“Of course. I meant more giving him opportunities to be around the baby and get to know her. I mean, until I started fostering, I never would have thought I was capable of taking care of a child.”
“Trial by fire. That’s what I said to your dad when we had you. Never had a clue what we were doing. You were a testing grounds,” her mom said with a laugh.
Ava laughed, too. She’d heard that story before and knew her folks had figured it all out as they were raising her. Sort of the way Ava was doing with Gracie.
“Thanks, Mom. Glad you got it right for Ryan.”
“Oh, I still was fumbling along. The main bit of advice I can give you and your friend is that there is no one way to parent. Kids are different and constantly changing. Once you figure out something that works…it no longer does. Kept me on my toes.”
Her mom had an interesting way of looking at parenting, and it did make sense. Pushing Chay hard wasn’t going to work—he’d just get his back up. She’d adapt her plan so that he was just with Gracie more. And since they were sort of dating, that made sense.
“I’ll see you on Thursday. Gotta run, I have a client in fifteen minutes and need time to prep.”
“Perfect. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Hanging up the phone, she knew she had to be very careful how she moved forward with Chay. Marg had gone to the courts to get permission for Chay and Aponi to have visitation at Ava’s suggestion. But in her mind it was a first step. Something she wasn’t sure how Chay would react.
No one liked to be told that someone had done something in their own best interest. Sounded like Ava was butting into his life. Which she one hundred percent was.
She wasn’t sure how she’d feel if Chay did that to her.
But she wanted to try. For the first time since Greg’s car accident, she felt like she was ready to risk her heart.
Dating him had made her feel so much happiness. Taking out her phone, she glanced down at a photo she’d taken of him and Gracie when he’d been cuddling the baby. Her heart felt full and her pulse sped up.
Her gut told her that pushing him to be Gracie’s father was the right thing to do. Not just for Gracie, but for him as well. Chay needed someone to give all that love to. While she hoped that they’d continue to fall for each other, there were no guarantees. A child of his own, though…that could be the answer.
Following his leads on the different women who’d gone missing, Chay built a pattern. A lot of times his old sergeant used to say that the truth reveals itself in circles or squares—there’s always a line connecting everything.
That resonated with Chay. There had been a line connecting him and his mom to the Navajo Nation here in Utah, one that she’d tried to sever so many times, but even in death she couldn’t.
Same with baby Gracie. Her mom had brought her here…maybe looking for the father. Though there was no DNA connection to the father, and Chay’s gut told him it would be hard to find. But there had to be a line somewhere.
He’d have to go back and trace his mom’s path after she’d left him. It was entirely possibly she could have had another son. She’d spent a lot of her time high or drunk and hooking up indifferent places they’d stayed in. But he wasn’t entirely sure how to find a child that she’d never mentioned.
She’d left him in Utah and died in Atlanta. She’d hated to fly so would have driven or hitched her way across the country. Too much territory to cover? For a lazy man, Chay thought. He wasn’t going to make it a priority, because he had a case he was working on. But he knew he couldn’t let this go. If he had a sibling…were they still alive? Did they want their kid?
Hell, that was the main reason why he was reluctant to have a child of his own. Children were vulnerable in ways that affected them as adults. He’d never asked his grandmother what it was his mom was running from. She’d never volunteered it, but Chay could guess it had to be here.
Mom had never wanted to live on the Navajo Nation again. She wanted to be a part of the bigger world. Had sought a path that would keep her out of here. Until him.
She’d never said she regretted him, but she hadn’t had to.
He’d guessed.
His phone rang. Happily shoving away those thoughts, he answered it.
“Officer Benally.”
“Chay, it’s Jacob Colton. Are you getting anywhere with the database?”
“You were on my list to call this morning. I am. There’s a pattern, but it’s loose to say the least.” He gave Jacob a rundown of all he’d found. There were fifteen women in total whose missing-persons circumstances matched Fern Hensley and Camille Lancaster. “But the locations are all over the state of Utah. So motive…I’ve got nothing.”
“I have a call in to the town where Fern lived to speak to the officer who took the report there. I’m also hoping to hear back from Victor Olson at the Wilson Police Department. The reportsI’ve gotten online are pretty standard. Not much detail. It’s always better to have a chat.”
“Definitely is. I will give him a call as well, see if I can rattle his cage. I’m still trying to get more details from Fern but won’t push.”
