Breathe (67 page)

The psychologist also told them they’d both need in-depth trauma counseling and their reunion with their grandparents would need to be monitored by a professional. As the two only people he truly trusted in this world, this the psychologist understood from Jeremiah sending Chace that note and allowing him to care for his sister, Chace and Faye had to be there.

Upon hearing the news, the cops in Wyoming didn’t wait to share with four of their locals that it was highly likely their grandkids were alive and in Colorado. They’d made their visits, waking them to share the news. Therefore, as expected, both sets were on their way and were expected to arrive at the Station imminently.

Chace was conflicted. He wanted to be there to meet the grandparents but he didn’t want to be away from Faye and the kids or take her away from them. He’d told her what had happened and her reaction had been much like her mother’s except stronger. It tore her up what had happened to those kids and it tore her up knowing, although it was a good thing they’d be with their blood family, that doing so would mean Miah would be a state away.

So she was staying close.

Chace wanted to give that to her but he didn’t want to leave her.

“I’ll survive, Silas,” Chace muttered.

Silas’s eyes moved over Chace’s face then they swung into the living room and finally he looked back at Chace.

“Right,” he whispered then, louder, “I’m goin’ into town. The kids’ folks will be here soon and I wanna do what I can to assure them their grandbabies are in a good place and, least one of ‘em for a spell, had folks lookin’ out for him. Sondra’s on the phone with Betty to get them rooms at Carnal Hotel. We wanted ‘em to stay here while they’re doin’ their testing but the psychologist thinks that’s too much for now. Miah feels safe here and Becky feels safe with Miah. That’s fragile so we gotta see to it. But Liza’s makin’ a coupla lasagnas to bring over. The psychologist can show tonight so they can come and have the reunion soon’s we can manage it. Good one, with family and food and my Liza makes a mean lasagna. But Liza’ll drop ‘em off and go. It’ll be just you and Faye, Sondra and I, the grandparents, the psychologist and the kids. Sondra’s bagged a coupla pop bottles the kids drank from and I’m takin’ ‘em in with me for DNA.”

“All that’s good. Thanks, Silas,” Chace replied.

He watched Silas’s expression change and read it instantly.

“Miss him,” Silas muttered, his eyes drifting to Miah. “He’s a good kid. Nice to have a lil’ bugger in the house again.” His eyes drifted back to Chace and when he spoke again, his voice was tinged with sadness but it was firm. “But they should be with family.”

“They should be with family,” Chace agreed.

Silas nodded. “Off with me then,” he murmured and moved away.

Chace watched him go then his eyes went back to the living room when he heard laughter. It came from all the women and Miah but there was also a little giggle from Becky who was looking timidly at Faye.

Faye had made her giggle.

That was his girl. She could break through anything. Even shit this huge. He knew it since she’d done it for him.

He felt his lips tip up as his phone rang and he saw Faye and Miah’s eyes cut to him and Becky jump, terror filling her features, her eyes cutting to her brother.

He automatically sent a reassuring smile their way, pulled out his phone and, for Becky’s sake, stayed calm and acted like what he was doing was just what it was, normal and natural.

He looked at the display and, at what he saw, he figured he knew the reason behind the call.

He took the call and put the phone to his ear.

“Frank, they at the Station?”

“They arrived twenty minutes ago,” Frank replied. “We got them sorted with coffees from La-La Land and some of Shambles’s brownies. Gave them a briefing up to now. Took the DNA samples. Lab is primed to fast-track it. But, uh…” he hesitated, “not callin’ about that, Chace.”

Chace felt his brows draw together. “What’re you callin’ about?”

“You got privacy?” Frank asked.

Fucking shit.

“No,” Chace answered.

“Get it,” Frank said quietly.

Chace didn’t look into the family room as he moved out of the doorway, up the stairs and into the living room on the top floor.

“Got it,” he said to Frank.

“Right, well, brother… fuck,” Frank started then stopped.

“Frank,” Chace prompted impatiently.

At his prompt, Frank went on hurriedly, “Okay, man. We got an outta town biker in holding, no big thing, pulled him over for reckless driving, he’d had a few, not over the limit, he was just jacking around. But when we ran his license, found he had a bench warrant on him, tickets he hasn’t seen to in C Springs. But he’s been in there with Enid most of the night and apparently, she’s been rambling. Some of the shit she said he thought was more fucked than what seems to be her usual fucked. When he got breakfast, he told Jon. Jon told me. We pulled her outta holding and put her into an interrogation room and asked more questions. Took a while, brother, but got it out of her.”

When he didn’t go on, Chace asked, “Got what out of her?”

“The reason she cast Jeremiah out.”

“And that would be?” Chace pushed when Frank again stopped speaking.

“Okay, Chace, shit, okay…”

“Frank,” Chace clipped when he trailed off.

When Frank continued, he again did it quickly. “Apparently, Jeremiah got away. He’d been attempting escapes frequently with zero success but he made it clear. He was in the woods. Brother, from what we can tell, he was in
Harker’s Wood.
What he saw there flipped him right the fuck out. So right the fuck out, he went back to the only thing he knew. He went back to
her
.”

Chace’s body went still as a statue and his mouth felt strange when it formed the words, “What did he see?”

“From what we can get from her, he saw a blonde woman givin’ a man a blowjob.”

Oh fuck, no.

Please God, no.

Chace closed his eyes and dropped his head.

“I think it was Misty, brother,” Frank whispered. “Enid didn’t see it, she wasn’t there. She just beat it out of him and what he told her he saw, she lost what was left of her marbles and got shot of him, thinkin’ he was makin’ that shit up or that he was the son of Satan or whatever. But I reckon, and the timeline jives, that he saw Misty and the man who murdered her. It flipped him, he went back to her because it was the only thing he knew, the only protection he had.”

