“How often do you get together?”
“In person? Maybe a couple of times a year. Either Ann or Paul, or both. It depends on what’s going on. I probably talk to Paul more often.” He paused to point through the windshield. “Up ahead on the right. That’s the Arnett place.”
Evie turned her head. It looked like a typical farm, with neatly planted rows of crops in the surrounding fields, a faded-red barn, in the distance a thick line of trees. The lake inlet would be that direction, she thought. The house wasn’t in view yet. Gabriel turned off the road. The drive in was pitted with deep potholes, and a spreading layer of weeds had pushed up through the crushed-rock surface.
Gabriel parked behind the truck by the gate. They could see Josh and Grace walking on the far side of the overgrown pasture just at the tree line. The house was up ahead on the right, a traditional two-story country home probably built in the ’50s, with a steep roof and wraparound porch. It was desperately in need of paint, but otherwise still standing tall. “Do we wait here or go join them?” Evie asked.
“I think wait here,” Gabriel replied. “We’ll want a look at that house later when Grace is not here, so we have a sense of how much time has decayed what’s inside. Sun-rotted fabrics is hopefully the worst of it, along with resident spiders and mice. If water has been kept at bay, the structure itself should still be in good shape.”
Evie got out of the truck, leaned against it with her arms crossed to ward off the chill of the November day. She tried to imagine growing up on this farm-barn cats, chickens, maybe a goat or two, maybe pigs, certainly cattle. The way the gates were configured, she didn’t see any sign that there had been horses. “Grace would take the bus to school from here?”
Gabriel leaned against the truck beside her. “The school bus came by this area just after seven a.m. She’d ride it to school in the morning, have breakfast there, finish classes, come back on the bus in the afternoon. She’d be here unless her uncle brought her into town for something in the evening. He did that frequently, as I remember-they weren’t that secluded out here. It was part of his charm, and he was well-liked around the community. A social man, having to raise a young girl. More than a few ladies in town were thinking he would marry once he became her guardian, but he never chose to do so. Obvious now…” His voice drifted off. He shook his head. “Back then,” he continued, “he was focusing on the farm, raising his niece, and pushing the cops to figure out what had happened to his brother and wife. When Grace got older, come summer she’d ride to town on her bike, hang out at the lake or the library. Her uncle treated her well in my memory of things, and that’s what’s so painful now. If she wanted to be in town, he’d bring her, she’d go shopping with other girls, go to the ice cream shop with friends. People thought he was an okay guy, doing a decent job as a replacement father.”
Evie glanced over at Gabriel, could hear the hard emotion in his voice. “You know as well as I do,” she said quietly, “that many people are excellent liars and can hide well who they are and what they do. You were only a teenager back then. You saw what he wanted you to see. And Carin worked to his advantage. This farm and town were the extent of her world, and he controlled it, all its parameters. By taking away her parents, he made sure he had absolute ownership of that girl’s life-from toddler to teen.”
Gabriel kicked at the dirt, jammed his hands in his pockets. “You sound so calm. I haven’t felt this much rage in decades.”
“I won’t try to touch the emotion of this, it would eat me alive. But I’ll do whatever I can to help Grace get her answers, and maybe find a measure of peace.”
“Paul said you don’t mentally carry a case home with you, that you do that as a gift to yourself.”
“It sounds cold, but yes, he’s right. I won’t let this inside. I’ll be eternally grateful I didn’t endure that kind of childhood, empathize with Grace’s pain, then do my level best not to let it get any further. I can’t do my job if I can’t walk away from it. These cases will always keep coming. I can’t carry the load, so I try very hard not to attempt it.”
“I’m not going to say you’re wrong in that approach. Not today.”
Evie looked over the pastureland, at the line of thick woods, then at the smaller yard around the house. Finding Grace’s parents would close a lot of questions. The obvious hiding place would be out in those woods, buried deep, undisturbed for as long as the man had owned the land. “Do you think her parents are buried here?”
“If the uncle killed them, it makes sense. But he knew this county as well as anyone. He could have buried them, demolished the car in a hundred different places. For her own reasons, Grace must believe it to be here. I’m not inclined to ask her why she thinks that, to ask if the uncle said something one day that got her wondering. Her asking to do the search is enough for me.”
Evie nodded. She tried to make out the features of the two walking across the pasture in their direction. “Regarding Grace, I’ve met her only once, Gabriel. She’s a friend of Ann’s, but she’s not going to know me very well, if at all.”
“Sometimes that’s better, Evie. She’ll see you as just another cop, and that will make it easier to let you help her with this. With me, there are childhood memories to complicate things.”
“She’s going to realize fairly soon that Ann’s told us about her past.”
“I’m sure Ann will let Grace know who’s in the loop,” Gabriel said. “That’s how relationships with friends stay together. It’s going to be healing, in a way, for Grace to be with people who aren’t treating her with kid gloves or keeping her at a distance. That said, Evie, a piece of advice?”
“Sure.”
“Grace has survived by hiding. So that’s where she thinks her security rests. I wouldn’t mention something to her she doesn’t bring up first.”
“That makes sense.” She looked over at him. “Gabriel? An observation of my own. You’re going to do fine with her, all the Thanes will. You care too much not to.”
“Thanks for that.”
They watched Josh and Grace coming toward them. Evie thought she looked stressed, maybe a bit thin, but mostly the woman she remembered. Evie saw Josh take hold of Grace’s hand as they drew near. Grace didn’t pull away, something Evie was thankful to see.
Gabriel went to meet them. “Hello, Grace.”
“Gabriel.” She smiled. “It’s been a long time. I heard from Josh you’re sheriff now. Guess I better behave myself.” They chuckled, and Evie was impressed at the woman’s effort to remain relaxed.
“Taking after Dad.” Gabriel gestured back toward the truck. “You remember meeting Evie Blackwell, a friend of Ann’s?”
“Yes. Hello, Evie.”
Evie smiled as she walked over, held out her hand. “Hello, Grace.”
Gabriel shifted his stance, resting back on his heels, hands tucked into his pockets-clearly trying to find the right words. “Ann’s told us you’re searching for your parents, Grace. We’re going to do everything we can to help you out with that, get you whatever answers are here to find. Ann wants to come walk it with Josh at times, as I will, and my father too, so we can cover as much ground as we can while the weather is decent. It’s going to be taxing for you to be out here every day.”
“I appreciate that, Gabriel. I do. But for some of this, most of it really, I simply need to do this.”
Gabriel nodded and looked to Josh. “You’ve got a plan in mind now that you’ve seen the property?”
“I think the dogs can clear the pastureland and the area around the house rather quickly. We’ll flag whatever the dogs find and leave it to someone else to check out. There will be false-positives, animal bones and the like, given it’s a farm and good hunting land. My focus is to keep the dogs moving.”