Traces of Guilt

TWELVE

Evie Blackwell

It was already Friday, and Evie didn’t look up from the report she was reading as a chair scraped across the floor and Gabriel sat down. He thankfully had stopped whistling that song fragment, though he still made sure she was aware he was coming through the door. “Eat something, Evie. You’ve been nose to the grindstone for the last day and a half.”

She marked her place in the report and glanced up as a plate stacked with tacos slid onto the table. Gabriel looked less put together than usual, his hair windblown, a couple of burrs caught on his shirtsleeve, his jeans dirt-stained. She hadn’t seen much of him since Wednesday night. He’d been spending most of his time out at the farm. Evie reached for napkins and a taco. “How’s the search going?”

“Josh has the dogs working the animal trails now. Grace mostly gives a polite smile and stays quiet. She loses her train of thought when she tries to have a conversation. Josh is keeping her moving, which is probably for the best, and making sure to put something to eat in front of her when they do take a break. Consider me doing the same. Eat.” He unwrapped a taco for himself. “So, you’re still working on the possibility the Florist family left of their own volition?”

Evie accepted that he didn’t want to talk about the farm and went with the change of subject. She nodded. “The money withdrawals say they were making contingency plans. They would have had a plan-for the new names, new job references, everything. Scott’s a detail guy, you can see that in the reports he wrote, and the doctor described him as ‘deliberative.’ Scott would want to leave here and establish the family in a new place as quickly as possible. New job, new apartment, new school for Joe. He would have figured out exactly how to do that. He had two years to get the plan in place.”

“Dad will find you names for the fake IDs Scott arranged-if they are out there.”

“He’s trying,” Evie said. It didn’t follow that the Florists would have squirreled away cash without arranging new IDs. So far, the people Caleb had spoken with were adamant Scott hadn’t approached them about the matter. It was likely, though, that Scott would have gone outside the county, even beyond the adjacent counties, to get them made. Scott might have tapped someone as far away as Chicago. It could take some time, but Evie was certain Caleb would find the person Scott had approached.

Gabriel tapped his knuckles lightly on the table. “You need to come at the case from another direction, Evie. This idea is interesting to speculate on, but you’ve gotten yourself hung up in the weeds.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You think so?”

“Lay out how you might look for them once you have the names they arranged, add that to the wall of things to do, then start looking for new possibilities again. You found the counseling connection, Paul found the money trail, you’ll find something else. At least until Dad comes back with names you can search. My opinion is they prepared to run, but in the end had no reason to do so.”

She ate another taco while she pondered that. She almost agreed with him. She’d given her idea a day and a half and it was losing momentum. “I’ll give it a few more hours, then change tactics, see what else I can find,” she said.

“It comes back to the basic question, Why go?”

Evie had come up with only one new answer that made sense to her. “A.22 sounds like a lady’s gun. Did Susan shoot Frank Ash?”

Gabriel made a face between a wince and a frown.

Evie understood the sentiment, but it was worth considering. “Owning a.22, being comfortable firing it, sounds like something a cop’s wife might have for her own protection. There’s no gun permit on file for her, but maybe it got slipped out of the records. Her son comes home very upset, Scott goes to confront Frank Ash, maybe can’t find him that day, goes home and tells his wife what happened, then has to go to work because he’s on shift that night. Susan waits until Scott has left the house and Joe is settled. She heads out to find Frank Ash, figuring there aren’t all that many places he might be. She finds him by chance at the truck stop when she stops to fill up the car with gas. She shoots him, never says a word to her family or to the doctor. Everyone around her has plausible deniability.”

“It would be a reason they ran two years later when the body’s found,” Gabriel said. “Susan finally tells Scott what she’s done. And Scott makes the decision to run… probably fly out of an airport somewhere that night as they got clean away.”

