21 March 2014 – Hilltop Road, Lancaster, Massachusetts

“You’re sure you’ll be okay, Princess?”

“Dad, I’m almost sixteen! I’ve stayed home by myself before! I’ll be fine!”

“All right, all right … We’ve never left you on your own for this long, so that’s got me a little nervous. Set the alarm whenever you’re inside and keep the tablet near you.”

“Dad …”

“We’re leaving! We’re leaving!”

Alex and Ryan would attend a stay-over pre-season baseball camp this weekend at a college near Newton. They left for the camp’s hotel after school this afternoon. Her parents would take advantage of a standing invitation from her Aunt Mish and Uncle Mickey, two more of her dad’s Army friends, to visit them in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at the same time. While she liked Mish and Mickey’s kids, Sabrina elected to stay home and get some studying done.

Sabrina had no hockey commitments this weekend. With a bye in the first round of their league’s playoffs, Coach Savard gave his team the weekend off to rest up before practice resumed Tuesday afternoon. She put her teaching schedule at Sensei Doug’s on hold until hockey season ended. With a season as long as the U19 league’s, the downtime was welcome.

She killed part of the afternoon talking to Moose on the phone. Her parents told her she could have him over if she wanted, which she did, but he was on his way to visit his grandparents in Vermont, so the phone call had to suffice.

By late evening on Friday, she’d already finished her homework and even read ahead in all of her subjects. She fixed herself a simple dinner and curled up on the couch in the living room to watch a movie. When the phone rang she picked it up without even looking at the Caller ID screen.

“Hello?”

“It’s the little bitch!” she heard a voice whisper to someone else. “Hello, you whore,” the voice sneered to her at a louder volume. “Home all by yourself this weekend? We saw your family leave.”

Sabrina sat silent, her mind whirring. The blinds were all closed, the doors were all locked and the alarm set, but she still looked around to check all of those things.

“What, no answer? My friends and I will enjoy breaking your cherry before your life as a real whore begins. Maybe we’ll come to visit you this weekend?” The voice’s tone and the obvious message made her angry, and that anger built by the moment.

“There isn’t a single one among you and your little friends that would know how to do that, asshole,” she sneered back. “I’ll bet that none of you can get it up without one of the other’s hands on your little dicks!”

The only sound over the open line was that of rapid breathing from the caller as he tried to calm himself.

“Bitch …” he snarled. “Bitch, you’re gonna have a terrible day when we come for you!”

“Bring it, asshole!” she shot back. “You’re all talk!”

The line went dead. Sabrina hung up, then went to recheck the locks on all the doors and windows. She tried to relax and settle back into the movie, but she was unable to. Sabrina meandered around the house through the evening before trying to burn some energy in the gym – no luck. She spent a restless night tossing and turning in her bed. One of her family’s handguns spent the night on the nightstand next to her.

After a lousy morning workout the next day and an unproductive afternoon, Sabrina pecked at the soup and sandwich dinner she made. She stared out into the living room while sitting at the kitchen table in the early evening. The sun had set and the sky was almost in full darkness already. Thick clouds hid the stars on this moonless night.

The house tablet, the one linked to the security system, bleeped a warning tone as she chewed her grilled cheese.

<LINK TO MONITORING CENTER DOWN>

Sabrina blinked at the text on the screen. She frowned while she unlocked the tablet and tapped the alarm app. All the icons around the house schematic – the icons for the door and window sensors, and the cameras around the property – glowed green but the antenna icon representing the link to the alarm company flashed an insistent red.

<SECONDARY CELLULAR LINK NOT INSTALLED>

Staring in disbelief for a second or two, Sabrina’s fingers soon flew over the touchscreen to bring up the camera feed menu. None of the cameras she checked revealed anything until she clicked on the one perched atop the machinery shed in the back yard.

The day/night camera there showed a group of three men clustered behind the house near where the hard-wired phone line exited the basement. She watched as they split up and headed in different directions. One of them carried a ladder.

