CHAPTER 21

D inner with Hollis and Olivia had been great, although Olivia was clearly not as spunky as she’d been the last time Raleigh had seen her, which made Raleigh feel even worse for Hollis. Neither of them knew how much longer Hollis’s mother had, of course, but Raleigh wished she could just give the gift of time because she’d give Hollis forever with her mother if she could. When they’d said goodnight after dinner and dishes, Hollis had walked her to her car, which had been a direct instruction from Olivia, so the woman still had some spunk left in her. Hollis had stood feet away from Raleigh, though, with her hands tucked awkwardly in her pockets, and where, previously, they would’ve hugged, this time, Hollis only gave her a small wave. Raleigh hated it.

She got home and readied herself for more work in her office, but she couldn’t focus on work yet again. It wasn’t because she was thinking of Eden, though. It was because she was thinking about Hollis, how their relationship had so clearly been altered, and how much she wished they could go back. No, that wasn’t the truth, and Raleigh knew it, too. She didn’t want to go back with Hollis. She wanted to move forward. She’d wanted to say yes. She wanted to go out with Hollis, the beautiful woman she’d met because they’d both encountered tragedy. Hollis was remarkable. Raleigh would be lucky to snag a date with her. But Hollis was also going through things. So was Raleigh.

Yet, every time she took herself back to that bar, she’d said yes in her mind. They’d gone out in her fantasy, and Hollis had kissed her goodnight. Then, the fantasy would end, and in reality, Raleigh would just go cry in bed because she’d spent an amazing night with a great woman she really liked and not looking for her daughter, not trying to do everything she could to find her.

Group that week had been strange. Hollis had still sat next to her, as had become their custom, but she hadn’t shared. Neither had Raleigh. She’d, instead, kept staring at Hollis’s hands in her lap or looked up at her beautiful face and those eyes that saw right through Raleigh at times and were always so expressive. A few times, Hollis had looked over, and Raleigh hadn’t looked away; she’d smiled at her. Hollis hadn’t smiled back, though. Yes, their relationship had changed, and it made Raleigh’s stomach hurt to think that she might have lost the best friend she’d made in a very long time.

◆◆◆

“This woman, do you know her?” Dylan asked.

Raleigh looked at the woman in the background of a photo she’d taken.

“No.” She shook her head.

“What about this one?”

Raleigh shook her head again.

“And this one?” Dylan asked.

Raleigh looked at the woman in the third image and shook her head a third time.

“These are the three people I can’t locate or narrow down,” Dylan told her. “I’ve got a friend who works for the FBI. He can do me a favor and run facial recognition, but it’s not at all how you see it on TV or in the movies: there’s no result right away. Often, it would return hundreds of possibilities, so we have to narrow things down from there. I’ll give him a call and see if he can run these three pictures. They’re in the background, so it’s not the best, but maybe he can give me hundreds of options to look through instead of millions. If they’re in the system, we’ll get their info and track them down.”

“These are women,” Raleigh stated the obvious.

“Yes,” Dylan confirmed.

“You don’t think a man took her?”

“I don’t know, Raleigh. All I can tell you is that in the photos you gave me, I was able to eliminate every male. ”

“What about the guy you texted me about?”

“The one who was a registered sex offender? Yeah, the FBI cleared him. So did the locals. I also ran another check to be sure. He peed in a public pool at night, when it was closed. Some kids were on a playground nearby, and they saw him. That’s why he’s registered. I still went to his house to talk to him and did some research. He’s clean.”

“And you’re sure?”

“His alibi for the day before, the day of, and the day after was solid. He was visiting family. They were camping.”

“But his family could’ve lied for him.”

“I’m sure they could have, but not in this instance: the campground had a security video where you check in. I can check the footage myself as well, but the FBI already went through it. It’s not him, Raleigh. The picture you caught him in was two weeks before Eden was taken. He was at his niece’s birthday party in the park.”

Raleigh nodded, accepting the news.

“I’ll run checks with the FBI on these women. Maybe they have men in their lives who could’ve very well been there and just weren’t captured in the pictures,” Dylan told her. “We’ll see what we can do.”

“Okay. Thank you,” Raleigh replied.

“Hey, I brought drinks,” Ada said as she walked into Dylan’s office. “I got you water since you said you didn’t want anything.” She handed Raleigh a glass of water and Dylan a beer.

“Thank you,” Raleigh replied, taking it from her.

“Any good news?” Ada asked Dylan.

“Just eliminating people,” Dylan replied.

“Been there,” Ada said.

“How did you and your parents do this?” Raleigh asked her.

“My parents treated me like shit. I got angry and left. I don’t recommend it,” Ada said. “I was so angry at the whole thing; I almost missed the fact that Dylan had the hots for me. ”

“When she grew up,” Dylan clarified quickly. “Not when she was a teenager.”

Ada laughed and said, “Yes, that’s an important note, babe.”

“That’s right,” Raleigh remembered. “There’s an age difference between you two.”

“About ten years, yeah,” Ada replied. “Cradle robber, over here, was being kind and dedicated, and I was a bitch to her for a while.”

“Apparently, I have a type,” Dylan stated, shrugging both shoulders.

“How are your parents now?” Raleigh asked.