Evie nodded. “It’s a long shot, Gabe, and I don’t see how Susan stays calm and level-headed for the two years they were in counseling, but it’s the only thing that would explain their leaving when they did that doesn’t have the doctor lying to us.” She moved to the next problem. “When your dad gets me the names Scott arranged for new IDs, it’s still going to be a challenge to find them. I doubt they used those names for more than a few months, a year at most, before they changed them again.”

“Start in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, as far as you can go and still be in a U.S. territory,” Gabriel suggested. “Their photos were plastered everywhere around the Midwest. They can’t afford to be recognized. If they were preparing to run, odds are good the location was studied carefully. They may have made a flight to that destination early in their planning to make arrangements, or maybe just one of them flies there to set up bank accounts, look at housing options, schools. We can’t find the cash because some of it has already been transferred ahead under the new IDs. But something will still be out there.”

“You’re willing to head down this rabbit trail,” Evie noted, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“I’m a realist. You’ve come up with ideas we haven’t considered before. I need that new thinking. Eventually, one of them will pan out. Dad comes up with new IDs, has names, that’s the time to explore this one further. I’d like you looking at the overall case to find the next possibility.”

“Okay.” Evie leaned back, the last of her soda in hand. “I did have one rather interesting thought last night. Assume the family is still alive. What are the odds the son managed to become a cop when he grew up?”

Once again Gabriel looked at her, intrigued. “I like that, Evie. He certainly had his focus on that when he was a boy.”

“He’d be old enough now to be out of a police academy. Choose your state. I think we could find him if we look at police academy graduating class pictures. He surely looks something like his dad. And I’ve got photos of his dad at age twenty.”

“Put that on the board. It’s an interesting question to follow up on.” He rapped his knuckles on the table again. “Keep at it, Evie.” He pushed back his chair. “I’ll be down at the office for an hour, then back here. Anything you need? Dessert?”

“I’m good.”

He smiled, nodded, and left.

Evie picked up the roll of sweet-tarts that had appeared beside her plate. She knew this case and the Dayton one, along with his job as sheriff, was running Gabriel in circles, and yet he still found the energy to take care of others. She smiled and popped in a sweet-tart from the roll.

She turned to study the crime wall. Come on, Florist family. Did you leave on your own? Did someone kill you? Which way does this case fork? I need a way to locate you, even if it’s simply your remains.

She went back to reading a report by Phil Peters, the officer Scott Florist most often partnered with on the job. She needed to sit down and talk with the retired officer. If someone had known about the counseling, if someone had known Scott Florist was taking a particular interest in the disappearance of Frank Ash, that person was most likely Phil Peters. But before she had that conversation, she needed to know enough about him to have a sense of the man-what kind of cop he was, his background, and connections within the county. Would he be about protecting Scott even after this many years, or would he be willing to offer details if he knew them? It was the next logical place for her to dig.

Gabriel Thane

Gabriel could feel a tension headache starting and swallowed two Tylenol before rejoining Evie. This week felt like it had been going on for a month.

Evie gave an absent-minded thanks when she reached for the drink he set beside her, but looked up in surprise when she realized it was a milk shake. She was reading police reports, he noticed, a stack of them.

“Tell me about Phil Peters,” Evie said, leaning back in her chair.

“What might you be looking for?” he asked around the straw of his own chocolate milk shake.

“He’s the next interview we need to have. Is he a good cop? A fussy one? A live-and-let-live type about the rules? What would he have noticed about Scott Florist?”

Gabriel smiled at the questions. “I’ll start by mentioning Susan Florist introduced Phil Peters to his future wife, so there was in general a good vibe between the two couples. Susan and Jenna were friends, often seen together around town, shopping or grabbing a coffee. The guys were friendly, and not just as partners on the job. I don’t think they hung out at each other’s place, not as close as that, but still, friendly.”

“Okay. That’s useful.”

“Scott and Phil were very different individuals. Phil was a former Navy investigator, came from a strict and disciplined world. He liked to control things in a rather nitpicking kind of way, though that was fine. If you keep the small things under control, the big ones are more manageable. Scott Florist liked that about him, actually. It’s why they most often partnered together. They liked each other’s style. Different ways of getting there, but the same intensity to get the job done right. They worked well together, no friction in that relationship.”

