“Come on, Liam,” she announced, loudly enough that the word carried.

“I’m taking you home with me right now.”

I stared at her, and then I turned to look at Liam, and the thing that told me everything was that he was not surprised.

There was no confusion on his face, no what-are-you-doing-here.

He had been expecting her.

And in that instant his mysterious phone call from twenty minutes earlier snapped into perfect, sickening focus.

He had not called for help for his daughter.