“Strangely, better now that they know that he’s gone. The missing, the not knowing, is the hardest part of it, as you know, I’m sure. Noah disappeared when I was under the water for maybe fifteen seconds. He was there one minute and gone the next. They blamed me. Hell, I blamed myself. I’m not sure that guilt will ever go away, either.” Ada looked down at Dylan and reached for her hand. “I’m better now. Less angry. Happier because I know he’s okay now. I don’t really believe much in the whole heaven thing, but I know he’s not in pain, and that makes it easier. I still wish I hadn’t jumped from that rope swing into that lake. Maybe the person who took him wouldn’t have tried anything then, and Noah would still be here, but I’ll never know.” She met Dylan’s eyes. “And as much as I miss my brother and wish he was here, I met Dylan because of what happened. No one gets me like Dylan does, and I would’ve missed out on her and us. Now, I’ve had two beers, so I’m a little on the mushy side right now, which isn’t really like me, but it’s nice to think that maybe Noah brought her to me; like he knew she was the one I was supposed to be with or something, and he made it happen. Anyway, that’s how I like to think of it.”

“I think that’s nice,” Raleigh said softly.

“Me too,” Dylan agreed.

Then, Raleigh thought of Hollis .

“Can I ask you both something?”

“Sure,” Dylan said.

“Hollis.”

“Is the name of the woman you like,” Ada stated in response.

Raleigh went to say something first but then stopped and nodded with a small laugh.

“Yeah, I do like her.”

“So, what’s the question?” Ada asked, now sitting in Dylan’s lap.

“How did you two get through all of that to get here?” Raleigh asked. “Even with all the baggage and awful stuff, you’re married now. You’re both successful at work. I just can’t see how I can manage it myself. I’m already struggling at work. My daughter is missing, and I can’t be happy until she’s home. Then, I meet Hollis, and there’s just something I want now that I haven’t wanted in a long time; that I never thought I’d have again. But now, she’s here, and I just…”

“You don’t know how you can possibly be with her when you’re supposed to spend every minute of every day trying to find Eden?” Dylan guessed.

“I mean, I was already wishing I could just quit my job and spend all my time searching for her, but I have to have a house for her to come home to,” Raleigh replied. “And now, I like Hollis, and she’s… special. She makes me less angry; less sad, sometimes.”

“I’m no expert,” Ada said. “Dylan snuck up on me, too, though.”

“And I definitely was not looking to start something with someone I’d last seen as a teenager while I was just starting out as a Lieutenant, trying to get a cold case squad up and running,” Dylan added.

“But you got here,” Raleigh argued.

“Yeah. And it was hard fucking work,” Ada replied. “She’s a pain in the ass.”

Dylan smiled and said, “And she’s sassy and sarcastic and just says whatever’s on her mind all the time. She’s a lot; that’s what I’m getting at.”

“I think I really like her,” Raleigh admitted.

“Then, go for it,” Ada told her.

“You can’t just wait for Eden. You know that, right?” Dylan asked. “I wish I could tell you that we’re going to find her, but–”

“No, I know. I know the statistics… I’ve read and reread them online a million times. It’s been a year. Odds are, I’ll never see my daughter again.”

“So, you probably don’t want to hear this, but you can’t put your life on hold,” Dylan reiterated.

“I know,” Raleigh replied.

◆◆◆

When Raleigh got home, she made herself a cup of coffee, planning to go back to work, but she realized just how futile that attempt was as she stared at her computer screen and didn’t even attempt to put her fingers on the keyboard. She sighed, leaned back in her chair, and sipped her coffee until she went for another drink and found the cup empty. Setting the cup down, she picked up her phone and found Hollis’s number.

“Hi. Can I call you right back? I’m putting my mom to bed,” Hollis told her quickly.

“Oh, shit. Yeah, sorry. I should’ve checked the time.”

“Is everything okay?” Hollis checked.

“Yeah. Everything’s fine.”

“You met with Dylan again.”

“Put your mom to bed, Hollis. Everything’s okay. Call me back?”

“Five minutes?”

“Take your time,” Raleigh replied, smiling just at the sound of Hollis’s worried and caring voice.

She put her coffee cup into the dishwasher and headed to her bedroom to change and get ready for bed. Fifteen minutes later, her phone rang, and she stared at the screen, feeling butterflies she hadn’t felt since she’d first met Millie.

“Hi,” she said.

“Sorry, it took a little longer than I expected.”

“Is she okay?”

“She threw up,” Hollis said. “So, I got her into new clothes and cleaned her up.”

“Do you need to go? We can talk later, if you do. I honestly didn’t check the time before I called you, and I know you usually put her to sleep about this time.”

“No, I want to hear about how it went with Dylan. Did anything come up?”

“Not really. She’s still eliminating people. There are three she’s looking at now.”

“Well, that’s better than nothing, right?”

“Yeah, it is. Hey, Hollis?”

“Yes?”

“I want to try,” Raleigh said quickly before she could stop herself from doing what she knew she wanted.

“Try what?”

“You and me,” she replied.

Hollis didn’t say anything for the longest ten seconds of Raleigh’s life.

“You said you couldn’t.”

“I know,” Raleigh replied.

“But you can now?”

“Yes. No. Well, I don’t know,” Raleigh admitted. “I just know that I want to try.”

“I don’t know, Raleigh… You were so sure before.”

“No, I wasn’t.” She laughed and shook her head. “I wanted to say yes, Hollis. I just wasn’t expecting you to ask me out. And I haven’t thought of being with anyone since Millie. I haven’t been with anyone since her. This is all new to me.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Hollis suggested.

“Did you change your mind?”

“No. I like you. I still want to go out with you. But maybe you’re right, and the timing is all off. ”

“I don’t think it’ll ever be right,” Raleigh replied.

“And you’re sure? You want to try?”

Raleigh smiled to herself and said, “I’d like to go out with you, Hollis.”

“And if it goes sideways?”

“We’ll figure it out, then,” Raleigh replied.

“And that’s okay with you?”

“Stop trying to talk me out of this and take me on a date, Hollis Richardson.” Raleigh laughed.

Hollis laughed, too, and said, “Okay.”

“Yeah?” Raleigh checked.

“When and where?” Hollis asked.

Raleigh bit her lower lip in anticipation.