“Think Phil will talk about Scott?”

“He’ll talk to us,” Gabriel assured her. “He’s retired now, lives over in Indiana, about a two-hour drive if you want to talk in person. This case has always mattered to him. Phil and Jenna’s wedding was that Sunday, and Scott Florist was to stand up as the best man. Scott and his family go missing Friday morning. The wedding almost got postponed. In fact, his fiancée, Jenna, said that would be best. But my dad talked them into going ahead as planned-the honeymoon cruise was already paid for, and it was non-refundable.

“Looking back, that was probably a mistake, not delaying things. While on his honeymoon, Phil was calling in at least three times a day, offering ideas and asking questions. As soon as they got back to town, Phil started right in, working the case around the clock. That caused problems in the new marriage. I seem to remember them living apart for a time. But they’ve been back together for the last… what, eight years? Jenna might be as helpful to talk with as Phil. Jenna and Susan were good friends long before Phil entered the picture.”

“They have any children?” Evie asked.

“No. I know Jenna likes kids-she worked for the school district here. So it surprises me they don’t have three or four by now. That may have been part of the marriage tension for all I know, not being able to have children for some reason.” Gabriel’s cellphone rang. He checked the readout and tensed. “Josh,” he told Evie. “Yes, Josh,” he said into the phone.

“You need to come right away. Will just gave me the signal to get Grace out of here.”

Gabriel flinched. “We’re on our way.” He met Evie’s gaze as he pushed back his chair. “Human remains at the farm.”

She closed up the file. “Adult or child?” she asked as she stood.

“Don’t know yet.” He saw a massive sequence of events coming at him in the next few hours and shifted into triage mode. “I’m calling state crime-scene folks next, but until I know what we’re dealing with, the lid stays on. I’m not bringing in my own deputies yet.”

“It has to be that way, Gabriel. You’ll know more in a couple hours.”

He nodded, already speed-dialing his dad’s number. He got his voicemail, left a message for his dad to call Evie. “When he checks in with you, tell him what’s going on. What time are Ann and Paul due in with Rachel?”

“Six.”

“Josh will have Grace at his place, or he will have taken her to our parents’ house.”

“I’ll make sure they know. Head on out to the farm, Gabriel. I’ll get locked up, post security here, make sure Grace is settled with Rachel before we drive out. We can talk then about what we tell Grace, if tonight or tomorrow morning makes the most sense for when to do so.”

“Thanks, Evie.”

“We knew this day was coming. Go ahead and work the scene. You’ll deal with it because you have to.”

He nodded. “I’ll call you as soon as I have details.” He headed out to the farm, speaking to the crime-scene personnel as he drove. He hoped the remains were that of Grace’s parents, but realistically he knew the odds favored the Dayton girl. He could only hope it wasn’t someone else they didn’t even have on their radar yet.

Gabriel parked behind Will, shut off his truck, and bowed his head over the wheel. “God, you know how I get when I’m dealing with death. Don’t let me puke.” He sighed, got out, pulled a couple of water bottles out of the cooler behind the seat. He made another call. “Will, I’m here. How do I find you?”

“Second deer blind, then east. You’ll see red flags I haven’t cleared yet.”

Gabriel slung the evidence-collection bag across his shoulder, picked up the camera bag, moved to the back of the truck and got his shovel. He walked at a good clip across the pastureland, then into the woods.

Will was sitting on a fallen tree trunk, shovel beside him, legs outstretched, boots crossed, seeming relaxed until you saw his grim expression. Will simply nodded to an oval patch of ground on the other side of the faint animal trail.

A wild blackberry bush had tried to grow, and a red flag was planted at the east side of it. A small tree had come down, its branches spread in a tangled mess across the ground. Will had scraped away fallen leaves with his boot and shovel, so the ground was moist dirt with traces of crushed mushrooms. He’d dug a hole alongside the fallen tree.

