“Yes,” she replied immediately.

He figured that was true too.

“Give me a kiss then grab the phone.”

She smiled even bigger so he felt it on her lips when she gave him her mouth.

When he broke the kiss, she moved in to give him another light one before she rolled out of his arms and reached for the phone.

Chace rolled out of bed and moved to the bathroom.

By the time he walked out, she was sitting at the side of her bed, off the phone, her dancing eyes came direct to him and her mouth moved.

“They said yes.”

Then she smiled big.

Chace smiled back.

Then he walked to the kitchen and made his girl breakfast.

* * * * *

“Chace, I get you but I haven’t had time to assess the situation fully yet. What I already know –” Karena Papadakis started.

She was a Child Welfare Officer and she was standing with Chace outside the Critical Care Ward.

“He’s a deacon at the church,” Chace cut her off to say. “She designs the Sunday programs. He mows the church lawn. Seriously, Karena, Sondra Goodknight won’t even let her twenty-nine year old daughter say ‘frak’, a made up curse word from a Sci-Fi TV show. They’ll do good by this kid.”

He’d already told her he wanted her to place Malachi with the Goodknights and she was rightly and not surprisingly balking due to procedure.

“They’re older,” Karena replied quietly.

“Yeah. They are. Which means they’ve already raised three kids so they know what they’re doin’. One of those kids is the Mom of two boys. One’s the town librarian who has a Master’s Degree. The last one’s in the Army serving our country,” Chace returned.

“They don’t have foster certification,” she told him.

“Then get it for them,” he told her.

“It would require home visits, foster parent classes –” she began.

“The state he’s in, Karena, he’s not gonna be discharged tomorrow,” Chace pointed out. “You have time and what you already know about that kid and the more you’ll find out, I know you, you’ll bust your hump to fast-track it.”

He was not wrong about this. There were people who found jobs. Karena Papadakis found her calling. Her caseload wasn’t exactly light but it also wasn’t what a person in a similar position in a city would be. This gave her plenty of time to do her job the way she’d probably break her back to do it even if her caseload was double. And that was, with care.

She held his eyes and then cautiously reminded him, “Medical reports say this kid may be special needs. The history you gave me tells me he already is.”

“You know I won’t let that kid down. You don’t know this but you can take my word my woman won’t let him down. They’re her parents. She’s got nephews close to his age. Her sister lives in Gnaw Bone. You place this kid with the Goodknights, he goes from livin’ in his own shit in a shed in the middle of nowhere to livin’ in a modified Brady Bunch house ten minutes out of town with a good, close family who, I assure you, can handle special needs. These people got so much goodness, Karena, they can handle anything.”

“Chace,” she said softly, “I’ve heard what you and Faye Goodknight have been doing for this boy but –”

She stopped speaking, her body jerked and her eyes went over his shoulder so Chace twisted his torso to see Silas bustling up.

“Heya,” he dipped his chin to Karena on a grin when he stopped at their side and muttered a further. “Sorry to interrupt.”

Then he turned to Chace and jerked up a box Chace didn’t get a good look at before he kept speaking.

“Lookee here, Chace,” he shook the box. “After church, me and Sondra went real quick to the mall. My Faye says Malachi likes to read lots and since his hands are messed up, got him one of those fancy shmancy eReaders.” He shook the box again. “Guy at the electronics store, he said all he’s gotta do is press a button on the side to turn the page. They even had little stands he can set it in to hold it up so he doesn’t have to hold it himself. So we got him one of those too. ‘Til he gets his hands back, he can keep right on readin’ cause I figure he can press a button.” He lowered the box, dropped his head and studied it murmuring, “Gotta turn it on at the bottom with a slide doohickey but I figure Sondra, Faye, she’s around, or me could set him up to get him goin’.”

Sondra caught up, didn’t seem to notice Karena at all and lifted a bag toward Chace. Chace also didn’t get a chance to look at it before she dropped it and started talking.

“PJs,” she announced. “Warm ones. You think they’d let him put them on?” she asked then didn’t wait for an answer and turned to Karena who she hadn’t yet met and informed her, “Those hospital blankets are thin. He needs warm jammies.” Then her head jerked this way and that, caught on something and she moved quickly away, muttering, “There’s the nurse. I’ll ask her.”

“I need a plug,” Silas said at this point. “Gotta charge this puppy up.”

Then he took off.

Chace watched as Silas moved away, his head down, his eyes obviously scanning for an outlet. Then Chace saw Sondra standing with an African American woman who was not a nurse, but Malachi’s doctor. She was wearing scrubs, her long, glossy black hair pulled back in a thick ponytail and both of them were looking at a pair of navy blue, flannel, little boys pajama bottoms with airplanes printed on them, smiling.

