Page 44 of Legacy Ascended

"I'm not asking him to."

"No," Elise says. "I didn't think you were."

Torres says, “And the man with the pistol?”

“Still alive. Still under guard. Frances has questioned him three times.” Elise closes the flap on the case and puts both hands on top of it. “He's given three accounts. The dates move, the names change, and he lies about things Frances already knows because Benny was there.”

“What about the pistol?”

“He won't say where it came from.”

“Won't say?”

“Won't say. Frances has asked him every way he can think of. He stops talking when they get to the weapon.”

“Does Benny know?”

“No. He'd never seen it before.”

“I want the questioning. All of it.”

“It's already being sent here. Frances assumed you'd ask and had it copied.”

“And I want him out of that valley.”

“So does Frances.”

I wait.

“He's trying to figure out how to turn him over without giving anyone the location of the valley. He can't exactly call the authorities and tell them he has an armed man being held somewhere he's not willing to identify.”

“No.”

“Frances asked me something before I left.”

“What?”

“He wants to know if you'll come back.”

Torres's hand goes still against my neck.

I think about the bedroom with the shutters, and the courtyard, and nineteen children being hurried toward the shelter while a man stood there with a gun. A six-year-old at a window.

“Not yet,” I say.

“That isn't no.”

“No,” I agree. “It isn't.”

Elise breathes out.

“Do you want me to tell him anything else?”

I look at the canvas case under her arm, with four pages in it that an old woman wrote because her grandson asked her to.

“Tell him I read Marla's statement.”

Elise's eyes go bright. She blinks once.