“The bone is about eight inches down, pretty much right at the flag,” Will said. “Either the femur bone of a child or the radius arm bone of a woman-they’d be similar dimensions just looking at the center few inches. It’s old skeletal remains. I’m guessing it’s a child, feet about here”-Will pointed-“lying that direction.”

Gabriel handed his brother one of the water bottles, pulled out the camera from the bag, pulled on a pair of gloves, and went to kneel by the flag and the hole. He used his gloved hand to gently move aside the dirt. It was human bone. Hard to tell if it was a child or a woman, but it definitely was human.

He studied the area. “State crime-scene people are going to be an hour getting here. But they were already packed for this possibility, as I’d given them a heads-up a search was in progress. Have you seen anything on the surface that suggests this is anything other than an old gravesite?”

“I’ve walked it in a spiral outward and I’m finding only vegetation,” Will replied.

“I’ll take some photos. Then we’ll get that tree moved and the area cleared.” Gabriel took his shovel and skimmed away a wider circle of leaves. “It’s still somewhat wet ground-that will make it easier getting to the rest of the bones.”

“It would be worth getting the other flags cleared while we wait for people, confirm this is the only site we need them to work for now,” Will suggested.

Gabriel nodded his agreement. “I’m sorry it was you who turned this shovel of dirt, Will.”

“Someone was going to do it. I’m glad it wasn’t Dad. Are they bringing in generators and lights or should I make arrangements?”

“They’ll have what they need, I’m sure of it.” Gabriel began snapping photographs of the scene. “You need to tell Karen what you’ve been doing out here. Go spend some time with her tonight.”

“Yeah. What do you figure? A few hours we’ll know child or adult?”

“I think I can convince them to clear dirt back from the visible bone before they start the rest of the excavation, get us that basic answer. How this bone is positioned will tell them how the body is resting.” Gabriel could feel himself building an emotional distance from the reality of the scene. “Dad’s going to be out here soon. We need something for him to do.”

“He’s good at coordinating people,” Will said. “Word is going to get out soon. You and I need to be elsewhere, let Dad manage this scene. He can be the gatekeeper, controlling who has access. We don’t want freelancers deciding to walk around these woods looking for more…” He didn’t finish.

Gabriel grimaced. “Yeah, you’re right about that.” He set aside the camera and nodded at the fallen tree. “Let’s move it to the north. Once it’s out of the way, we can break through the roots of the blackberry bush with a shovel, get it out of the way too.”

Will slid on his work gloves as he walked over to the tree. “When are you planning to tell Grace?”

“Ask me that in a few hours.” Gabriel heaved with his brother, and they got the tree to shift a few inches, pulling its branches out of the tangled brush. Should’ve been working out more, Gabriel told himself as they struggled to yank it free. They might need to wait for help.

Will said, “Lift with your legs, not your back.”

Gabriel barked out a laugh. “Shut up, Will,” he replied good-naturedly. At least the tree was an inanimate thing, and he could direct his frustration without mercy. On the third attempt, with Will generating most of the lift, they managed to haul the tree out of the way. They picked up shovels and set to work on the underbrush, clearing it back.

Gabriel rested against his shovel, breathing hard. An eight-by-ten-foot piece of land, a simple red flag marking the spot where the bone was. In about five hours this would be a pit, with more than just a fragment of bone to see. He wiped the back of his wrist across his eyes.

Will knelt to say a silent prayer, and his brother wasn’t a religious man by any stretch of the definition. It was a powerful gesture. Gabriel doubted the remains had gone in the ground with any kind of recognition or ceremony. Most likely it had been Kevin Arnett hiding what he’d done. He said a quiet prayer of his own. They’d get the truth unearthed. Grant a proper burial.

Will stood and reached for his shovel. “Let’s clear the rest of the flags while we wait for the crime-scene people.”

