Tannin looks at me. “I understand you spent some time with this girl in the tunnel.”

“Just a minute or so before I went for help,” I tell him. “And I stayed with the hostages while the locksmith cut off the shackles.”

“Did I hear right when someone told me you used to be Amish?” he asks.

I smile, but the expression feels tired on my face. “You heard right.”

“I’m not opposed to your taking her statement.” He looks from the deputy to Tomasetti and back to me. “She might be more comfortable if you ask the questions to night.”

“I’m game,” I tell him.

He motions toward the door and the three of us walk into Bonnie Fisher’s room. She looks small and pale and vulnerable lying in the hospital bed with an IV hooked up to her arm. It’s a vast improvement over the wild-eyed, desperate girl I discovered in the tunnel. Her hair is still damp, and I suspect a nurse must have helped her shower after leaving the ER. The only physical signs that betray the ordeal she went through in the tunnel are the sores on her mouth and the purple bruises on both wrists.

But while the girl’s physical wounds are minimal, I suspect the damage to her psyche is significantly worse. Bonnie Fisher now possesses the face of a victim. There’s a shadow in her eyes that denotes a certain loss of innocence, and I know she no longer believes the world is a safe place or that people are fundamentally good.

“Hey.” She offers a tremulous smile when she sees me and lifts her hand. “It’s you.”

“Call me Katie.” I give her hand a squeeze. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I just took a shot of tequila,” she tells me. “Less the burning throat.”

“The doctor told us he sedated you. He said it would help you sleep.”

“I’m afraid to go to sleep.” She looks out the window at the rain and darkness beyond and a shiver moves through her body. “I’m afraid when I wake up, I’ll be back in that place.”

“You’re not going back into the tunnel. You’re here and you’re safe. Okay?”

She nods.

“Did the doctor tell you that your parents are on their way?”

“The nurse told me. I can’t wait to see them.” Her eyes fill with tears. “I want my mamm.”

“I know, honey.” I reach out and squeeze her arm. “Do you feel up to answering a few questions?”

She looks beyond me at Tomasetti and Tannin, but her gaze drops away quickly. “I guess.”

I pull up the chair next to the bed and tug out my notebook. “Bonnie, we need to know how you got into the tunnel. Can you tell us about that?”