Sabrina closed the camera feeds and clicked the icon for the alarm’s panic button. She updated the silent panic message to the alarm company from the generic help message to read ‘Break-in in progress – OCCUPIED RESIDENCE’ and pressed <SEND>. Without an active link for the alarm, the app asked if she wanted to use the tablet’s cellular to send the alert instead. She clicked the <YES> button to activate the silent call for help.

She scampered to her father’s office wishing she hadn’t put the handgun away this morning. The alarm panels by the front door and upstairs started emitting the warning tones for a perimeter break. Before she turned into that room she paused by the panel in the front hall and confirmed her worst fear – someone was already in the house. She stepped through the office door headed for the closet behind her dad’s desk and glanced over at the windows.

Sabrina stumbled when she noticed one of them had large holes cut in the glass panes. That sash was still closed so that zone’s warning light hadn’t been active on the panel. She’d also forgotten to check all the video feeds or she would have seen the ladder outside this window.

“Hello, you little whore …” a familiar and unwelcome voice said from behind her.

Sabrina whirled to find a small, evil-looking man about her height stepping out from behind the door. The tablet slipped from her hand as she spun, and it slid across the floor. The man pushed the door closed while sneering at her.

“We finally get to meet. I’m gonna love getting to know you.” He stepped toward her and she retreated, only to run into her father’s desk. “There’s nowhere to run …” he chortled. “I will enjoy hearing your cries while I make you a woman.”

Sabrina put her hands behind her back while reaching for the edge of the desk, preparing to push off it and defend herself. One hand bumped into a gift her father received from someone in the Army years ago. Her right hand closed around the gift’s hilt.

“You’re not going to wait for the others to help you with that?” she taunted. “Are you sure you know what to do, dickless?”

The man’s sneer twisted into an angry snarl. He closed the gap between them and lashed out with his right hand. Sabrina’s left forearm blocked his slap, then she wrapped her arm around his to pin it in her armpit. Her right arm appeared high above her head. The would-be rapist’s eye caught the glint from a long steel blade above him before it plunged downward.

Sabrina’s scream of rage as she struck masked the tearing sound of the knife as it pierced the base of his neck on the left side. The force of her blow drove him to his knees. Seven inches of double-edged steel tore through blood vessels and the man’s windpipe before its tip lodged in his right lung. He looked over in disbelief at the hilt sticking up from his shoulder as his vision faded.

“Enjoy Hell, bitch!” she spat before giving him a contemptuous kick in the chest. The dead man’s body toppled backward onto the floor, his head striking the floor with a hollow <CRACK!>.

Sabrina wiped her bloody hand on her sweatpants before opening the gun safe in the office closet. She pulled her dad’s pump shotgun from inside. She loaded the shotgun by putting one buckshot shell into the chamber before closing the action. She jacked five more shells into the tube magazine. The remaining four shells went into her sweatpants pocket before she closed and locked the safe.

She retrieved the tablet to check the camera feeds again. The basement camera revealed the splintered door to the back yard wide open. The camera at the top of the basement stairs showed two men trying to pick the lock on the kitchen door. A man with a pistol crept down the upstairs hall and started coming down the stairs to the first floor. She put the tablet on the desk, disengaged the safety of the shotgun, and strode out of the office without a glance at the body on the floor.

The man on the stairs seemed surprised to find an angry teen aiming a shotgun at him instead of cowering in a corner somewhere. He hadn’t processed the nine pellets from the first shotgun shell hitting his chest before Sabrina fired a second. He felt no pain when he fell down the stairs because he was already dead.

Sabrina loaded two more shells into the shotgun to replace the two fired as she ran back to the kitchen. Loud banging on the basement door gave way to the splintering of the door’s frame as it burst open. Two men from downstairs stumbled through. The sight of a shotgun’s muzzle pointed at them made them pause.

“You won’t do anything, bitch!” one of them growled before raising a knife.

A blast from the shotgun slammed into the man with the knife, striking him in the chest over his heart. The man stumbled backward from the impact. Sabrina heard the body tumble down the stairs. The final intruder watched in disbelief as his partner disappeared back into the dark basement. Summoning his courage, he stepped toward the little bitch in front of him while raising his pistol.

