Chapter 18

The nondescript sedan came to a stop in front of the small house, and all of its doors popped open at once.

Ron Harris grinned, as he was only half way up the walk to the house, with Julie, Bobby, and Collette trailing, when the front door opened. 'Well, she is the president of the neighborhood watch, after all, ' he thought wryly.

Muriel Wilson came out the front door and moved nimbly down the path to meet them. She smiled cordially to Harris, Bobby, and Collette, before moving to Julie and wrapping her up in a firm hug. Julie was not a tall girl, but she still stooped slightly to return the embrace of the little lady.

"I'm so glad you're all right, my dear," Muriel said happily, as she patted Julie on the back. Julie couldn't help blushing as the others grinned at the hugging pair. When they separated, Harris, Bobby, and Collette introduced themselves, which earned Harris and Bobby a hug as well.

"Thank you for looking out for me, Ms. Wilson," Julie said sincerely. She was careful to speak into Muriel's good ear, which she had warned the others to do as well. Julie only had infrequent conversations with her neighbor across the street, but they always waved and smiled to each other when Muriel was out working in her yard.

"Oh it was nothing anyone else couldn't have done," Muriel said modestly.

"That may be true," interjected Harris, "but you were the one that did, Ms. Wilson. Your reports, and the tapes of the 911 calls that you and Bobby here made that night, helped us know what went on."

"We're all grateful for what you did, ma'am," offered Collette respectfully.

"Well you are all most welcome," Muriel replied.

"Ms. Wilson..." said Julie tentatively, "Mr. Harris is helping me get some of my stuff from home." She jerked her thumb at the trailer across the street. "I'm going to be staying with Collette and her family for a while. I wanted you to know so you wouldn't worry."

"That's very kind of you, detective," Muriel said.

"Um..." continued Julie tentatively, "I'm not sure what my mom will do when we start taking my stuff out to the car, so Mr. Harris is here to help make sure... that it, uh, goes okay."

Muriel's smile softened somewhat as she looked at Julie. She turned and looked to the others.

"Would you excuse us for a few moments?" she asked gently.

"Uh, why sure," Harris responded. "We'll be down by the car."

Muriel reached out for Julie's hand. "Come with me, my dear," Bobby heard her say. She led Julie to her porch steps, where they both sat down, holding hands.

"I sure hope we can keep Julie out of that dump," Collette said angrily to Harris as she looked at the trailer.

"It's very kind of your family to take Julie in," Harris replied.

"We're glad to do it," said Collette. "My parents have been really cool about it. We just can't let Julie go back there if we can help it."

"And my parents are going to help too," added Bobby. "I hope that Julie can wind up with us."

They were startled to hear Julie begin softly crying. They looked back to the porch and saw that Muriel had pulled Julie's head to her chest and was softly stroking the sobbing girl's hair, while still speaking quietly to her.

After a few minutes, Muriel and Julie stood up, and went up the steps into the house. It was over ten minutes later before Muriel emerged and came down the walk to where Harris, Bobby, and Collette were standing uncertainly.

"Is, uh, is Julie all right?" asked Collette.

"She will be," said Muriel with a sad smile. "It's hard for her to see the good in what's happened right now. But in time she will, and she'll be stronger for it."

"What's happened?" asked Harris.

"Her mother came home yesterday," she said, with her mouth twisting as if she had just sucked on a lemon. "She showed up with a man in a truck, and they started throwing things from the trailer into it. It looked to me like she was sneaking off and abandoning Julie, so I went over and had a talk with them."

She shook her head in disgust.

"That's exactly what she was doing. She said she would never pay for Julie's hospitalization, and if she stuck around the city would come around to talk about it, and then they'd take Julie away from her anyway. So she figured she might as well clear out, and let the city go ahead and figure out what to do with Julie now.

"So I told them they'd better not be taking anything of Julie's or I'd call the cops on them. As far as trying to make her stay for Julie, I'm sorry to say I didn't. I know it's hard on Julie right now, but I had to agree with her mom — the sooner that bitch was gone, the better for Julie."

She looked embarrassed for a moment. "Sorry, excuse my language."

"You know, I'm getting pretty tired of people hurting Julie," said Bobby through gritted teeth.

Harris gave him a stern look. "So am I. But you were pretty damn lucky the last time you tried to help Julie all by yourself. You're lucky the Daddocks don't want any more publicity, or they'd insist you be charged with breaking and entering, assault, and who knows what else."

Harris didn't add that the Daddocks also didn't want to chance that Bobby's recording of their son would be played in public.

"But if you pull any stunts like that again, I'll throw the book at you, no matter how good your intentions are. Clear?" the detective said emphatically.

"Yes sir," Bobby replied, sounding frustrated. "I guess we should start figuring out how our parents can get custody of Julie, or guardianship, or whatever it is."

"I don't think that's what Julie wants," Muriel said gently. Bobby and Collette looked back at her in surprise.