Evie came back with three lunch sacks, set his in the back. Gabriel felt her look. She said, “You’re shutting me out, aren’t you?” She pulled a breadstick out of a bag, broke it in half, handed him a piece. “Too many moving parts, this one doesn’t need Evie, so start segmenting the people and figure out what needs managing next.”
“It’s not that.” He took a bite of the breadstick. “Nice addition to the lunch, and it’s hot.”
“I’m not complaining, Gabriel,” she said around her own bite, “just noting your body language.”
“It’s called triage,” he said with a comfortable shrug. “Sheriffs do it all the time.”
“Understood. Take me to the post office so I can huddle with Ann, and go do whatever’s next on your list. You can mark Evie off that list of yours. I’m good.”
He smiled at her tone. “I might keep you on the list simply as the one not in trouble-or making trouble. You haven’t told me a joke today. I’m told you’re good at them.”
Evie considered the request for a moment. “Okay. A guy passes a homeless man on the street, holding a sign asking for lunch money,” she began. “He stops, pulls a twenty out of his wallet, but says, ‘First, I’d like to ask you some questions. Are you going to use this twenty to buy a drink? Cigarettes? Bet on a pony?’ The homeless man replies, ‘No, sir. I gave up all those things years ago.’ The guy puts the twenty back in his wallet and says, ‘Come home with me, have a shower, I’ll find you a change of clothes, my wife will fix us a good home-cooked meal.’ Startled, the homeless man answers, ‘You’re sure, sir?’ Guy smiles, says, ‘I want my wife to meet someone who doesn’t drink, smoke, or gamble.’”
It took a second, but then Gabriel laughed. “Going to try to improve your husband one day, Evie?”
“I plan to marry well, so he’ll mostly be a livable type of guy right off the bat.”
Gabriel laughed again as he came to a stop in front of the building. Evie swung out of the truck. “Stop long enough to eat, Gabriel.”
“I will, Mom.”
She waved and headed inside.
He needed that light moment. He scanned the street and didn’t see Josh’s truck. Gabriel felt his smile fade, wondering where his brother may have gone. Somewhere to do some painful grieving, he suspected, before he had to get back to Grace and present a calm face. It was going to be that kind of day. He hoped he was up to doing the same.
Gabriel parked in the front drive at his parents’ home, pocketed his keys, walked up the steps to where his father was sitting on the porch, a cigar in one hand. They appeared only in the rarest of occasions, and this one qualified. Both he and his dad had taken some hard hits over the years, but nothing like this. A child victim of horrendous abuse in their midst, and they hadn’t seen it to reach out and help. He could see the shared pain in his father’s gaze.
“Grace back at her campsite?” his dad asked.
“Yes.”
Caleb poured a mug of coffee from the thermos nearby, motioned for Gabriel to help himself. “Your mom went into town to speak with Ann. I’ve told her.”
Gabriel nodded, not surprised, and took a seat on the porch with his own mug. “How did Josh take it?”
“Went very, very quiet.”
Gabriel nodded again. He wasn’t sure how a person processed the fact that a girl you cared deeply about had suffered so greatly. “One of us needs to update Will.”
“I’ll go tell him,” Caleb offered. “The Thane family faces this together. However we can help Grace, we’ll do it as a unit.”
“I think Josh will be the major one helping her.”
“She has to let him in first. I think she does what she must, then runs as far as she can from this place.”
“And he’s liable to follow.”
“He’s got strong convictions. Grace is one of those, I’m thinking.”
Gabriel sighed and stretched his legs out, thought about the week ahead. “You think the Dayton girl’s remains are out there?”
“She’s there. As soon as Ann put up that photo, I knew she would be.” Caleb leaned over to pour more coffee. “Invite Grace to dinner tomorrow, let’s start putting comfortable friends around her. I don’t want her brooding out there, alone and back in Carin where the memories are the strongest.”
“I’ll mention it to Josh, have him bring her this way when they’re done at the farm tomorrow.” Gabriel found his sense of time was out of kilter, had to concentrate. “Just four days ago, it was a normal November around here.”
Caleb’s smile was sad. “Wasn’t normal-we just hadn’t seen the dark spots yet. Evie strikes me as being a good cop. She’s kind of young for the job, but that crime wall on the Florist family shows real progress in a short time, particularly given that she started out getting all banged up.”
“Yeah, she’s got some ambition in her,” Gabe noted. “A good thing, considering what she’s tackling. I’ll be around, Dad, if something comes to mind I need to know.”
Caleb nodded. “Get some rest later. Tomorrow’s sure to be a challenging one. For everyone.”
Gabriel pushed to his feet, set his mug back on the small table. “No one’s out there to arrest for this terrible crime, Dad. Two beautiful little girls…” He shook his head. “That’s what makes it all so awfully tough. I can’t provide the justice Grace should have, needs to have. Or the Daytons…”
“God can, though,” Caleb said quietly. “Let it go, Son. This isn’t yours to carry. It’s going to bust you if you try.”
“Yeah.” Then he said again, “You’ll tell Will?”
“I will.”
“Ask him about Evie’s dogs too-if he’s all right with keeping them a few more days. Evie will want to have them around; they’d be a welcome distraction. But she also could benefit from a few more days just reading the files. She’s still stiff, and cautious about that back of hers.”
“I’m sure he’s fine about having them there. You know Will and his animals.”
Gabriel smiled. “If it’s got four legs-for that matter, two-he’ll tend it like a mother hen. I never figured out how he’s kept that trait, being as how he grew up with me.”
“It’s why being a combat medic suited him so well. You guys tumbled over each other on everything, but if someone else tried to come at either you or Will or Josh, you suddenly became the Three Musketeers.”
They both laughed. “Get on about the job, Gabriel,” Caleb said. “I know it’s sitting heavy today, but you’ll shift and bear up under this, we both will. Just give it time.”
“Yeah. See you, Pop.” Gabriel laid a fist lightly on his father’s shoulder, headed back to his truck feeling lighter than when he arrived. He’d stop by his place for a shovel and get on with what had to be done.
Joshua Thane
Josh desperately wanted a few hours on the water. He needed the time alone, but it wasn’t going to be possible. He gathered up the necessary supplies in town, exchanged a few polite words with those he had to, and pushed down the sick feelings as best he could. There were moments in life when perceptions shattered, and his just had in a way he’d never experienced or expected.
He’d had his idealized image of Grace, and someone had just ripped a curtain back to show what he hadn’t seen all those years ago. He mostly wanted to wrap her up in a hug and cry with her, and if that emotion didn’t spill over today, he’d be a fortunate man.
Grace wouldn’t want it known, surely wouldn’t want him to know the truth. Ann had told him only because the cop in her had to alert him to the likelihood that there were other remains out there. He’d searched in this kind of situation with Ann before. He knew that look on her face, the tone in her voice. Ann figured there was a better than even chance his dogs could find the Dayton girl’s remains on the farm.