The shotgun Sabrina wielded was old – World War II issue. A special feature of the shotgun was that it would ‘slamfire.’ Keeping the trigger pulled as the pump-action re-cocked and reloaded the weapon would cause it to fire again once the breach closed. Sabrina’s aim was high because of that. As a result, her final blast hit the last intruder in the neck, tore open his carotid artery, and sent him spinning into the far wall. He dropped to the floor writhing and clutching at his neck as his life drained out of him.

Sabrina lowered the shotgun and stood motionless in the kitchen catching her breath while her ears rang. As she calmed down the adrenaline rush caught up with her, nausea flooded her, and she bolted for the sink. Her dinner splashed into it. She unloaded the shotgun, put it on the counter, and emptied her pockets of ammo. Rinsing her mouth, and the sink, she pulled her phone from her pocket with a shaky hand.

“Please be home, please be home, please be home,” she chanted as the phone on the other end of her call rang.

“Hey, Sabrina!” came the welcome voice.

“TOMMY!” she gasped. “Are you home? Is your dad there?”

“Huh? Yeah, we’re both home. Why? What’s up?”

“Later, TJ. Right now I really need to talk to your dad …”

“What’s wrong?”

“TOMMY!” she barked. “YOUR FATHER! NOW!”

There was no reply from her friend before she heard Mr. Jones come on the line.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Jones, it’s Sabrina Knox.”

“Sabrina? Is there something wrong? Tommy just handed me the phone without a word. He looked pretty upset, too.”

“I’ll apologize to him later but right now I need a lawyer.”

The pause was measurable.

“A lawyer?”

“Yes. Can you call Mr. Abernathy and come over right away? I don’t have his number on my phone. Some men broke into the house, and the police will be here soon.”

“Broke in? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, they’re not.” A loud series of knocks sounded from the front door. “Sounds like the cops are already here. I’ve gotta go.”

Sabrina hung up. She unlocked and opened the front door while keeping her hands up.

“Lancas …” the officer on the porch started to announce before he saw the bloody body balled-up at the bottom of the inside stairs and before he noticed the darkening smear on Sabrina’s sweatpants. He drew his weapon and the officer at the bottom of the outside stairs did the same. “Step out!” he ordered, which Sabrina did. “Turn around and put your hands on your head!”

Sabrina felt handcuffs close around her wrists.

“You are not under arrest,” she heard, “you are being detained for our safety.”

The officer led her down the stairs to the front lawn while watching for threats from the inside the house. He had her sit on the walk with her ankles crossed.

“Sir, a lawyer from the firm which represents my family will arrive soon. He drives a black Volvo.”

“Who are you?”

“Knox, Sabrina M. I live here.”

“What happened here?”

“I pushed the panic button for our alarm system.”

“I meant who is the person on the floor and why is he covered in blood?”

“Sir, I will answer no more questions until I have legal counsel present.”

Sabrina heard the officer sigh and call someone on his radio.

“Seventeen to Lancaster or S-Three? We need more units started our way ASAP.”

“S-Three to Seventeen, what’s going on there?”

“Sarge, we need more manpower to search and secure this residence. I have one subject down inside that I can see and one live subject detained outside. The subject outside’s already asking for a lawyer.”

“S-Three to Lancaster, call Clinton PD and the Staties to see if either one of them can both shake people loose to assist us. Both would be preferable. I’m still tied up at this personal injury accident over by the Harvard line.”

“Roger, S-Three. Stand by.”

A car pulled down the access road to the Knox residence. Sabrina heard a door shut and a voice call out.

“Hello the house! I’m the young lady’s lawyer!”

The officers ordered the new arrival forward with his hands up. John Jones soon appeared in the light of the officers’ flashlights.

“Now, what’s going on here, young lady?”

“Miss Knox won’t be answering questions until my senior partner arrives, Officer.”

“Her counsel is present! She can answer questions now!”

“I meant ‘appropriate counsel,’ Officer,” Sabrina reminded the man. “No offense, Mr. Jones.”