It would jive, Chace knew it. Jeremiah was terrified when he was out on his own. Chace could see this fear coming from Enid, knowing his sister was still captive but he could see it was more. He’d seen Misty’s face get raped, probably sensed her terror, maybe saw the gun and possibly saw her murdered.

Fuck, he’d seen that shit.

Fuck,
he still had to be holding onto that fear.

Fuck!

“He could be the key to finding who did Misty,” Frank told him quietly then finished, “And Newcomb.”

Chace opened his eyes and lifted his head. “Who knows this shit?” he rapped out.

“Uh, me, Jon, the biker and the video camera that caught my questioning.”

“You tell Cap. And you tell Jon to keep his trap shut and make sure Jon gets that message. He runs his mouth, I’ll lose my mind and the way I lose it he will not want. You make sure that biker thinks she’s just a lunatic and you don’t share that shit with anyone else.”

Frank was silent then, “They find out there was a witness –”

“Then Miah’s fucked,” Chace finished for him.

“Shit, brother,” Frank murmured then, “But, Department’s clean.”

“Shit leaks, like it does whenever Jon runs his mouth. This gets to the wrong ears, that kid just went from enduring a goddamned nightmare to runnin’ scared the rest of his fuckin’ life.”

“Right,” Frank whispered.

“I’m callin’ his psychologist. Then I’m comin’ to the Station.”

“Right,” Frank repeated.

“You got shit to do,” Chace told him.

“Right,” Frank said again then he disconnected.

Chace drew in a breath. Then he drew in another one.

Then he walked downstairs to tell Faye he was going to swing by the Station and come back with treats from La-La Land for the women and kids.

* * * * *

“You cannot be serious,” Frank said to Dr. Carruthers, Miah’s psychologist who was standing with him, Chace and the Cap in Cap’s office.

“Deadly,” Dr. Carruthers returned immediately.

“He may have been the only eye witness we got to an unsolved murder, a murder committed by a man who, it’s highly likely, has killed two people on this patch,” Frank shot back.

“Until the DNA tests are done, those children are wards of the State and therefore the State makes decisions about their welfare and to make those decisions they would consult with someone like
me.
When they consult with me, I will strongly encourage them not to allow the police, however gently, to interrogate a boy who’s father died in a car crash, his mother was murdered, he’d been kidnapped, imprisoned, mentally and physically abused, possibly had seen a murder but definitely a sex act at an age where he cannot process this in and of itself. It was an act that was not consensual and finally, he lived on his own, taking care of himself on the streets and in the wilderness all while terrified about the state of his sister. So let us not waste time by calling in CPS only for them to ask me what I think and act on my recommendation. Just take my word for it now that you are not going to talk to that boy about witnessing an act of rape and a possible murder,” Dr. Carruthers retorted.

“You can be there,” Frank offered.

“And, in the future, if it’s necessary for you to interrogate him, I
better
be,
” she rejoined.

“It wouldn’t be an interrogation,” Frank clipped.

“It won’t be anything,” Chace growled and all eyes came to him but he was looking at Frank. “No way
in fuck
you’re gonna talk to Miah. Not now. Not fuckin’ tomorrow. Not next fuckin’ week. Not until Dr. Carruthers gives you the go ahead to do it and maybe not at all. Tonight, he’s gonna eat lasagna with the folks who looked after him and the grandparents he hasn’t seen in three fuckin’ years and he’s gonna do it feelin’ safe and looked after. Not remembering watching a woman get her face raped. You call CPS and you try to get to that kid and they lose their minds and let you, Frank, you’ll have to go through me to get him.”

“But it’s Misty,” Frank told him something he already fucking knew.

“Yeah, it’s Misty. And yeah, I wanna know who did her. But I do not want to sacrifice whatever scraps of peace of mind we’ve managed to give Miah in order to get that fucker. He doesn’t get to do Misty, maybe Darren and fuck Miah too. No fuckin’ way. We’ll find another way,” Chace fired back.

Frank’s face filled with disbelief before he reminded him, “You’ve been living and breathing her case for months.”

“And I’ll live and breathe not knowin’ who did her but resting easy that my not knowing means Miah can put this serious as fuck shit behind him and move the fuck
on,
” Chace returned. “Honest to God, Frank, I’m uncertain I
ever
want you to speak to him about this shit. His grandparents ask me, I’ll tell them not to volunteer him. We’ll find this guy another way. But, he was my kid, he went through that shit, I would not swing his ass out there. Even and especially if it meant protective custody. Even and especially because it might mean, if this guy is part of a bigger operation, witness protection. That kid had three years of his life seriously fuckin’ jacked. You cannot stand there and tell me Misty and Darren are worth jackin’ up the rest of it.”

“A crime has been committed, it doesn’t matter against who,” Frank said softly.

“By my count, lots of ‘em have and only three of ‘em against Darren and Misty. The rest, Miah and Becky endured. They will not endure more,” Chace replied.

“Someone has to stand up for Darren and Misty. And someone has to pay for what was done to them,” Frank shot back.

“I agree. Absolutely. What I don’t agree is that Miah is the one who’s gotta help us do all that,” Chace retorted.

Frank pulled out the heavy artillery. “This isn’t the cop I know you to be.”

But Chace was immune. “I’m not a cop. I’m a man who is also a cop. And I’m the man who bought that kid a sleeping bag when he was sleepin’ in rags, taught him how to play video games and carried his trembling sister through the woods after he rescued her. And I’m content to be that man over bein’ a cop.”

“You’re going to be an excellent father,” Dr. Carruthers cut in at this juncture and Chace looked to her.

“I hope so since mine is a jackass.”

Her lips twitched and she replied, “Well, maybe so but you learned the tools somewhere, though,” she went on to advise, “I’d curtail the swearing.”