Gabriel Thane
Gabriel saw that Josh had brought his camper out to the farm-a place to stretch out, a table for eating, a bathroom and shower if needed. Josh could impose a break on the search when he thought it warranted. A very smart move. No need for Grace to step foot in that house.
Gabriel parked beside Josh’s truck. He could see Josh and Grace walking a ways behind the house, the dogs roaming ahead of them. It looked like they’d covered the east side of the house. Red flags marked where the dogs had gone on alert. Not many, but enough that the ground was going to be yielding something. If any secrets, that was another question.
Gabriel took a shovel to the first flag and began to turn over the dirt. He found bones down about a foot, cleared aside soil with a gloved hand and recognized a raccoon, surprised it was buried so near the house. He dug another foot around it and two feet further down to confirm it wasn’t simply a deceptive covering over something else, then refilled the hole, picked up the flag, and moved to the next one.
He listened as Josh occasionally called out to his dogs, changed their search path, but Gabe didn’t disturb their progress, working flags well back of where the dogs were searching. If he found something that might be human, he would quietly refill and back off the location until Grace was no longer on the scene. Then he’d call in the specialists who would carry out the crime-scene work.
He turned over four holes, finding only chicken bones, wiped dirt off the end of the stakes, and took them back to Josh’s truck. Before the search was finished, he figured he’d dig up a few hundred spots. He moved toward the garage and the next flag. He needed a long-handled shovel if he was going to be doing a lot of this. He’d stop at Will’s for one before he came out again tomorrow.
His phone chimed with a message. Evie and Ann were going to a movie. He smiled. Evie’s idea rather than Ann’s, he guessed, and a very good one. Someone needed to be able to pull them back from the quicksand they were in. Evie was about the only one still able to stand without being swamped by it all. He sent a text back: Good. Next time it’s you and me. GT.
Within the hour, he was done with the marked flags. He settled in the passenger seat of his truck to read a book, forcing his mind to disengage from the recent activity while Josh and Grace continued to search. He needed the distraction of a novel to take him out of this place and the weight of the day-his version of a movie.
He didn’t remember much of what he read, but it did feel as if the tension came down a notch by the time he heard Josh whistle the dogs in for the day.
Gabriel thought about joining them as Grace and Josh toweled the dogs off and brushed their coats free of accumulated burrs. But he saw they were having a conversation, and Grace looked visibly stressed. The best end of this day was to get it over with and leave.
Once Josh had loaded the dogs in the truck and Grace took the passenger seat, Gabriel walked over. Josh came to meet him. “Any change to the plans?”
“No.” Josh glanced back at his truck, offered a low, “She’s stubborn about doing this herself. We’ll be out tomorrow morning, start sweeping the pasture.”
“She knows her own mind on how she feels about everything, what she needs to do.”
Josh grimaced. “Yeah. Anyway, I’ll try to convince her to get some dinner with me, but at the moment she just wants to go back to the motor home. So that’s where we’re heading. Then I’ll take the dogs back to the house, get them settled.”
“The day’s over. Consider that a win, Josh.”
“Not much of one, but I hear you.”
Josh headed back to his truck, and Gabriel waited until they had left before taking a final walk around the search area. He wanted to see if anything in the terrain caught his attention-sometimes a faint depression might have been overlooked.
Satisfied, Gabriel looked at the time, determined he would be back in town shortly after six p.m. He’d find Ann later for a conversation, but for now assumed she would be meeting up with Grace. He’d get himself something to eat, confirm the rest of the county was quiet. Something always needed his attention, but if it was critical, the dispatcher or a deputy would’ve called. He’d stop by the office, clear away what couldn’t wait until morning, leave the rest.
He took a final glance around the farm. A monster had lived here. That terrible truth hurt deep inside him. He’d deal with it because it was what being sheriff required. But it would never fade entirely, this ache for a different history for Grace, her parents, for what might have been.
EIGHT
Joshua Thane
Josh walked up to Grace’s motor home shortly after seven p.m. The evening light was rapidly fading, but he didn’t need the flashlight in his pocket yet. He found folding chairs set out, a decent fire going in the ring. Evie and Ann were there. Grace was sitting in the chair nearest the motor home, her feet stretched out in front of her, a brown bottle dangling from her fingers. Root beer, he was relieved to see.
“Grace.”
She tipped her head his direction. “That would indeed be me.”
He narrowed his eyes at her tone as much as her words, scanned the bottles on the ground under her chair, realized she must have started with a beer before Ann and Evie arrived to shift that choice to something else. Such a slight woman, with not much of a meal today… she’d be feeling it. Given he’d watched her tense up as they walked around that house, knew her memories were running dark, he wasn’t entirely surprised. He’d had an inkling the day would end badly, and he could sympathize with her reaching for some way to forget. He’d hoped Ann and Evie would be the answer, but it looked as though they were simply cushioning Grace’s tumble. He so wanted to help with the pain she was in, yet he didn’t know how. “Come watch a movie with me, Grace, share some popcorn.”
“I’m good here. Join us, Josh.”
“I’m thinking you maybe need some dinner too.”
“Marshmallows are around here somewhere.”
He hunkered down beside her to be at eye level, smiled. “Maybe not so much the puffed sugar,” he replied gently. “How about chicken pasta, with garlic bread?”
Ann, sitting in a folding chair across from Grace, watched them, drinking from a tall insulated cup what likely was coffee. Evie was resting on a blanket on the ground beside the fire, her feet up on a log, staring at the stars beginning to appear. Whatever the ladies had been talking about, Grace still had traces of tears. Grace’s friends are doing what only they can do, crawl inside the pain with her… as much as she will let them.
“Which movie?” Grace said.
“I’ve got a few dozen of them on the shelf-you’ll find something you like.”
“Are you feeling sorry for me?”
Grace didn’t know Ann had told him about her childhood, so it would take some careful stepping around the question, but this one seemed easy enough. “Yeah.”
“That at least makes you an honest man.” She tried to tap his chest with her finger and mostly sloshed root beer on him.
He rescued the bottle, mostly full, and set it on the ground with the empties. One beer, he saw in the line of bottles, little food, and a lot of tears added up to a miserable night. “Up, honey. You’ve been thinking enough, I’m thinking.”
She half laughed, half hiccupped, and pushed herself out of the chair. Josh settled his jacket over hers, added crushing fatigue to his guess about what was going on. “The change of scenery will do you good, Grace,” he said as he led her toward his truck. Ann tipped her cup his direction in thanks.