“Oh, none taken, Sabrina,” John replied with a smile to the seated teen. The lead officer looked at John with hands on his hips. “I run the contracts division at Abernathy and Associates, so I’m not a criminal lawyer. I’m only here to ensure you don’t violate Miss Knox’s Fifth Amendment and Miranda rights before Josh Abernathy arrives.”

The officer threw up his hands and went to inspect the rest of the property outside the house. The other officer stayed with John and Sabrina.

Blue lights lit up the trees lining Hilltop Road as another cruiser sped up the street. That cruiser whipped into the entrance to the gravel access road and stopped behind John’s Volvo.

“Sergeant,” the other Lancaster officer said with a nod. “My partner’s checking the outside of the residence. Can you watch the girl while I go back him up? We haven’t searched her yet. This gentleman is one of her lawyers.” The State Police sergeant nodded that she would, and the Lancaster officer jogged off. The sergeant’s flashlight clicked on.

“Hello, Miss Knox,” a familiar voice said. “It’s Sergeant Dadashova from the State Police.”

“Hello, Sergeant,” Sabrina said, returning the greeting.

“You don’t have any weapons on you do you, Sabrina?” Sally asked while helping the teen back to her feet before frisking her.

“No, Sergeant. Just my cell phone.”

“And you are, sir?” Sally asked, glancing over at John Jones.

“John Jones from Abernathy and Associates. I live next door and my youngest goes to school with Miss Knox. I’m standing in for Josh Abernathy until he can get here from Bolton.”

“Can you act for Miss Knox in the meantime?”

“I can, but I handle contract law for the firm, not criminal. I’d rather we wait until Josh gets here.”

“Well, Josh better not be speeding through town to get here. There are too many cops headed this way.”

Josh Abernathy wasn’t happy.

An urgent call from John Jones pulled him away from a relaxing Saturday night and had him sitting in an interview room at Lancaster’s police station. The youngest child of his biggest single client was under investigation following a deadly home invasion. That client had texted him non-stop since Josh called to inform him of the incident and his daughter’s status. Josh finally had to text back and tell Jeff to shut the hell up and let him do his job.

“All right, walk me through it again, Sabrina.”

Sabrina laid out the sequence of events the best that she could remember them while Josh made notes.

“Where did the knife come from again?”

“It was a gift from someone Dad saved in the Army years ago. He explained that it’s a fighting knife from World War II that appears on the Special Forces regimental insignia and a few others in Army heraldry. The man Dad saved was a Green Beret.”

“And the knife was sitting on the desk in his office?”

“It’s been on display there since he got it. The knife rests on a custom wooden stand near the front edge and I felt it behind me when I reached for the desk.”

“And you stuck it in the man’s neck?”

“It was him or me, Mr. Abernathy. I told you what he wanted to do.”

Josh blinked at Sabrina’s matter-of-fact explanation.

“How long is it?”

“The blade’s a little over seven inches long and super sharp. The whole knife is over a foot long.”

“How much of the blade did you put into the guy?”

Sabrina stared at him with a cold look.

“All of it.”

Josh shivered at the answer and the look she gave him. He saw her massage the edge of her right hand and wince, then he noticed the blood still on it.

“Why haven’t you cleaned the blood off your hand?”

“They told me I couldn’t.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Josh pounded on the door and demanded the police allow Sabrina to wash her hands. The Lancaster officer protested until Josh started throwing around phrases like ‘suing your department for exposing my client to potential blood-borne pathogens.’ They scraped a sample off her hand before allowing her to clean up. The officer also tried to interview Sabrina when she finished, but Josh said he still needed more time with his client.

“It’s not gonna be his case, anyway,” he mentioned to Sabrina once back in the interview room.

“Why not?”

“Sally told me that CPAC is taking jurisdiction because the home invasion is likely related to the traffickers.”

“Sally?” Sabrina asked with a knowing smile. “You meant ‘Sergeant Dadashova’ right?”

