A Welcome Reunion

by Lucinda Berry

I had to see the child killer. Excuse me, the reformed child killer. Because that’s who she was now. Janie Bauer.

Even though she had an extensive trauma history and had only lived with the Bauers for a short time—barely over a year—most of the narrative centered around them. She didn’t spend nearly as much time talking about the years she’d spent locked up like an animal in a closet or how she’d somehow managed to slice her biological mom’s throat when she was only five years old.

Sarah gave a quick nod to stage left, and Caleb Ross walked on set. Unless you’d followed the case closely from the beginning, you wouldn’t recognize him. But I did—Janie killed his mom.

She stared at her hands clasped on the knife, and a wicked grin slowly covered her face. Pain—even her own—excited her.