“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.”

Christ, he’d heard that before.

He didn’t respond. He looked at Cap.

“We done?”

Cap nodded then turned his eyes to Frank. “No Jeremiah, son.”

“Cap!” Frank bit out sharply.

“You get antsy, disobey an order, you try to get to that boy or his grandparents to make your attempt to get through Chace you gotta get through me first. Boy’s had enough. We’ll find this asshole another way. As far as we’re concerned in this office, Enid Eglund’s ramblings about what Jeremiah saw are just that. Ramblings. This dies here.”

Frank’s back went up and he returned softly but irately, his meaning veiled but still clear, “That isn’t the way of the law.”

“There’s dirty, Frank,” Cap replied just as softly but not irately. “And there’s compassion. This says not one thing about Misty Keaton or Darren Newcomb and who did them or this office’s determination to find that man. This is this Department deciding to act with compassion for a witness. You sleep on that and you’ll see it clear.”

Frank stared at Cap then Dr. Carruthers then Chace before he walked out.

“You got lasagna to eat, son,” Cap told him then looked at Dr. Carruthers. “You do too.”

“Right,” she whispered, grinning.

They made a move to the door but Cap stopped him, calling, “Chace.”

Chace looked back at him.

“Tragic, definition of it, all that’s happened to those kids. You and your woman, you did right by them. I see you got ties and they’re strong. ‘Spect, what I know of Faye Goodknight and her family, they do too. This job, we see a lotta bad. Can get used to it. Can make you hard. Wear you down. But tonight, son, tonight you get somethin’ not a lot of cops get. You get to witness what those kids’ grandparents are considering a miracle. When they take Jeremiah and Rebecca back to Wyoming, you’ll get to keep that along with the knowledge that you helped make that miracle happen.”

“Right,” Chace muttered.

“Help her deal. Give your woman that head’s up,” Cap advised.

Chace held his Captain’s eyes thinking, fuck, but it was a shitload better working for this man than it was working under Arnie.

Then he nodded.

Then he followed Dr. Carruthers out in order to meet Miah and Becky’s grandparents.

* * *

Chace opened the door to his truck to get in and get to Faye but stopped when he heard his name called.

He looked to his right to see Marc, one of their interns, moving toward him, his face pale, eyes troubled.

Chace knew immediately why. Marc had run the searches and Marc had heard about Miah and Becky.

Therefore, before Marc stopped and while he was opening his mouth to speak, Chace ordered quietly, “Don’t.”

Marc closed his mouth then opened it again to say in a tight voice, “I set the wrong parameters.”

“Don’t, Marc,” Chace repeated.

“I didn’t know he was eleven. I didn’t think just to try a search outside –”

“Not your job,” Chace cut him off. “Your job is to work and learn. My job is to help you learn. I didn’t know he was eleven either. But I also didn’t suggest it. I just expected it. Expected you to do somethin’ you didn’t know to do. It was my fuck up, Marc, not yours.”

“I’ve been an intern for –”

“Doesn’t matter,” Chace interrupted again.

“If we knew, we could have –”

“Shake it off,” Chace ordered.

Marc’s eyes got wide but his tone was bitter when he asked, “Shake off knowin’ I kept those kids from their grandparents for weeks, that girl held captive by a whackjob, all this because I didn’t do somethin’ as simple as do a search with a wider age range?”

“Yeah,” Chace replied and Marc blinked so Chace went on, “Listen, man, you want a career in law enforcement or you move onto anything else, you are gonna fuck up. Your superiors are gonna fuck up but you’ll do the work and feel shit about it or they’ll dump their fuck up on your shoulders. You wanna be a cop, sometimes decisions you gotta make either on the fly or during a long-term investigation are not gonna be the right ones. It’ll happen because you’re human. You gotta cut yourself some slack or, whatever you decide to do in this life, it’ll drag you down. One thing you can learn now is when someone gives you an assignment and doesn’t fully explain it, if they put that shit on you, that reflects on them. I gave you an assignment, I guessed the wrong age range and I made assumptions. You did what you were told. We both gotta live with that. But do not take that blame. Shake it off. Learn from it. And move on. Best you can do and it’s what I’m gonna do.”

Marc studied him then asked quietly, “You’re not pissed?”

“I was yesterday. Now, seein’ your face, seein’ you give a shit, thinkin’ on it, I still am. But at me. I had a bunch of shit goin’ on in my life and didn’t give my attention fully to this. I fucked up and I made you feel the way you feel right now and kept those kids from their folks. But they’ll see them again tonight and soon, they’ll be home and healing. It’s over. We learn from it and move on.”

There it was. Faye having his back and she wasn’t even there. Faye teaching him he couldn’t shoulder the world’s burdens. Teaching him to give himself a break. Teaching him in a way he could teach a decent kid who wanted to do good deeds in his life the same lesson so he didn’t take the world on his shoulders like Chace had done for thirty-five years.