Gabriel nodded. Will took the right while he himself moved to the left, heading toward the other flags. If this was Ashley Dayton, he’d call her parents, tell his father, his officers, then tell Grace. If this was her parents, he’d end up with a shorter but similar list. It was going to be a long, miserable day, no matter how he looked at it.

He felt a raindrop strike his face and glanced up at the sky. God, we don’t need rain right now, but I share your sadness. He put his shovel into the ground at the base of a flag. It would take a steady rain to become a real problem this deep in the woods. Likely it was just a passing drizzle, he thought, recalling the forecast. He had a rain slicker in the truck. The work wasn’t going to suspend tonight no matter how much rain came in.

Evie Blackwell

Three crime-scene vehicles could be seen in the headlights of the rental Paul had parked beside the Thane family’s vehicles. Evie stepped out. The light rain earlier had brought a deeper chill to the air. Lights set up to deal with the coming night illuminated the general area in the woods, but from this distance details were indistinct. Evie sent a text to Gabriel to let him know they’d arrived.

“What do you think, Ann, can it stay quiet another day before the rumors begin?” Evie asked as her friend stopped beside her.

“They’ll be circulating by morning. The folks working the scene have to get coffee, sleep somewhere. State crime-lab folks don’t come to town unless something’s up.”

Evie saw a figure start across the pasture toward them. “That’s Gabriel, I think, or maybe Will.”

“Looks like Gabriel,” Paul replied.

They waited in silence. Evie easily read the strain on Gabriel’s face as he drew nearer, knew the answer before he spoke.

“It’s a child. And from what’s in the grave, it looks to be Ashley Dayton. The shoes are a match-she had beads tied into her shoelaces. And there’s a bracelet that was made for her with her name on it.”

“I’m so sorry, Gabriel,” Evie said softly.

He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “I’ll be calling her family once the medical examiner concludes his initial exam. He’s offered to make the dental assessment right here with the portable X-ray so we can give the family the confirmation ASAP.”

“You will not be surprising them,” Ann said quietly. “The place will be a shock, but her death is not a surprise.”

“I know,” Gabriel said heavily. “It’s a relatively shallow grave, three feet down, off to the side of one of the animal trails and within sight of the second hunting blind. I don’t think the location is an accident. I think the man wanted to look down on where she was buried.” His voice cracked on the last words, but he drew a ragged breath and went on, “Will’s still back there, and I’ve got Dad coordinating the scene. I need to get my guys informed, get security posted out here.”

“When the family arrives, the media will follow. We need to tell Grace,” Ann said.

“We’ll tell her,” Gabriel said. “Whether tonight or tomorrow morning is the only question.”

“I’m not one for delaying hard news. Let’s get it done. Rachel is with her now-that’s going to help.”

Gabriel nodded. “I need to give Josh a call, fill him in. I didn’t want to do that until we were sure.”

Evie bit her lip. “Gabriel, I don’t mean to be tactless with this question, but the fact the grave was shallow and within sight of a place the uncle would often go, do you think the same might also be the case with Grace’s parents if they are buried out here? Would he want to pass the site regularly?”

He shook his head. “I doubt it gives us that much direction. The child mattered to him. Grace’s parents were simply an obstacle. I’m inclined toward his burying them somewhere convenient, getting rid of the car.”

“It might be easier on Grace if we could also tell her we found her parents.”

“We’ll push on clearing the rest of the farm once the remains are removed, and that’s going to happen within a day at the pace they’re working. Let’s see what Josh wants to do. I’m going to have the crime-scene personnel focus on the house, outbuildings on the property. Once they finish with the remains, we’ll get that locked down. Then it’ll be up to Josh and the dogs.”

“Gabriel, why don’t you and Evie head into town, brief your officers on what’s been found,” Ann suggested. “Paul and I can go talk with Grace. Rachel is there, and Josh. She’ll be okay with us.”

He hesitated.

