“I hate this.” She went to the living room, where Livie was watching a movie with talking fish.
He was going to have to brush up on kid movies.
Livie grinned at seeing them. “Are you going to watchNemowith me?”
“No, honey, we want to talk to you a minute.” Kendall sat next to her, then turned off the movie.
No longer banished to the end of the couch, he settled on the other side of his daughter. He took out his phone, went to the list of questions he’d made, then handed his phone to Kendall. He held up her phone that he’d picked up from the kitchen island. “I’m going to record this.”
“Okay.” She scanned the screen, closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath. “We need to talk to you about the man who took—”
“No, Mommy! No talk about bad man.” She put her hands over her ears.
Cooper gently pulled a hand from her ear. “Princesses are brave, right?” The look of suspicion she aimed his way wasn’t encouraging. “You’re a very brave princess. You can do this. Wejust need you to answer a few questions for Mommy. You like baseball, right?”
“I love baseball.”
“So do I. After you tell us what happened, a policeman is coming to talk to you. Then after he leaves, you know what?”
“What?”
“You and I will go outside and play some baseball. I’m a very good baseball player, and I can teach you how to be a good baseball player, too.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. So, can you be a brave princess and answer some questions for Mommy?” This little girl owned his heart, had him wrapped around her finger, and there was no place he’d rather be. He couldn’t wait to tell her he was her father. Would she be happy about that? Would she call him Daddy?
“Okay.” She looked at her mother. “You can ask me questions ’cause I’m a brave princess.”
Kendall smiled, first at Livie, then at him, and he wanted to wrap both these girls in a protective shield and fiercely guard them so that nothing bad ever happened to them again. He would protect them with his life if it came to that. He held her phone out to her so she could face activate it, then he set it to Record.
“Very brave,” Kendall said. “Here’s the first question. Can you tell us what the man looked like?”
“He was fat.”
“Very good. What color were his eyes?”
Livie stared up at the ceiling. “Um. Black.” She lowered her gaze to Kendall. “His eyes scared me.”
“Why was that?”
“They were…” Her gaze went to the ceiling again. “Crazy eyes.”
Cooper was surprised that at almost five years old, she could comprehend crazy eyes. She was answering the questions, so he stayed quiet, afraid if he spoke, she might clam up.
“He was stinky, too,” Livie said.
“Stinky how?”
“He smelled like Mikey.”
“Like cigarettes?”
“Yes!”
Who the devil was Mikey?
“Mikey mows our yard, and he does smell like smoke,” Kendall said. She glanced at the phone. “Did the man say anything to you?”