Truth or Lies? by A. Gomez (books to get back into reading TXT) 📕

in one room. We can’t squeeze fifty people in our largest therapy room. The most we can do is thirty and that’s including us.”

“How about we flip it this time,” I declared. “How about we hold our session out here and we send the parents in one of the therapy rooms to wait. This reception area is perfect, with its circular layout. We can see everyone and they can actually be a little closer to us. Everyone else on this floor has gone home so it’s basically deserted. The elevators are so far down the hall that if anyone were to come up, one of us could excuse ourselves and go redirect them.” I eyed Patti and Ben speculatively. “What do y’all think?”

“I think that’s a great idea,” said Patti. “I’ll go tell the parents.”

“Ben,” I began, “do you see any security problems with this idea?”

He shook his head. “I think we’ll be fine, Isabel. There are several agents around inside the building and outside so it should be secure.”

“Whew! Glad to hear it. I don’t know what I would have told you or done if you had said no, because come hell or high water this group therapy is happening now.” I smirked at him, my twang super prominent since I was beginning to feel tired again.

He raised his eyebrows at me, not really sure if I was joking or if I was serious. I quickly told him to bring out some chairs for us so we could begin, not really giving him a chance to think. I strode back to Pam’s office to let her know we were ready to start.

The kids that knew each other were all chattering while the new kids were getting up for more snacks and water. Agent Stems and Alex were sitting on the floor together at the very back. I waved at both of them. Surprisingly, they both waved back and were both grinning. I was actually just expecting Alex to be the only one waving back but Stems seemed to be more down to earth than Ben. I guessed it wasn’t the FBI that made him so serious. That seemed to be his personality.

25

We took our seats. I casually leaned over to Ben and reminded him to not look so scary and smile. We greeted everyone and began with introducing ourselves again. Patti took the lead and reminded everyone that this was a safe place and no matter what, what was said here stayed here. She added that this was all on the honor system, however, if anyone betrayed or hurt the group in any way, they would no longer be invited back.

“I’ll never do that, Dr. Patti!” one of the regular patients chimed in. “You guys have awesome snacks!”

“Yes, there is that.” Patti giggled. She asked the new attendees to introduce themselves by their first name only and to tell us something about themselves. They all just looked around at one another, no one wanting to go first.

“I’ll go first,” Alex stood up, rubbing her hands on her thighs. “My name is Alexandra but I go by Alex.” She paused, thinking about what to say next. “And I’m scared that I’m going to get killed by some Asian bad guys.”

We heard a few whispers and saw a few stunned faces. Alex was looking at the rest of the group trying to assess the atmosphere of the room. Then from somewhere in the middle of the group a small voice said, “Me too.”

“Whoever said that, would you mind standing up?” I asked. “We’re all friends here.”

A very small girl rose from the middle of the floor. She looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old. She had black hair pulled back into a ponytail, big brown eyes and was skinny as skinny can be. “I’m afraid very scary men are going to kill me, too.”

And then another girl stood up, saying “me too” and then another and then another and so on until almost all the kids in attendance were on their feet echoing Alex’s and this little girl’s words. Patti, Ben, Pam and I all stared at each other in stunned silence.

“My dear girls,” Pam began, “can you tell us why you think this?”

“Because Miss Debbie told us if we ran away, her boss would kill us,” answered the girl with the ponytail.

“Sweet girl, what’s your name?” I asked.

“It’s Rose, Dr. Isabel.”

“Thank you, Rose. I’m so glad you’re here. In fact, I’m so glad y’all are all here,” I declared.

Pam stood up to get a water. “Ladies, help me understand, what makes you think that this boss will actually be able to find you and kill any of you?”

“Because,” all the girls chimed in at once now, “he was able to kill Tori!”

The words hit me like a ton of bricks. These girls knew Tori. Ben slowly rose from his seat and stood behind us, scanning the halls and looking toward the elevators. No doubt, hearing these girls had put him on high alert. He glanced in Adam’s direction, nodded and then I saw Adam head for the rear exits.

Another girl, who sat back down, raised her voice to be heard above the other girls. “Tori was killed because she knew what Debbie’s boss looked like and was going to tell you, Dr. Isabel. Well, so do we. He’s afraid we’re going to tell the police who he is and that’s why he said he would kill us if we ran away. Tori told us to find you and so did Mr. Hong,” she offered. “Tori and Mr. Hong said you would help us.”

My suspicions were right, Tori was going to come here and tell us everything she knew. “Will you tell me who Debbie’s boss is?” I asked the girl. She didn’t reply. Her eyes flickered to Pam, Patti and Ben.