FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 43 ~~~~~

The detective looked surprised, I suppose anyone would who wouldn't ignore a child's words, given how so many saw my Dad, he was liked by a lot of people. I looked away not wanting to see him suddenly laugh almost mocking-like, like the detective lady. Who would believe a three-year-old after she was just attacked by her mother? But the man that was with her, the other detective with blond hair and blue eyes, seemed to listen. But then he was gone.

"Who..." the detective asked. "Who did your father kill?"

Now it was my turn to look surprised. Would he listen to me? Hear me out and not judge me because of my age?

The problem was my Dad hurt many, so many that I couldn't keep track, too many to count. I don't even know all of their names. I didn't know what he did to them, only that if they were rude, or something like it, towards him or me, then they would be gone not long after. I wasn't even sure how many he had done this too. Only that it was something he seemed to enjoy.

So, I could only say the one that I was most certain of and go from there.

"My mom, probably..."

"Probably?" he repeated.

"I don't remember to well, she tried to kill me, tried to strangle me to death and my Dad saw." I say as I reached for my throat with my left hand. I could still feel my mother's hands even after four years. But I couldn't remember my Dad's face, that's the one thing I couldn't remember. There were a lot of things during that time that were hard to remember, if at all. "The next thing I knew, I woke up with him taking care of me, and she was gone. But then, that always seems to happen."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"People who hurt me, disappear. But for my mom I'm not sure... deep down I feel like she's dead but I'm not sure why I think she might not be."

The detective was silent, thinking, before asking. "You mentioned other people, did you see your father do this? To someone else?"

I opened my mouth to answer only before I had the chance to say anything else, my Dad's voice called for me.
"Amalie," I turned to see him, smiling happily, looking at me with love before extending his hand. "It's time to go home, Sweetie."

His soft smile said it all.

He heard everything I said to the detective.

Without a word, I get off of the chair and placed my paper cup in the recycling bin before stopping to look at the man still sitting in shock. "Goodbye Detective, I hope you catch Mr. Green and give him what he deserves." I then went to my Dad's side and took his hand as we turned to leave.

"Wait a moment!" he shot up from his chair, looking worried. "Mr. Hilmarsson did you ..."

I gripped my Dad's hand tightly while looking at the Detective, silently asking him not to say it aloud. That if he did, at some point, he'd disappear, just like those who were mean or rude or did something to anger my Dad. I didn't want him to die.

"Freddie, just let him be," the lady detective said, coming over with a sigh. "He's free to go, we have nothing else to ask him."

The detective looked like he wanted to say something, but when he looked at me, his expression changed, he realized that he shouldn't, at least, I hoped he did.

"Well, if there's nothing else, we will be going now. Goodbye detectives." My Dad then looked down at me with his smile before we continued.

But I could hear the detective talk to the woman in a hushed voice. "Song, I thought you said that what was on the girl's phone was suspicious, why are you letting him go?"