“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 f**ked than what seems to be her usual f**ked. 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 f**k out. So right the f**k 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 f**k, 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 f**ked,” 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 f**kin’ 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 f**k you’re gonna talk to Miah. Not now. Not f**kin’ tomorrow. Not next f**kin’ 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 f**kin’ 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 f**king 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 f**ker. He doesn’t get to do Misty, maybe Darren and f**k Miah too. No f**kin’ 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 f**k shit behind him and move the f**k 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 f**kin’ 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 ass**le 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.”