“Whose hands?” Marcus asked.
Harry crossed his arms over his protruding belly. “And who might you be?”
Marcus seemed to remember himself and stood straighter. “Marcus Roberts. I am Ava’s father.”
“Huh. She never mentioned you in all the time she worked here.”
“I live in Houston.”
Harry circled his desk and plopped down in his chair. “I take it you and the girl’s mother are divorced.”
At the wordmother, we both lunged forward. “Did you take her to her mother?” I asked.
Harry held out his hands. “Now, I know Ava wasn’t too fond of the woman. She said as much when she first worked here. But they had a right fine reunion. She’s safe from the likes of this one.” He pointed at Tucker.
“What have you DONE!” Marcus shouted. “We have a restraining order against her!”
Harry shot up. “I saw their happy hugging with my own eyes!”
I reached out to Marcus. “We know where she is. Let’s go.”
We whirled around and raced out of the diner.
“My car,” Marcus said, clicking the remote to a sleek Mercedes.
I jumped in. “What do we do when we get there?”
“Pray that they are still there. Didn’t she always move Ava when she had a memory reset?”
My chest tightened. “At least twice. It’s only been a few hours. You think she could get it done that fast?”
“I don’t know,” Marcus said, banging his hand on the wheel. “How did this happen?”
“Obviously she didn’t read about her mother or spot the tattoo about her. Or else she didn’t understand.”
Marcus squealed out of the parking spot. “She has a tattoo about Geneva?”
I hoped Ava didn’t mind me telling him. “She has three tattoos. The one on her wrist you’ve probably seen, about only trusting her own handwriting.”
“Right.”
“She also has less visible ones. One is her name and birthdate. The other says, ‘Mother is bad.’”
“So the first time she sees that, she’s going to realize she’s done the wrong thing.”
“Yes. And probably run again.” Ava was already in full panic mode.
Marcus blew out a long gust of air. “Let’s assume that hasn’t happened yet. What would she be using for information?”
“She must have found the section in the notebook about her time at the shelter. There was a police report in there with her mother’s address, in case she wanted to go back home.”
“And you didn’t think to get rid of it?”
He was right. We should have. “I will now. The section of her book on the shelter was when she was the most scared. She had notes about the things the women taught her. Not to trust men.” My stomach lurched.
Marcus slammed on the accelerator to blast through a yellow light. “So, she reads not to trust men, realizes you’re a man, grabs the address and heads to the diner.”
“And Harry takes her out there and of course Geneva is happy to see her.”
