“Supposedly there was a guy … that crazy girl’s father … but I don’t know. We keep our private affairs private around here. Heard things, though, you know?”
“What kind of things?” Annie asked.
“Fights … yelling … screaming … but eh, that’s like birdsong on this damn street.”
“Do you think she was … battered?” Annie thought to ask.
“Only so many times a person can fall down the stairs,” Bonnie said, which was answer enough.
“Did you know Vince Rapino?” Grace decided to go for broke. “Was he around much? Was he the boyfriend?”
“Rapino? The auto guy? Hell if I know. Whoever it was didn’t want to be seen, that much I can tell you. Came and went mostly at night. Didn’t want to be a part of that kid’s life, and I only know that because Rachel would complain about him, but she’d never tell us his name. Nobody knew who that kid’s father was, and really what business was it of ours, anyway?”
“So why’d she move away?” Jack asked.
Bonnie produced a hearty laugh. “Hard to live in a place when there’s no house.”
“No house?” asked Grace.
“Look around ya,” Bonnie said, motioning to the tired-looking homes lining Duke Street. “That house there might be small, but it’s the newest on the block.”
“Why’s that?” asked Annie.
“Because a bunch of years ago, the house on that there lot was nothing but a pile of ash.”
“A fire?” Jack asked.
“Arson,” said the woman. “That crazy girl who killed her mama? She put a curtain inside the toaster and let it heat up until it caught fire. Burned the whole place down. Miracle my house didn’t go up in flames, too. I thought DCF would get involved, but the police chalked it up to shit happens. Look, I gotta go. Sorry I can’t be of more help.”
Bonnie slipped back into her dark house, closing the window before Annie could say good-bye. Grace wasn’t thinking about issuing a polite farewell. All her thoughts were on the single sentence Chloe had uttered …
Burned it all up, but she didn’t go away.
CHAPTER 47
WHEN MITCH GOT HOME from work that night, he tried to distract himself with some mindless television, but it was to no avail. He was still ruminating on his dinner yesterday with Adam and Caitlyn at the rehab facility where his son remained a resident. The conclusion of his thirty-day program was in sight, and he wished to extend his stay another thirty, a request to which Mitch readily agreed.
If he wasn’t thinking about Adam, and his failures as a father, he was thinking about Penny and worries that he was going to fail her, too. The trial was fast approaching, and he knew the verdict was very much in doubt, but at least now he could take the stand and answer Navarro’s questions about DID and the case with something of a different mindset. He understood it was within his power to do everything he could to help this girl, but just as with Adam’s recovery, the ultimate outcome was not within his control. He was free to fail, which meant he was free to try his best, time and time again—and what more could anyone expect or ask of him?
He wished he had more to give Navarro. Something was missing from Penny’s story, something vital. He was sure of it. In their work together Penny had revealed much to him, but not the most important information. What happened that night?
He went to his desk in the study, which was really Adam’s bedroom, and spread out the drawing Chloe had done. His focus went to the billowing smoke pouring out of the toaster.
Grace had shared with him the shocking discovery she’d made on her trip to Duke Street. Young Penny, or Isabella, age three and a half, or four, had burned down her house by putting a curtain inside the toaster.
Grace had used the drawing and what Chloe had said—“Burned it all up, but she didn’t go away”—to target Maria, but now he thought it was conceivable, probable even, that it wasn’t symbolic at all. It was an actual memory from her past.
So who is she? Mitch asked himself. Is she Rachel? Or was Penny trying to rid herself of an alter?
Was the fire an attempt to escape from some peril, or did it mark the initial appearance of an uncontrollable rage within?
Questions … questions … questions …
Mitch recalled what Penny and her alters had said about her birth mother while experiencing episodes of dissociation.
She’d get the bucket.
She’d go to prison.
She’d be hurt.