Chace looked back at Karena.

“I’ll fast-track it,” she mumbled, her lips twitching and she moved away, hand in her purse to pull out her phone.

It was Sunday and Karena Papadakis, a woman he’d worked with more than once, had taken his call and left her family to meet with him at the hospital.

Now she was making more calls to colleagues who also probably didn’t work on Sunday.

Chace grinned at her back as she walked away.

Then he moved toward Silas to help him find a plug.

* * * * *

“I’m sorry, Detective Keaton, this is awkward but I’ve asked you here because unfortunately we have to have this conversation,” the hospital administrator started. “Now that that boy is past urgent care, as he doesn’t have insurance, we need to discuss –”

“Don’t worry about the hospital bills,” Chace interrupted her. “I’ll be responsible for them. If there’s a specialist that can confer with Dr. Hughes who can assist in saving his hands and foot, please advise her that she has the go ahead to seek assistance with his case.”

The administrator blinked then rallied to inform him, “Dr. Hughes is an exceptional pediatric critical care doctor. We’re lucky to have her.”

Chace held her gaze, nodded and replied, “Glad to hear that. But if there’s more that can be done for him, I want it done. Even if he has to be transferred to another hospital.”

Quickly, she gave him information he didn’t give a f**k about, “We’re a fully-equipped Level II Trauma Center. The only one in the mountains outside Loveland and Grand Junction.”

“He’s beyond trauma care,” Chace reminded her.

“We’re an excellent facility,” she pressed.

“I believe you. I still want everything that can be done for Malachi done,” Chace returned.

“It’s my understanding the boy cleaned the wounds and treated them. Gangrene didn’t set in. He may lose some mobility but the threat of him losing them entirely is over.”

“Ma’am,” Chace leaned slightly toward her, “for an indeterminate amount of time, that boy has been livin’ in a shed in the woods by himself with no light, no heat and the toilet he used was a hole he dug himself in the corner. He does not need to endure that only to endure learnin’ to live without a limb or, possibly, losin’ some use of a limb. I get you got pride in your hospital. What you need to get is that I got the funds to see to it that boy gets the best care he can get. So I’m askin’ you to help me get him that. If you don’t, I’ll find a way to do it myself. Now, please, talk to Dr. Hughes and save that kid’s hands and foot.”

She held his gaze and whispered, “I’ll speak with Dr. Hughes.”

“Obliged,” Chace replied.

She got his point loud and clear and he knew this when she reached directly for her phone.

Chace gave her a nod, got out of the chair he was sitting in opposite her at her desk and walked out of her office. As he did, his phone rang.

He pulled it out, looked at the display and took the call.

“Keaton.”

“Blood’s a dead end, brother,” Deck said in his ear.

Deck had called earlier informing Chace he’d be with the officers who combed the woods that morning. Now, he sounded like he was in his truck.

“Nothing?” Chace asked.

“Few drops like they said, leadin’ northeast. Then they disappeared. Maybe he saw them and covered them. Don’t know. Just know there’s nothin’.”

“Tracks?”

“None of those either,” Deck replied. “Wind, snowmelt and settling, even efforts to cover them disappeared. The only thing we found is a trail leadin’ to the north side of town, goin’ in at the Carnal Hotel end and another leadin’ toward the library. Both sets, deep, back and forth, packed. But, you didn’t know he was out there, could be anyone’s since there were so many of them, packed in the snow with snowmelt wiping out individual prints so now it’s just a trough in the snow. But when he got close to the shed, he started to erase them. Smart kid. Didn’t know the trajectory, didn’t know the shed existed, which probably no one knew, by the time he made the effort to get rid of his trail, it could lead anywhere. No one would know where he was heading.”

Chace stopped at the elevator but stood to the side and didn’t tag a button.

“Your take?” he asked quietly and Deck answered immediately, knowing what Chace was asking.

“No f**kin’ clue. Cops say in those hills there are two housing developments, one upscale, one middle income and a bunch of older, individual residences not contained in a development. Beyond that, mountain’s too steep to build homes. Even so, cops say, and I could see for myself, it’d be near on impossible for him to climb up to any of those residences. Slope of the hill gives way to sheer rock face. I’m gonna grab some lunch then go back and look around more, see if there’s some opening where he could climb. If there is, see what it leads to and if he didn’t bother to cover those tracks. It was me, I was nine and someone was beatin’ the shit outta me, I’d be gone. I wouldn’t stay close. But for whatever reason, he went back for more. None of his prints, no one else’s either. No one found him at his shed and did that shit to him then left him there. So, I had to go with my gut, he was stickin’ close for a purpose. What that is, no f**kin’ clue.”