Chapter 34

THIRTY-FOUR

Gulf Shores, Alabama

Monday, September 23

12:13 p.m.

Leigh presented her credentials to the Greyhound bus driver, ascending the stairs. "FBI, I'm looking for a fourteen-year-old girl, dark hair, traveling alone."

"Toward the back." The driver nodded as she grabbed for the PA handheld. "Ladies and gentlemen, this line has been delayed. If you could please collect your possessions and disembark, we'll get you back on track in no time."

She absorbed looks of frustration, some of fear, as passengers followed directions and passed her on the stairs. Hotel security had shown Ava leaving the hotel under her own accord. It'd taken one of the outside cameras to show the vehicle she'd gotten into. A white four door sedan with a ride-share light in the back corner. The front license plate hadn't been entirely readable from the exterior camera angle, but it'd provided enough information for Detective Moore to narrow it down. And enough to track the car and the driver down.

"I'll just be a few minutes," she said to the driver.

Leigh took her time as she maneuvered down the center row of purple confetti seats. And into the seat beside Ava. She foraged in her blazer pocket and pulled a crisp yellow bag free, setting it on the extended seat tray in front of her charge. Peanut M&Ms. "Your mom told me once that these were your favorite."

Ava didn't answer. Didn't move. Didn't even seem to breathe.

That was okay. It'd taken a long time for Leigh to process what'd happened all those years ago too. On the outside, she'd made sure not to draw attention or add to her parents' troubles, but inside, all she'd wanted to do was scream. Leigh would let Ava scream if she needed, and again, she couldn't help but feel as if this was what parenting would be like. Not being able to fix the problem but being there nonetheless. To offer comfort and safety. Being someone who could just listen when things got hard. Maybe provide some advice along the way.

And right there, on a bus that would probably scare the shit out of any forensic unit, she considered what her dad must've felt all those years behind bars. Not being able to fix it. Not being able to be there for his only surviving child or give advice. In a way, she could see he was trying to make up for that now.

And she wasn't letting him.

Settling back against the headrest, Leigh interlaced her fingers above the surgical wounds and closed her eyes. Suddenly more exhausted than she'd ever been in her entire life. "So where is this bus taking us?"

"Why are you here?" Ava seemingly refused to even acknowledge the bag in her lap. Instead, burrowing her hands beneath the seat tray.

Ah. Signs of life. Leigh cracked one eye open. "It's dangerous to travel without snacks."

Slowly, hesitantly, and with a great deal of patience Leigh had never personally owned, Ava reached for the yellow bag and ripped one of the sides clean. From there, it was like watching that starving puma Leigh had been forced to follow on TV while recovering in the hospital from surgery. She couldn't move to find the remote. Within seconds, the M&Ms were gone. "Thanks."

People passed on sidewalks and across the parking lot through ceiling-to-shoulder windows. Going on with their lives as if nothing had changed the past three days. When Leigh knew firsthand everything had changed. "We recovered your mom's phone, Ava. From Samuel Thornton's house. He'd tried to destroy it in the fireplace, but our tech guys were able to recover the last two photos saved in storage."

Ava stared out the window. Intent on focusing anywhere but on reality.

But Leigh had learned you couldn't pretend bad things didn't exist forever. No matter how hard you tried. "It was a conversation. A text message exchange. Do you know anything about that?"

"No." The girl's shoulders shook slightly. She swiped at her face, failing to hide the tears she hadn't let herself shed for so long. "Please. I just want to leave. I want to go home."

"In Clarksburg? There isn't a home to go back to, Ava." That was only one of the sad truths Ava would have to face over the coming days, weeks, and months. The sins of her parents had taken everything she'd known and loved in a heartbeat. "I'm so sorry."

"I have friends I can stay with. Cousins. My uncles…" The words escaped with far more vitriol than Leigh expected. "They wouldn't just leave me here."

Leigh held herself back from reaching out, from offering that physical comfort that might have made things a little better around this age. "We can go to Clarksburg. We can look for someone who will take care of you, if that's what you want to do. Either way, I'm not going anywhere without you."

"Why?" Ava hugged herself, like if she didn't, she would break apart into a million tiny pieces. Leigh knew the feeling, especially in the days after her parents had reported her brother missing. One small slip, and she would shatter. "Why do you even care? There's nothing left for me here. My dad is dead, and my mom…"

Yeah. Leigh understood not wanting to finish that sentence. Because the truth was, if Elyse was alive, if she'd killed Samuel Thornton out of some distorted sense of protecting her daughter from ending up like those other girls, Leigh would still have to arrest her. Elyse would have to pay for her crimes. "I'm sorry. About what's happened these past couple of days. It takes a lot of courage to be able to get through it like you have. I wish I had some of that now, but while you feel like there's not anything left for you here in Gulf Shores, I'm not sure there's anything left for you in Clarksburg either. What I do know though is that you have people who want to help."

Ava didn't seem to have a comeback for that one.

"Did you mom ever tell you about me?" A thick layer of emotion coated the sides of her throat. "About what happened to my family?"

"Not everything," Ava said.

