Her face drew tight. “I’m not smart. I’m retarded.”

“Well, you can be retarded and smart at the same time. So listen carefully, all right?”

Sarah didn’t answer.

Decker said, “In this world, there are good secrets and there are bad secrets. The good secrets are things like … well, when your sister buys you a Christmas present and doesn’t tell you about it even when you ask. Does that ever happen to you?”

She smiled. “Yeah, that’s happened.”

“That’s what you call a good secret. Your sister, Louise, wants you to be surprised, so she doesn’t tell you. A good secret. Do you understand?”

“A little.”

“See? I told you, you are smart.”

Her smile widened.

“Sarah, bad secrets are when people do bad things to you … then tell you not to tell anyone. Those bad secrets … those secrets you can tell. Those secrets you should tell. Especially to me or to Officer Decker because we’re the police. You can tell a police officer those secrets.”

“They said not to tell the police.”

“They told you not to tell?”

Both the Loo and I were doing some quick reassessments.

I said, “There was more than one boy who told you not to tell?”

Sarah said yes.

Decker said, “Those boys … Sarah, look at me.”

She lifted her face and glanced at my father. He said, “Those boys are very bad boys. I don’t like those boys.”

“I don’t like them, too,” Sarah said. “They hurt me.”

“I’ll bet they did,” Decker said. “Where on your body did they hurt you?”

Louise looked away, but I could see the tears in her eyes. But Sarah talked calmly about it. “On my bottom … They hurt me on my bottom.”

Dad looked at me to continue, but I gave him a slight shake of the head. This was too important for me to ruin. He said, “Did they put things in your bottom?”

Tears rolled down her cheek as she whispered yes.

“I told you they were bad boys,” Decker said. “They were very bad to do that to you. What kind of things did they put in your bottom?”

She didn’t answer, her eyes squeezed tightly.

“Was it sex? Like the drawings that they showed you in school?” he asked her. “Did they put the boy’s thing in you? You know what I mean … the thing that makes a boy a boy?”

She turned away.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Decker said. “You don’t have to talk. Just nod.”

She nodded.

“Where in your bottom did they put it?” Dad paused. “Did they put it where you poop or where you pee?”

Sarah said, “Where I pee.”

“Those boys … ,” I said. “They did sex with you.”

“I didn’t like it at all. It hurt!”

“I’m sure it did.”

“It hurt like when the baby came out.”

“I understand.”

“Not like with David.” She covered her mouth and abruptly giggled behind her fingers. “Oops.”

Decker and I exchanged glances. I said, “David was your boyfriend, right?”