Evie reached out a hand and nudged his arm. “You look pretty grim, Sheriff,” she said with a little smile. “Your dad and Will can handle what’s going on here. Go clean up, talk to your guys, prepare what you will tell the Daytons. I’ll help put together a press statement for when you need to go public, get ahead of what’s coming. It’s going to be a long twenty-four hours.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Some things you don’t delegate, and this is one of them. Grace deserves to hear it first from me. I’m the authority here.”

Paul nodded. “She’ll appreciate that, Gabriel.”

“Will you do it now or talk with your guys first?” Ann asked. “It’s not going to shift things that much for Grace. Do whatever works best for you, Gabriel.”

“I’m going to call Josh, alert him I’m coming, and talk with her now. Evie, how about you ride with me?” Gabriel said. “I’ll have dispatch start alerting officers that we’ll meet at the post office in an hour. They know what you’ve come to town to do. We’ll update on the Dayton girl and hopefully slide past any ties to Grace. I’m thinking something like ‘Grace was preparing to sell the land, Josh was walking the property with her, they were checking out the condition of the hunting blinds before the wooded section of the property is listed for sale when his dogs pointed on a location.’”

Evie considered it, nodded. “I can finesse that since the core of it is fact.”

Ann offered an additional refinement. “You need to allow for the fact Grace’s parents might still be found, so maybe add ‘There are no other missing children from this area. The rest of the land is going to be swept as a precaution, but we don’t expect to find other child remains. We’re not sure who buried the Dayton girl on this land, but the location now suggests the crime has a local connection, and it will be investigated as such.’”

“Better,” Gabriel said. “I don’t mind destroying Arnett’s reputation after the fact, but I don’t want to put Grace out there in the center of everything. Knowing who did it and proving it are two different things. For now, Grace was preparing to sell the land, Josh was walking the farm with her, this looks like a convenient burial site for someone who knows the area, and we’ll be investigating it as a local crime.”

“Once the recovery of remains becomes public,” Paul suggested, “you should mention there’s a viable person of interest in the case, and the State Police in coordination with the FBI are reviewing those findings. This is a case you are pleased to have resolved for the sake of the Dayton family, but it is an old case, and given the current information, there’s no present concern for the community’s safety.”

“Good,” Gabriel agreed as Evie took notes.

“Once you have the sheriff’s statement,” Evie said, “I can have a variation of it issued from the State Police. The fact I’m in town looking at two cold cases, and the Dayton case happens to be one of them, is going to get noticed. I can pull a fair amount of attention away from Grace simply by talking about the new governor’s proposed task force and what I’m doing here. If it becomes necessary, throw me to the media wolves. I can handle it. They’ll latch on to the Florist case if I point them in the right direction. The recovered remains of a child is news, but new theories in the case of a missing deputy and his family would be bigger news if it’s handled properly.”

Gabriel smiled. “Let’s hope I don’t need to resort to ‘tossing you to the media wolves,’ Evie, but thank you. I’m going to take you up on that if I need a distraction away from Grace.”

“Evie does well in front of a camera,” Ann told them. “It’s part of her charm.” Ann laughed at the look Evie gave her. “Gabriel, the media will come to town because of this. We need to get Tom Lander’s photo distributed, get Karen somewhere out of sight so she isn’t on the B-roll of a reporter’s broadcast. If you shut down access to the farm and frontage road, some reporters are going to default to the most convenient place in town to interview people for comments, and that’s the Fast Café.”

“Good point. I’ve already suggested when Will gets free from here tonight that he should find Karen and tell her what’s going on. He’s feeling the weight of being the one to turn over that shovel of dirt, and he could use an hour with Karen to decompress. I’ll alert him about the media concerns.”

“I’ll coordinate with Will,” Paul offered, “make sure Tom Lander’s photo gets distributed widely, and get word out that Will wants to hear it if the guy shows up.”

