ve seen pictures of her. You don’t know who your mommy is?” I wasn’t sure how to handle this.

“She’s not my mommy! My mommy’s name is Mommy! She died.” I felt relief mix with pain at the same time. That’s why she doesn’t know her name. Nobody’s ever told her that her mother’s name was Kayla! I found it heartbreaking how she said her mother was dead so matter of factly.

I realized that for a two-year-old, there wasn’t much to miss. She had her father, his friends, and now Amanda and me. One day, it was going to hit her though, I just knew it. Maybe soon if her father was accused of murdering her! I wasn’t going to allow it. Rikki had been through enough when she lost her mother. I knew what that was like.

Someday, some kid was going to tease her because she didn’t have a mommy and just a daddy. Some kid was going to make sure she knew that was weird, different, and it was going to tear poor little Rikki apart. I knew it was worse to think you were unwanted, but Rikki had been wanted, hadn’t she?

“Ah, no, honey. Your mommy’s name was Kayla. Here, let me see these.” I dug through a stack of pictures until I found one I knew to be Kayla. “This is your mommy. She was pretty wasn’t she?”

Rikki took the picture studying it for a while before she put it down. “Why did she die?”

“She had an accident, honey. There wasn’t anything anybody could do to help her.”

“Oh. So it wasn’t ‘cause-uh me?” Her green eyes looked up at me for the truth, her expectations that an adult wouldn’t lie to her clear by her innocent question.

“No!” I emphasized the word, hugging her close. “She loved you a lot, Rikki. A whole lot. Buckets of love!”

“Alright. Snack now, Tar-wah?” She was back to her usual self now, all self-doubt gone as she climbed down and went around to the fridge.

I made her a snack and we sat at the table as she ate. She’d outgrown her bottles now, with the help of Amanda and me, but she wanted her sippy cup to take to the couch with her. I put some juice in one and went to turn her favorite cartoon on. It was getting late and Galen still wasn’t back yet.

Was he still at the police station or somewhere else? Had they arrested him? My anxiety was growing and the only way I had to relieve it for now was by going through more of the boxes. Amanda and John came back in to take up the search and once more, we started going over the contents of the boxes, hoping to find an answer that would keep Rikki’s daddy out of prison.