She stopped the video and texted it to Chay. Kissing Gracie on the head and hugging her close. When she set her down, the little girl crawled back to the toy she’d been playing with.
“She’s really starting to thrive,” said Misty, one of the workers in the day care.
“Yeah. She feels safe,” Ava said. But it was a reminder to herself that safety and routine were the keys to healing when it came to trauma. Her warning to Ryan may have been misjudged. Fern might be helping him to heal as well. Seeing the woman he’d rescued thrive was the best prescription for reminding him that he was good at his job.
Getting back to her office, she noticed her door was open and normally she kept it closed. Not open a lot, just slightly ajar. Maybe she’d left it that way. She had been in a rush to see Ryan.
Going inside, she checked her computer hadn’t been accessed and that no files had been taken. But her desk looked fine. Chay didn’t text back…which of course he didn’t have to, but she kept checking her phone.
Which wasn’t healthy. She put her phone on her desk and focused on work. Chay had been clear that three dates was the most he’d ever been on with one person. Was she painting him the way she wanted him to be or as he truly was?
The video that Ava sent was sweet, and he saw what she was doing. Or was it manipulative? It was hard to separate well-meaning from manipulative. He’d seen a therapist twice. Once right after his mom left him to make sure he was okay to go to school. Those sessions had been difficult, but he’d done what he had to in order to stop going.
It hadn’t taken him that long to realize what the therapist wanted to hear him say. So he’d done it. Told her what shewanted. Grandmother didn’t buy it for a second, but she understood why. She just loved him and gave him space.
Space.
It was the one thing he hadn’t had with Ava. He liked her, and if it was just Ava, maybe he’d be handling the relationship better. But there was Gracie.
A baby girl that he was growing closer to. He’d mentioned to his grandmother about the visitation, and she was so excited. Already she was prepping for the baby’s visit.
Chay knew the more time he spent with her, the harder it was going to be to keep her out of his heart. He had the job to concentrate on. Reminding himself that work had been his savior as an adult.
Jacob sent an email with an update on some of the police stations that Chay hadn’t had time to talk to. They’d decided to split the list. There had to be something more they could find.
The officer he’d been talking to go back to him. “The house showed signs of people having been there, but other than smelling of urine, some used needles and discarded clothes, I couldn’t find anything to link it to our missing woman. Sorry, man.”
“It was a long shot.” Chay wasn’t ready to give up on this thread of the investigation. “Thanks for your help. Hope the wife is better.”
“Yeah, she’s getting there.”
After hanging up, he wondered if there were more abandoned cabins on the edge of the Navajo Nation. Grabbing his hat and coat, he let his team know he was going to be out for a while.
Driving back to where Fern had been found, he inspected the charred remains of the cabin. There had to be something they were missing; Chay just wasn’t sure he’d find it before another woman was taken.
But women went missing every day. He knew he was reaching a little…trying to tie the reasons together. Some women disappeared because of abusive relationships or even unwanted kids…
Chay realized that he was trying to give each of these women a motivation. Including Annie Ross. She’d been found dead, but her child could have been with her at some point, and maybe that meant that Annie hadn’t wanted to abandon Gracie.
Chay scratched his chin, walking around the charred cabin. Fern and Annie didn’t seem to be connected. He knew there had to be a line connecting them. But what was it?
Foster care was a nice start.
Both women, actually all three of Annie’s friends as well, had been shuffled around and hadn’t found a forever home. Had Annie been on her way to making one when she’d stumbled into something else? Or was she just a woman with bad judgment who’d died in the wilderness?
Please God, let there be more to it than that. Let Gracie have meant something more to Annie than something she’d left behind.
His phone pinged. Ava again.
In this mood, he didn’t want to talk to her. That feeling of being not worthy was so heavy that he could barely even read her message. Going back to his truck, he called his grandmother.
“Hello.”
“Ava says we can have visitation with Gracie. Do you want to see her tonight?”
“We’ve already discussed this. Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