“Thanks,” Gabriel said. “Paul, if you and Ann could also pick up where Caleb was working today on the Florist case, that would be useful. He has a lead on where Scott might have secured new IDs. If we can lock down the new names they had arranged to use, it could move Evie’s board a long way forward. Maybe movement on the Florist case can shift some of the media interest off the farm.”

“I’ll talk with your father,” Paul said. “I’m all for splitting the media’s attention with other news whenever you can do so.”

Evie looked around the group. Gabriel looked less grim just having a chance to talk out the plan for the next few hours. Once Grace heard the news, the worst of this evening would be over for him.

He glanced in her direction. “Anything else before we go?”

“You might ask your parents to invite Grace to stay with them should the media discover she’s at the campground,” Evie suggested. “I’d offer my place, but I’m going to get tracked down too easily. My sense is Grace isn’t going to wish to return to Chicago so long as Josh is making progress on locating her parents’ bodies.”

Gabriel nodded. “A good precaution. I’ll talk to my folks.” He looked a final time around the group. “I’ll tell Grace and leave it to you to help her through it. Evie and I will then go tell my deputies what’s happening.”

Ann said, “Let’s plan to meet for breakfast early tomorrow at the house, or Josh’s place, depending on how this evening goes. We’ll sort out how to handle the next few days then.”

Evie nodded, grateful that Ann and Paul would be here for the weekend. They all needed to get through these few days in as careful a sequence as possible, and Paul and Ann were both good at strategy. Evie followed Gabriel to his truck, glad she wasn’t the one in charge. She liked her job, but no one ever got used to having to break this kind of news.

Grace Arnett

Grace turned as she heard the front door of Josh’s home open and close, heard voices. Paul and Ann, Gabriel and Evie… She watched as the four of them came in together, saw the serious expressions, and pushed aside the comforter across her lap. She recognized the look on the sheriff’s face. “This isn’t going to be good,” she whispered to herself.

Rachel pushed pause on the movie. Grace had been watching a DVD chosen at random while Josh fussed in the kitchen over a dinner she wasn’t sure she could eat. They had stopped their search early today because Josh said the dogs needed a break, but she’d known it was more than that. The arrival of these four confirmed it.

“Grace, we’ve got difficult news.”

She simply nodded at Gabriel’s statement. Something related to her parents would have been that, but still positive. This wasn’t going to be.

Gabriel moved to sit on the coffee table facing her, and Grace idly wondered if the furniture was going to hold him. His hand came over and covered hers, and he felt cold to her, even though she still felt chilled from the day spent outside.

“Grace…” He waited until her eyes lifted from his hand covering hers. “Human remains were found at your uncle’s farm. Those of a child named Ashley Dayton. She went missing when she was six.”

She heard him, heard the words, and she felt… numb. Not surprised. Why should she be with news that the monster she already believed killed her parents had also killed a child? A child. Panic suddenly overcame the numbness. She felt her heart begin to race. How many children?

“Grace, are you okay?” She felt someone ease her head down. Josh, she realized, as the smell of his shirt got through her muddled senses. Wow. She had absorbed some shocks before and thought she knew every way her body could react, but this was a first. The world spun dizzily sideways as if she’d gotten slammed on her head. “How many children?” she whispered.

Gabriel’s hand on hers tightened. “She is the only one missing in this area… the only one we know of.”

Grace tried to nod. One was too many, but more? She carefully straightened to see if the room was still spinning. “Tell me the name again. How old she was.”

“Ashley Dayton. She was six, Grace.”

She felt something burning in her heart, an ache so intense it was like an ember bursting into flame. She knew what a six-year-old child looked like, and it didn’t take a leap to guess that Ashley was blue-eyed and blond. “I’m okay, Gabriel,” she said. Seeing his worried expression somehow forced a steadiness back into her voice. “Are her parents from around here?” she asked.

“They live in Florida. I’ll be talking with them tonight, and expect them to fly into town tomorrow.”

She needed to stand up, to pace the room. She leaned forward to rise, caught Rachel’s gaze, the tension telling her what she must look like. She stayed seated. She couldn’t think. “What do you need from me?”