“No, I meant what I said, Sabrina,” Josh replied with a matching smile. “I’ve known Sally since she first got out of the State Police Academy. We were close at one point.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” Josh shrugged. “She took the sergeant’s exam four years out of the academy and transferred to B Troop once she got promoted. I had started my practice only a year earlier after leaving the DA’s office. That was well over a decade ago if not longer, and she’s just now come back to Central Massachusetts. Anyway, why am I telling you about my past relationships? Or any of my relationships at all?” Josh’s phone chirped again, and he glanced down at it. “I swear I’m gonna beat your father the next time I see him …”

“What’d he send now?”

“‘278, 8a.’ Like I don’t know my job, Jeff …”

“What does that mean?”

“Mass General Law Chapter 278, Section 8a,” Josh translated. “It pertains to this incident and your father has some familiarity with it through personal experience. I’m still gonna kick his ass, though.”

Jeff and Keiko’s arrival created more hoopla when Jeff demanded to see his daughter. Josh stepped into the lobby to take control of his other client. He returned with Keiko and a big grin on his face.

“Why am I afraid of that grin?” Sabrina asked.

“Because I told your father I’d let the cops arrest him for disturbing the peace if he didn’t shut the hell up. Anyway, take a few moments with your mom. I’ll be outside.”

Keiko looked at her daughter with watery eyes once Josh stepped out of the room. “My fierce ninja warrior,” she whispered in Japanese.

Sabrina began to cry when the reality of the night’s events hit her. Keiko gathered her daughter into her arms as the girl’s delayed release of emotions came. She rocked Sabrina while singing her a childhood lullaby.

“Remember, Sabrina,” Keiko whispered in Sabrina’s ear, “you did nothing wrong tonight, no matter what anyone says. Admit nothing and continue to follow Mr. Abernathy’s lead while you are here. Your father and I will discuss tonight with you after we leave here.” Sabrina nodded and wiped her tears away as her mother opened the door to beckon their attorney back in.

Keiko left the room and Josh reentered with two State Police detectives in tow. He smiled at her before coming around the table to sit with her. The two detectives sat opposite them. At Josh’s direction, Sabrina took the detectives through the events of the weekend. She gave them the facts of her actions, including what the would-be kidnappers said to her, but volunteered nothing.

“Miss Knox, why didn’t you retreat somewhere and wait for the police to arrive after you sounded the silent alarm?” the lead detective asked.

“My client was under no duty to retreat, Detective,” Josh pointed out before Sabrina could respond.

The man nodded and looked an apology at Sabrina for the question since he knew what the answer was. A single rap on the door sounded before it opened. A young man holding a briefcase stepped in.

“ADA Brumbridge, to what do we owe the pleasure?” the detective asked the new arrival.

“Have you read this person her rights?”

The four other occupants of the room blinked in surprise.

“And just why would the police need to read my client her rights?” Josh demanded.

“Because I will charge her with murder soon.”

“MURDER?”

“Yes, murder – four counts. Those charges are on top of charges for illegal possession of a firearm and discharge of a firearm within Lancaster town limits.”

“You’re out of your cotton-picking mind, kid. Have you even bothered to review the facts of what happened tonight?”

“She hunted those men! With the first man I might agree that she acted in self-defense, but the other three? No chance.”

“And if I point out the obvious in referencing MGL Chapter 278, Section 8a?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Josh shook his head and pulled out his phone. Ignoring the ADA’s protests he selected a contact and pressed <SEND>.

“Ted, you miserable bastard, what are you up to? … How are Lucy and the kids? … Look, I’m sorry to bother you at almost nine o’clock on a Saturday night, but I have a little problem … What’s that? … You’re gonna be busy with a shitshow up in Lancaster for a while? What kind of shitshow? … Well, hold onto your hat, sir, because I am in the middle of that aforementioned shitshow … One party involved is my client who lives at the address in question, that’s how … No, I already pointed out the relevant statutes to one of your ADAs, but the jackass wants to charge her with four counts of murder … Yeah, hang on …”

Josh put his phone on the table and activated the speaker function.

“Ted, you’re on speaker now. With me in the room are my client, two detectives from your office – Detectives Connors and Fletcher – and one Oren Brumbridge, Esquire from your office.”

