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you.”
    Harper was still for a while, then nodded with downcast eyes.
    I was silent for a long time, sitting with the woman who had replaced me and trying to find the anger to shield myself from everything that hurt.  The anger didn’t come.  Instead, I told her something that even my counselor hadn’t been able to pry out of me.
    “I was locked in a room too, you know.  He said I was going to get sold like a piece of meat and raped if I was lucky, killed if I wasn’t.  I screamed so many times.  I screamed, just like you.  But nobody ever came for me.  How come nobody ever came for me ?  I thought everybody forgot me.  I…”
    I buried my face in my hands and cried like a baby.  The world disappeared into self-induced darkness and I lost track of it until I felt Harper wrap her arms around me and hold me tight.  My mind balked at the idea.
    Not you!  Not you!
    I tried to push her away but she wouldn’t let go, she held me all the tighter and hushed in my ear.
    “Nick missed you when you were gone.  Everybody did.  They still do.”
    I gave up and went slack for a moment, then tentatively put my arms around her too and let my tears make a wet patch on the shoulder of her t-shirt.  She didn’t feel like an enemy, she felt like a sister.

Cha pter 12
    November 2013
    Dean
    How they managed to get Harper Bayliss in and out of town without temporarily tripling the population I had no idea, but they did it.  Even though I’d been there when Christie had made her demands on the phone, I didn’t think it would happen.  Not in only two days, and not without causing a lot of crowd control problems anyway.
    Dan Abrahams had radioed in that Nick and ‘some actress named Harper’ had knocked on his window to tell him that she was going in to meet with Christie and to please be on guard if there was any sign of paparazzi or any other kind of trouble.  He also asked if any of us had heard of her.  Dan wasn’t a big moviegoer.
    Apparently she came out after a good long while, looking a bit shaken but leaving with a polite wave in his direction.  After that, everything had been quiet at the Jayne household, back to the routine by all accounts.  Even when I had my shift on Jayne-watch, as it had become known amongst the guys, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary except for Christie staying inside as the weather turned a bit colder.
    My next day off was comparatively warmer than the preceding days, though the morning frost still clung everywhere in the form of dew, and I decided to have another crack at getting Christie out of the house.  I felt like a high school kid again, turning up at the doorstep only to be greeted by the disapproving glare of her dad.
    I pointed at King.  “Visitor for Christie?”
    “Sorry Dean, she doesn’t want to see anybody.”
    “Could you double check?  She did say she’d come out and help me give King a bit of exercise.  We’ll keep her safe, I promise you that.”
    Mr. Jayne looked like he’d been having a lot of restless nights himself and deflated a bit.  I had to wonder how worried he himself was about Christie’s self-imposed captivity.
    “OK.  I’ll check,” he said.
    To my relief, Christie rather than her dad came back to the front door.  She looked as tired as ever, that brief burst of energy when she’d focused on Harper now a thing of the past.
    “Hey Christie, I really need your help, King’s getting fat.”
    The German Shepherd wagged his tail at the mention of his name, and Christie looked down at him with whatever fondness she could muster, given her energy levels.  She brought her eyes back up to me and seemed to be searching for the right way to decline, but then gave up and shrugged.
    “OK.  Why not?  Mom? Dad?” she called out and waited for the response. “I’m going out, I’ll be back in…” she turned back to me.
    “Couple hours, tops,” I said.
    “A couple hours,” she finished.
    Her mother stepped into the