Gabriel gave a slight smile as he rubbed her hand. “You’ll do, Grace. Listen to Josh, my folks, Ann. We’re going to keep the media away from you.”

She tried to moisten her lips. “You’ll have to tell people, the press.”

“Let us speak for you regarding all this. We’ve got some thoughts on how to do it. Those woods are known to many in the community, and we can keep you out of the spotlight for now.”

She was intensely grateful. “What about my parents?”

He shook his head. “We don’t know. Josh will be back on his search in a day or two. I promise you, if your parents are out there, we will do everything we can to find them before the weather closes the door. But I need you to stay put while the press is around.”

“I can do that.”

“Any questions you have for me at this point?”

She really couldn’t think. She tried, shook her head, but stopped quickly when the room started to whirl again.

“I’ll be around if you need to see me-just let Josh know. If you want to return to Chicago while this plays out, Rachel and Ann are your traveling companions. They can make that happen for you.”

“I’ll be all right here.” She took a deep breath. “I will.”

He nodded. “Then I’ll head out.” He released her hand.

“Ann, have you and Paul eaten?” Rachel asked, rising from her seat. “Let’s get some dinner on the table. Josh has got a pizza in the oven, and there’s potato soup simmering on the stove.” Grace smiled her thanks at Rachel for diverting the moment. She gratefully watched the others leave the room with Gabriel.

She felt as if she’d taken a punch, followed by a shot of Novocain to deaden any feeling. Her body didn’t feel like her own. She felt the couch beside her shift. A mug was tucked into her hands. Josh. Of course, Josh.

“I’ll be okay,” she repeated, pushing aside the tea. “I just got a little light-headed.”

“You went sheet-white and were about to hit the deck,” he countered and pushed the tea back into her hands.

She wrapped both hands around the mug. “It’s not like I didn’t know something more was going on, even if I was mostly hiding behind the decision not to know the details. I’ve heard Ann and Evie talking about the two cases they hoped to resolve. Even I can put together the description of Ashley Dayton and the odds that my… that he was involved. Not wanting to face it isn’t the same as being blind to the possibility.”

“You shouldn’t have been out there during the search, Grace. It’s hard enough on someone who isn’t tied-”

“My parents are out there, Josh,” she interrupted. “I’m certain of that.” She closed her eyes and let herself say something she hadn’t told even Rachel. “Until I have that closure, I’m left with this awful hole inside that whispers to me: ‘They didn’t love you. They left you behind with that monster. That’s how much your parents cared about you.’ It isn’t true, I know that now, but my childhood was lived with that running around in my mind. I need to prove that it’s false, if it can be proven. I need that, Josh.”

Josh sighed, and his hand covered hers as his brother’s had. “Then we will find out, Grace. However we have to tear apart that property, we will find out if they are there.”

She realized when he handed her a tissue that she’d begun to cry again. The tears had become so common lately, she didn’t even realize it most of the time. “Thank you,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “I’d like a funeral for my parents. Then I want to get back to Chicago and resume my life. I want to lay to rest these ghosts, so the past won’t keep dragging me down.”

“We’ll have that funeral one way or another. And I’ll get you safely back home,” Josh promised. “Come eat something, Grace. If you’re here another week, I’d like you not to blow away on me.”

She forced a smile she didn’t feel and sipped at the sweetened tea. She rose slowly, found her balance again. “I might try some of your soup.”

“I make great soup,” he said immediately, and she was able to laugh.

Oh, she needed this old friend, and the way Josh went out of his way to make her laugh was like he’d done years ago, getting her to smile as if that was the reward he was after when he kept her company. He’d been a friend she had shared the good moments of her childhood with, and she couldn’t put into words how valuable that was to her now. Something from the past was good, she silently reminded herself.

She let Josh guide her toward the kitchen and didn’t resist when an old sweatshirt of his dropped around her shoulders. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be warm again.