In silence, they walked down the brightly lit hallways to the old day care center.
There, he tucked the girl into the hospital bed they’d moved into the room. At the last second he had to stop himself from whispering, Sleep tight, kiddo.
“I’ll stay with her awhile,” he said instead.
Trudi touched his forearm gently. “I’m off in forty minutes,” she said. “You want to come over to the house?”
He nodded. God knew he could use a distraction. Tonight, if he went home alone, the memories would be there, waiting to keep him company.
ELLIE STARED AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN UNTIL THE LETTERS BLURRED into little black blobs on a field of throbbing white. A headache opened its parachute at the back of her skull and floated down her spine. If she read one more report of a missing or abducted child, she was going to scream.
There were thousands of them.
Thousands.
Lost girls who had no voice to cry for help, no way to reach out. The few who were lucky enough to be alive somewhere were counting on professionals to find and save them.
Ellie closed her eyes. There had to be more she could do, but what? She’d already done everything she could think of. She and the town’s other two officers had canvassed the streets. They’d notified the county sheriff’s office that an unidentified child had been found. They’d also contacted the Family Crisis Network and Rural Resources, as well as every state and national agency. No one knew who the kid was, and it was becoming increasingly clear that this was Rain Valley’s case. Her case. Other law enforcement and social agencies might be called upon to help, but the child had shown up in this town, and that made identifying the girl her job. The county sheriff had backed away so fast he’d practically left skid marks. His Sorry, she’s on city property told Ellie plenty. No one would take responsibility for this girl until a positive ID was made.
She pushed away from the desk and got to her feet. Arching her back, she kneaded her aching neck.
She stepped over her sleeping dogs and went to the porch, looking out across her backyard. It was almost dawn. Here, on the edge of the rain forest, the world was both utterly still and deeply alive. As always, there was moisture everywhere; wet air blew in from the ocean and left millions of dew beads on the leaves. Come dawn, those drops would fall soundlessly to the ground. Invisible rain, her dad had called it, and Ellie always listened for it, if only to remember him.
“I wish you were here, Dad,” she said, slipping her feet into the fleece-lined clogs by the back door. “You and Uncle Joe always knew how to run with the big dogs.”
She crossed the porch and went down the back steps, then through the pink and violet morning toward the river. Mist coiled around her feet, rose up from the dark grass in vapors.
She was at the very edge of her property, standing by her dad’s favorite Fall River fishing hole, when she realized why she was here.
His house was on the other side of the river and across a marshy field. From this distance it looked no bigger than a toolshed, but she knew better.
As a kid she’d hiked through this field every day and played in that yard.
For a minute she almost started for it. She had the idea to toss stones
at his window again and call out to him. He would listen to her fears and understand them. He always had.
But those days were more than two decades old. Lisa certainly didn’t want to be wakened at dawn by the sound of stones hitting her bedroom window, and though Cal would answer and sit outside with her (she was his boss; not just his friend), he wouldn’t really be listening. He had his own life now, his own wife and children, and even though everyone knew that Lisa wasn’t good enough for him, he loved his family.
Ellie knew she was on her own. She turned and went back to her house. With a tired sigh she sat back down at her desk and pulled up the missing children reports. The answer had to be in here. It had to be.
It was her last thought before falling asleep.
She was wakened by a car horn. She came awake with a start, realizing all at once that she’d fallen asleep at her computer.
“Shit.”
She stumbled to her feet and went to the front door.
Peanut stood in the yard, waving good-bye to her husband as he drove away.
Ellie looked down at her watch. It was 7:55 in the morning. “What in the hell are you doing here?” she said in a voice that sounded like she smoked a pack a day.
“I heard you tell Max you’d meet him at eight at the hospital. You’re going to be late.”
“I didn’t invite you to join us.”
“I figured it was an oversight. Now hustle your ass.”