“Hey, Jim. Hey, Bill. It’s Ted Brewington.”

“Hi, Ted,” Jim Connors, the lead State Police detective replied.

“This is Assistant District Attorney Oren J. Brumbridge. Who is this?”

“District Attorney Edward L. Brewington … Your boss.” Brumbridge blinked a few times but said nothing. “That’s what I thought. You’re off this case, Brumbridge, as of ten minutes ago. I’m taking over. Be in my office in Worcester no later than eight a.m. Monday morning. Now get out of there!”

Brumbridge slunk out of the room.

“Is he gone?”

“He’s gone, Ted,” Connors confirmed.

“Good. Miss Knox, can you hear me?”

Sabrina looked over at Josh who gave her a nod.

“Yes, sir. I can hear you.”

“Miss Knox, I need time to fully review the facts from tonight, but from what I’ve heard you’re all but guaranteed not to face any charges. Josh, you’ll hear from me in a day or two before I fax the paperwork to your office.”

“What about my client’s home, Ted? She needs her schoolbooks before Monday, and her family will need to gather some things for a couple of days away while you process the house. She’s a straight-A student and I don’t want her routine disrupted any more than it has been.”

“I can answer that, sir,” Bill Fletcher cut in. “The incident only took place on the first floor, except for the front stairs. As with most residences, there’s only one staircase leading to the second floor, so that’s blocked until we finish processing. We will be finished by tomorrow mid-morning, but the house will need serious cleaning and repairs.”

Sabrina leaned over and whispered in Josh’s ear.

“My client tells me her grandparents live next door, though they are visiting family in Japan at the moment. My client’s family has keys to that residence, so they have a place to stay. We’ll just have to secure new clothing for my client so she can change out of what she was wearing at the time of the incident.”

“Well, at least they have a place to go tonight. Guys, you know what? Release her to her parents with no pending charges. Get her out of there.”

It was after ten before Sabrina and her parents settled in the living room at her grandparent’s house. Sally Dadashova wanted to chat with Josh out in Lancaster Police’s parking lot before they all left there. She let Sabrina have a State Police sweatsuit from her workout bag when Sally learned the teen still wore blood-stained clothes. Josh looked as tired as Sabrina felt when he sat down with the family at 304 Hilltop Road.

“Sally Dadashova will come by after her shift ends at eleven tonight, to give you guys an overnight protection detail. It’s only for tonight, though, and it’s just her. With the bright lights from the Crime Scene Unit shining on your house next door someone would be crazy to try something else tonight, but they were crazy tonight, to begin with.

“I’ll stay until she arrives, then I’ll head home. When she’s here try not to discuss the case near her, even in Japanese. I don’t think anything will happen, but until I get the paperwork from Ted Brewington, I’m not taking any chances.”

“Ted was your supervisor while you were at the DA’s office, right?” Jeff asked.

“Right. He’s a straight shooter, and he also knows he’d wind up looking like a bigger asshole than Brumbridge if he tries to prosecute Sabrina over tonight. Sabrina, like your mom said you did nothing wrong tonight, understand?”

Sabrina nodded.

“Good.”

Sally Dadashova laid claim to Hiro Takahashi’s recliner in the living room for the night. Sleeping there would give her a good position at the bottom of the staircase to allow her to protect the family upstairs. She still wore her uniform while cradling a shotgun in her lap when she settled in for the night.

Jeff and Keiko hugged Sabrina before she stretched out on the bed in ‘her’ room in her grandparents’ house. Her parents took the master suite for the night. Mayumi and Hiro wouldn’t be home for at least two weeks, so Keiko’s parents told them just to stay there until the repairs to the house at 308 Hilltop Road were complete.

Loud yelling and screams from Sabrina’s room had three adults storming in sometime around three a.m. After a glance in the room to make sure no one was attacking Sabrina, Sally guarded the doorway while holding her shotgun at port arms.

