She poured her first cup of coffee and did something that had at one time been a habit but she had not done in years.
She sat in a chair with a Bible to do a daily devotional. The reading was from the book of Esther, and the theme was the providence of God. The words tore at Lainie’s heart. God’s hand could be seen ineverylife situation. Nothing, not the sad, the bad, or the wonderful was outside of his control.
It was a truth she’d heard often. Now it scorched her soul.
Why Evie?
She knew she’d never understand. She also knew that the only way to peace was to trust the Lord—his plans were always the best because he knew the end from the beginning. She used to believe that with all her heart, and it gave her peace.
In Acceptance Lies Peacewas the devotional’s title.
Leaning back, she closed her eyes.Oh, Lord, please help me get to the point of acceptance, because where I’m at right now hurts too much.
She held her hands out, palms up, trying to let go of the fear and self-recrimination she felt. None of that would help anything get better. After a few minutes, she closed her Bible and devotional.
Do the next thingechoed in her mind, and she had to decide what the most important next thing was.
Was it time to go back to work?
She still had plenty of time to take off, but what could she do off duty?
Everything was so unresolved.
They found Stan, but where was Evie? Would he tell them? Did he know?
The last point was the one that tied her in knots. She’d loved cold-case stories, and just about every one that she’d ever seen started with the crime and relatives of the victims asking two important questions: who and why? Then years went by before they got any answers. Sometimes they never got answers. Lainie didn’t think she could takeneverknowing,neverfinding her sister.
The day before, she and her parents had danced around planning some sort of memorial for Evie. While she’d been at their house, several people from church stopped by to bring food and to extend their support and pray.
Before Evie had disappeared, Lainie would have run from that idea and left the house as soon as possible. But yesterday she sat, head bowed, completely moved by the sincere prayers offered by people who loved Evie. It left Lainie so very sad that she had stayed away from her church family for so long.
The prayers stayed on her heart as she paced her home, still wondering if it was time to go back to work. The one thing they had that many of the cold-case stories she remembered didn’t have was a suspect in custody. This case was fortunate enough to have two. Benton and Stan.
At least Stan was awake and alert and in jail. Hopefully, he would answer questions and tell the truth about what happened to Evie. Right now, no one knew where to search for her or had any real inkling of where she might be.
Lainie’s phone rang and she saw that it was Mike. Maybe that was a sign that she should return to work. “Hey, partner, what’s up?”
“Couple of things are cooking. I was checking in. Everyone is talking about your brother-in-law. I hope that settles some things for you.”
“Yes and no. I will never make sense out of this situation.”
“I guess you’re right. And I wanted to tell you that I finally got approval to talk to Hank Bucshon. I’ll be heading out to Terminal Island later today.”
“So the Feds have him. I kind of lost track.”
“Yeah, the Feds agreed that he might be in danger in county jail. He was arraigned in Long Beach for spousal abuse, but not yet given a court date. I’m not sure if he’ll go to trial or take a plea. I’m leaning toward plea because we caught him red-handed, but you never know. His public defender said it was okay for me to talk to him.”
“Maybe I’ll go with. I was thinking that it’s time to return to work.”
“You think you’re ready?”
“I don’t know, Mike. Honestly, my whole world is off-balance now. But there isn’t a lot for me to do around the house, and if I don’t have something to occupy my mind, I will lose it.”
His response was interrupted by her phone telling her she had another call coming through. “Can I call you back? Shea is on the other line.”
“Sure.”
Lainie switched to Shea’s call. “Bobby, you have news?”
