She’s safe. My baby’s safe.
The relief that flooded her was so overwhelming she could barely breathe beneath it. Then she put both hands on the wheel and drove to the sheriff's office.
Reno's truck was already in the lot. He got out when she pulled in. He had an expression on his face Grace hadn’t seen before. Not the careful, courteous attention of the man who had been helping with security, not the thoughtful quiet of the man who’d taken her seriously about sprigs of rosemary. This was something tight and focused, too intense for anger.
She got out of her car and her knees wouldn’t quite hold her. She stopped clinging to the door.
Swiftly, he set his coffee on the hood of her car and strode to her. He didn’t say a word. He just wrapped her in a fierce hug. She leaned into him and let all the terror she’d been holding at bay for the past half-hour roll through her. She started trembling all over, but he just held her until the worst of it passed and she nodded against his flannel-covered chest.
"What happened?" he rasped.
Grace told him.
He listened intently, without interrupting, his eyes on her face and the rest of him absolutely still.
When she was done, he asked, "Was the window in her room closed when you went in this morning to wake her?"
"I didn't check."
“Did you go back to check it after breakfast?”
"No. I was too scared,” she confessed.
“That’s just as well. You haven’t disturbed the scene."
“As in a crime scene?” she choked out.
“To be determined. Clint’s waiting for us inside.”
"Reno, will Lily be safe at her preschool today?"
"Yes. When I called Clint to tell him something had happened at your house that you didn’t want to talk about in front of Lily, he sent a deputy to spend the day across the street from the preschool in an unmarked car. The teacher was informed, and she’d already given the deputy a copy of the pickup list for all the kids. Nobody who isn't on the list is getting near that building.”
She drew a breath that filled her lungs all the way for the first time since Lily asked who came into her room.
"Let's go talk to Clint," she said.
Wheeler took one look at Grace's face and came around his desk before she said anything. His expression was as grim as she’d ever seen it. And he’d been there when she and the other WoWS were told their husbands hadn’t made it out of the fire.
The sheriff held a chair for her in front of his desk. "Sit."
"I'd rather stand."
"Sit anyway. You’ve been running on pure adrenaline for a while and you’re going to crash soon. Best to be off your feet when that happens."
She sat.
Clint and Reno traded grim nods, then the sheriff said gently, “Tell me what happened."
She told him.
"Has she ever been wrong about a small detail like that?"
"No. She’s smart and observant. She was clear about putting the stuffed cat on the floor beside her bedside every night."
Clint nodded, accepting her certainty. “Let’s go have a look for ourselves, shall we?”
Lily and Reno piled into the back of a black SUV with no police markings, and the sheriff drove them to her place.