Keiko cradled her daughter and rocked Sabrina as she had at the police station earlier that night. She whispered gentle words as Sabrina calmed down. Jeff sat on the bed rubbing his little girl’s back while her mom held her.

“Mom, can I talk to Dad about something?” Sabrina whispered in Japanese once she calmed down.

“Of course, daughter.” Keiko had a good idea what the conversation would be about, and Jeff would tell her anyway at some point. She rose and walked to the door.

“Sabrina,” Sally Dadashova said, “I will say only one thing about tonight and then I won’t bring it up again until Josh knows you’re in the clear: you are a brave young lady. You met the elephant head-on tonight and didn’t hesitate. Josh told me about your dreams for the future and you can now refer to yourself using the same word your father, I, and many others across this country use and that word is ‘sheepdog.’ That word will apply to you from this day forward, and I am proud to count you among us.” She nodded, turned, and walked downstairs. Keiko smiled at Sabrina before heading back to bed.

Jeff nodded at the sergeant’s words before turning back to the young woman next to him. She was maybe thirty-six hours older than when he and her mother left for Portsmouth on Friday, but she now carried a weight most people never would.

“What is it, Princess?” he whispered.

Sabrina looked down at her right hand and began massaging it again. The blood was gone but it had bruised.

“What am I, Dad? Am I some kind of monster?”

Jeff took her hand, causing her to look up.

“Why would you ask that?”

“Because I feel nothing after killing those men who broke in tonight.”

“Should you? You’d have a hard time convincing me you need to.”

“Dad, I killed those men with no more thought than I would give before I stepped on a bug!”

“You defended yourself against people intent on doing horrific things to you, Sabrina. Those men made their choice, and they chose badly. You applied the proper corrective action by removing them from the gene pool!”

“Dad … Dad, I went hunting!” she whispered as tears fell from her eyes. “That ADA was right: after the first one in your office, I stalked the other three and fucking executed them!”

“And they fucking DESERVED it!” he hissed back with even greater intensity. “‘And I looked, and beheld a pale horse: and her name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with her,’” he misquoted. “I promised your mother – when she was a terrified, quivering wreck after we watched the attacks on September 11th – that I would kill every motherhumper who tried raising a hand to this family, and I will keep that promise until I draw my dying breath. It’s nice to know I’ll have some backup if I need it, though.”

Sabrina cracked a smile. “Did you really just say ‘motherhumper?’”

“I’m trying to maintain some decorum.”

“You?” she snickered.

“Call it an enlightened moment.”

She smiled again before her face fell.

“Ah, shit … Tommy …”

“What’s that?”

“After I … secured the house, I called Tommy’s cellphone and asked for his dad. He was confused as to why and I barked at him. Mr. Jones said Tommy handed him the phone with a hurt look on his face, but I wanted Mr. Jones at our house as soon as I could.”

“I’ll call John in the morning …”

“No, Dad. I need to talk to Tommy myself. I hurt my best friend and need to apologize.”

“You’re a remarkable young lady, Sabrina,” Jeff said as he hugged his youngest.

“Am I still going to be your little girl, though?”

“Always.”

“Craig, does it sound like I care how much it’s gonna cost me?” Sabrina heard her father ask someone on the other end of the phone at breakfast the next morning. “Right, the two windows, the door from the basement to the back yard, the one from the kitchen to the basement stairs, rugs on the front hall and basement stairs and at the bottom of the basement stairs, the floor in my office and front hall … Hell, I’ll ask Keiko if she wants to redo the entire house while we’re at it … Yeah, secure that door and the two windows first as soon as the Staties finish with the house, then I’ll have a specialty cleaning service come in before your guys start. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Keiko about what she wants to do … Thanks, Craig.”

“Who was that, Jeffrey?”

“Craig Pulaski. He’ll have a crew over to board up the windows and basement door as soon as the State Police releases the house back to us, then we can get started on cleaning up the place. Any interest in a kitchen reno or something?”

“No, Jeffrey. Have him restore our house to how it looked before last night. I wish to erase the event from my memory in that manner.”

“Did you get ahold of John or Anne?”

“Anne. She confirmed Thomas is home, so I will drive Sabrina over.”

