Love Metamorphosis

Chapter 17

                  

"I brought you something to color with," Jemma said sitting down across from the little girl, "I bet you can draw a beautiful picture for me."

She opened the container with all of the crayons, and every color winked at her before she set them in front of the little girl. The child waited a moment before reaching for a blue one and started coloring in a lake. Jemma sat there quietly, watching her work and waited until the girl's shoulders were a little less tense. Children were less likely to be able to verbally express themselves and often lied aloud for various reasons.

More than once Jemma had used drawing as a way to allow a child to express their true feelings. The little girl looked up and Jemma smiled back at Lucy Johnson with a reassuring smile. Their family was hiking in the woods when Lucy fell down and split her knee open. When the doctor came into look at her knee she went ballistic and started screaming.

When the nurse came back in to calm her down the doctor told her to check for any physical abuse. The nurse found vaginal tearing that was likely a month or two old. When the parents were informed of the abuse they asked Lucy what had happened and the little girl had lied. She choose her bus driver to be the culprit.

The bus driver not only had no behavior that matched a typical sexual predator but he ended up admitting he was gay. He had already been reinstated but the damage had been done. Once he was no longer a suspect they figured out that she was lying and the police officers confronted her. She broke down and started saying he was going to kill her, and she couldn't say who it was.  Jemma was called in shortly after that incident and here she was attempting to discover the truth from a very frightened young girl.

Sexual assault was most times caused by someone that the child knew, it made it easier to lure them into those situations. Children were as complex as adults sometimes, but their naivety caused them to react to fear in different ways. Children rarely understood the repercussions their lies would cause, and have a tendency to lie compulsively from fear.

"What a pretty horse," Jemma said leaning over the table, "Does she have a name?"

The little girl didn't stop drawing and answered almost silently, "Kendra."

"I had a dog name Kendra when I was growing up," Jemma said, a bit of the bending of truth but she wanted to build a connection, "She was a lab, and she use to play with all the kids in the neighborhood."

"My friend Rosemary has a puppy named Max, he likes playing with us." Lucy said giving Jemma her first genuine smile.

"Is Rosemary your best friend?" Jemma asked, picking up a crayon and started drawing a flower.

"We had a fight." Lucy said softly. Her little face scrunched up as though she may start crying as she set the picture with the horse aside and started another.

"Why don't you give her a drawing of Kendra and Max playing together so you can be friends again?" Jemma suggested, drawing another little flower next to the poppy she had drawn.

Little tears started forming in her eyes, "She is mad at me for lying because her mom said lying is a sin and only bad people sin. She said she can't be friends with a bad person."

"If you were to tell the truth you wouldn't be a bad person anymore. I am sure Mr. Monroe, your bus driver, would understand you were just scared." Jemma said gently before leaning forward, "You are much better at drawing than me, what should I draw next to my flowers?"

Her little eyes grew big and round as she looked at Jemma, "I can't tell the truth he will know I told."

"What should I put by my flowers, Lucy?" Jemma insisted, she couldn't let hysteria take hold of her again.

"A butterfly," she went back to drawing, "Butterflies like flowers."

"What colors should I make the butterfly?" Jemma asked, she wanted her to keep drawing, if she did eventually every emotion would be poured onto the paper in hidden clues. Hopefully the detective working the case would be able to piece together whatever Lucy drew.

"Pink and orange." She replied decidedly.

They sat in silence while Jemma quietly drew her butterfly, she was as slow as possible to let Lucy finish one picture and start another one. She had to be careful what she brought up, she couldn't ask the child directly or fear would overtake her. Even asking indirectly was out of the question, Lucy had erected an illusion around herself about what had happened.

Holding up the picture Jemma smiled and asked, "Do you like my butterfly?"

Lucy looked up and grinned, "She has a smile."

"She is happy to see you," Jemma said setting the picture down in front of Lucy, "I want you to have this."

She smiled and picked up the one she had just finished, "You can have this one then."

"A fair trade," Jemma said smiling, "I am going to get us some snacks, I am starving. Will you color me another one while I am gone?"

Nodding she kept scribbling away while Jemma stood and went out into the hall. The picture in her hands was of a house, it had black clouds overhead and all the windows were blacked out except one. In the one window at the very bottom, like a cellar window, there was a picture of a face looking out of the window; Jemma was sure it was Lucy.

Detective O'Hara was a rough sort of woman who could almost be called pretty if it wasn't for the scowl on her face. She was newly transferred from homicide into special victims unit, which was the primary department that handled children abuse cases.

"Whose house is this?" Jemma said holding up the picture.

"Looks familiar," she said taking the picture, "I will re-canvas the street to see if it is on her block."

"Check the ones that are around where she goes for flute lessons." Jemma insisted looking over the top of the picture.

"Why do you say that?" Detective O'Hara said, caught off guard.

Jemma reached over the top of the paper and pointed at a small black rectangle, "That looks like an instrument case."

6x֐�,