Stuck

Chapter 13

~Ziva's pov~

She looked at Anna with a questioning look, waiting for her to talk, when the bus stopped.
Anna stood up. This was their stop.

They walked after Anna and when they got off the bus, they followed her in a fast pace through the more quiet part of the city.

Anna started talking.

'Carmen has had a tough few years.
Two years ago, she got married to an afwul man called Max. That man first got my sister pregnant.
She gave birth to a little girl and she called her Nicky, after our mother. She had brown hair and green eyes, just like Sarah.'

She stopped talking and turned into an empty street.

'But Max started acting strangely. After a few weeks, he always wanted to give Nicky her baths. He told Carmen he loved the way Nicky laughed when she was in the water.
But it was not because of love. When Nicky was a few months old, Max killed her by drowning her in the bathtub, after he gave her one last bath. Carmen walked in on him, but it was too late. Max ran and Carmen called the police. They tracked him down. He's still in jail.'

She saw the pain on Anna's face, her pitty for her sister when they looked at each other.
She kept her face in a pokerface. Tony did too.
But when they looked at each other, his eyes spoke for him. And she knew hers did too.

'Carmen was inconsolable. She became depressed and didn't come out of her house. One day, I stopped by at her place and came in, I had the keys. She...'

She stopped talking and blinked the tears away.

'She attacked me when I came closer. She kept yelling her daughter's name. Then she collapsed. They took her to a mental institution. I haven't seen her since.
She stayed there for about a year, but she escaped, somehow.'

They followed her and they got to a big house that appeared empty.

'I think she must have come back to where it all happened. This is Carmen's old house...'

She looked at the house.

'We will have to go in and get Sarah back then.'