“I can walk, Mom.”

Both parents gave her looks.

“After last night?” her father asked. He walked away shaking his head ‘no.’ Sabrina conceded defeat.

She changed into some clothes Sergeant Dadashova – Sally – retrieved from the house for her that morning before climbing into her mother’s Suburban. They bulled their way past the press camped outside their house at 308 Hilltop Road as they drove the quarter-mile from 304 to 310. Anne Jones greeted them both with hugs and directed Sabrina up to Tommy’s room. She steered Keiko into the kitchen.

“Come in!” Tommy’s voice called in answer to Sabrina’s knock. His face clouded when he saw his neighbor’s face in the doorway, though he didn’t protest when she stepped in and closed the door.

“Tommy, about last night …”

Tommy turned away and tried to ignore her. Sabrina ripped the textbook he held from his hands.

“Look at me, ASSHOLE!” she screamed. “Did you see the gigantic mobile command center marked ‘Massachusetts State Police’ parked in my damn driveway? If you did, did you even wonder why it was there after I called looking for your FATHER last night?” Her best friend just crossed his arms without answering. “ANSWER ME, GODDAMN IT!” she said while adding a smack on the shoulder.

“So what?” he asked petulantly.

“So what? SO WHAT? I’ll tell you so friggin’ what! I killed four men over there last night after they broke in and tried to RAPE AND KIDNAP ME!”

The color drained from Tommy Jones’ face. He looked up at the girl he’d known since he was two.

“That’s right! Four assholes connected to the other assholes who shot that cop broke into my house last night while everyone else was away. They would have raped me before kidnapping me and selling me into slavery! I stopped them!”

Tommy tried to swallow but his mouth was dry as dust.

“How?”

Sabrina sat on the edge of Tommy’s bed.

“You know that knife Dad has on his desk?”

“Yeah?”

“One with that, and the other three with his shotgun loaded with buckshot.”

“Shit, Sabrina, I’m sorry. I should have known you wouldn’t have asked for Dad if it wasn’t important.”

“Tommy, how could either of us ever imagine this happening to me? To any of us? We live in this nice, safe world here. We have no frame of reference for something like this!”

“I suppose you’re right. Are you okay?”

“It’s only my hand and it hurts here.” She showed him the bruise on her right hand. “I jammed Dad’s knife into the first guy’s neck as hard as I could, right about here. I’m guessing the edge of my hand hit the cross guard of the knife at the end of my thrust. We’ll have to wait and see how I deal with the emotions.”

“And you killed the other three with a shotgun?”

“One on the front hall stairs to the second floor, the other two as they tried to come up from the basement and into the kitchen. Two chest shots, and the last guy with a blast to his neck.”

“From a shotgun? YUCK!”

“Yeah, not the paint color Mom would have chosen, that’s for sure.”

“Sabrina, not that I’m sorry you felt you could tell me this, but why did you? I’m sure either Dad or Mr. Abernathy told you not to because this is still an open case.”

“Yes and no. The DA considers the specific incident last night a closed case. He called Josh this morning and told him I’m not facing any charges. All the perps are dead, so I won’t have to testify against them at any point. The case against the larger trafficking organization is still open in the background but it doesn’t involve me, at least not at the moment.”

Tommy looked out his window and toward the street.

“I guess word of the happenings at your house has gotten out, which would explain all the satellite trucks out there.”

Sabrina turned and looked. “Yeah, we had to fight through them to get over here. Half of them have been there since last night. Mom or Dad need to call the boys and warn them what they’re driving home to.”

“Even though reporters won’t use your name because you’re a minor, there are plenty of people at school who know where you live and what your house looks like.”

“Stupendous.”

“How can I help?”

“Just keep being my best friend, Tom. I’ve got enough doubt about last night kicking around my gray matter already. I don’t need to worry if I will lose your friendship over this.”

“‘Oh, ye of little faith!’” Sabrina punched him in the shoulder again. “If you think I will walk away after more than a dozen years of friendship just because you stood up for yourself, sister, you got another think coming.”