"That's probably a good thing. I can't imagine it's the kind of story you can forget when you're trying to go to sleep at night. I know it took me a long time to figure out how." Leigh tried to keep her body language as neutral as possible—to ease the agitation coming off Ava in waves, as an emotionally focused therapist would do—but she couldn't stop the tension from slipping into her hands. "Let's just say I've been where you are. I lost my entire family like you. I was a couple years older. My mother was the one to kill herself. My father went to prison for murdering my brother, and I… was left alone."

One second. Two. Ava risked angling her attention back into the bus. Not quite toward Leigh, but close. "How did you get through it?"

That seemed to be the question of the week. First, from Detective Moore. Now Ava. As though she were the authority on grief and recovery and healing. Really, all she wanted was to go back. To stay the woman she'd been for the past two decades. The one that'd protected her for so long, that she could count on. This new version… Letting go of the anger and the isolation didn't seem to fit yet, but change was part of life. Adaptation ensured survival, and opening herself up to new relationships was one more thing she would have to endure until things clicked into place. "The truth is, you don't. Not really. Something this significant stains your soul. It's always going to be a part of you. In every friendship and romantic relationship. In whatever career you choose. Loss will try to make a lot of decisions for you. Where you live, who you allow in your life, if you go to college, but you ultimately have to be the one in control."

Another silent moment on Ava's end. Not as distant this time.

"Can you tell me about the text messages your mom saved on her phone?" she asked.

"He… tricked me." A flood of shame and self-hatred coated three simple words.

Yeah. Predators had a habit of doing that. Lying, manipulating, dominating whatever and whoever they could to get what they wanted. As much as Leigh wanted to come right out and supply Samuel Thornton's name, she couldn't lead Ava to make any accusations. It all had to come from her. "Who tricked you?"

"Sam. I didn't know it was him at first. The messages came to my Instagram account. There was no profile photo, and the only things he'd posted were photos of the beach." Ava kept her stare directly ahead, to the M&M wrapper—now empty—on the table above her knees, but Leigh had the feeling she wasn't interested in the bright yellow design. "If I'd known he was the man from that night, I wouldn't have responded."

"The photos from your mom's phone were pretty damaged in the fire," Leigh said. "I wasn't able to read them clearly. When you say Sam tricked you, do you mean Samuel Thornton?"

"I'm pretty sure that's his last name," Ava said.

"Okay." Confirmation. This was what they'd been searching for. "How did he trick you?"

"It was small things at first. Saying ‘hi' and that he lived in Gulf Shores, and we could be friends. He told me his name was Sam, and he asked would I be interested in him showing me around sometime? He knew all the best beaches where tourists didn't go." Ava shook her head. "I told him I practically grew up here every summer since I was ten."

Information gathering. Samuel Thornton had been trying to feel out his target. Get a sense of how much he could manipulate her. "Did he push to meet you in person?"

There was that rush of shame again, color climbing into Ava's pale neck and face. It accentuated the beauty mark above her lip. "Not at first, but the more we talked, the more he brought it up. Like if I wanted to get ice cream or catch a movie. Pretty soon we were talking like we were friends."

"Then he started asking for pictures." As much as Leigh hated to think this way, Samuel Thornton had followed a textbook predator profile. Starting small, asking for favors. Tit for tat. "Was it his idea or yours to send the nude?"

"He sent me one first," Ava said. "I'd never… I'd never seen a guy like that."

"You liked it. There's nothing wrong with that. Your response was natural. Completely normal for your age." It was pretty easy to fill in the blanks from there. "Did you feel pressured to send one back?"

"Kind of. He didn't come right out and say it." Ava lowered her voice. A mere whisper that seemed to be absorbed by the confetti seats. "He stopped talking to me. When I sent a topless photo, he started answering my messages again."

"All right, and did you meet up with him?" Leigh's gut knotted tight.

Hesitation didn't just grip the fourteen-year-old in that moment. It full on strangled her answer. "Yes. I didn't know it was him. I thought I was talking to someone like me. My age."

"What happened, Ava?" Leigh asked.

"I told my mom I was meeting up with Saige at the bookstore. She offered to drop me off." The words were a rush now. Leigh barely had the chance to keep up. "I figured I'd done everything right. I was the one who suggested to meet at the bookstore. It was a public place, right? If I got there early, I could do a little shopping. I was in the romantic comedy section, and he came up behind me. Said he'd been dying to meet me in person."

Leigh's heart missed a beat. "But you recognized him as the man that was there the night you got drunk with your friends last summer."

"I was so uncomfortable, but I couldn't call my mom to come get me without telling her I'd lied," Ava said. "Sam offered to give me a ride home. It was hot outside, and I was sweating. He must've noticed because he offered me a water bottle from a cooler in the backseat."

Leigh had a feeling this story was about to take a dark turn. And she had to wait. She had to sit there and give Ava the opportunity to get it all out despite every instinct she owned.

Tears skimmed down Ava's face. "I woke up face down in his bed. Naked. My insides hurt. My skin burned. I was nauseous and felt like I did the night after I got drunk last summer, but I wasn't drunk. I promise."

Benzodiazepine. Leigh would bet what was left of her career on it. A central nervous system suppressant. A damn roofie. "Was Samuel Thornton there when you woke up?"

"Yes." Ava nodded. "He told me no one would ever believe me. He had me get in the shower and wash over and over. When I was done, he told me I was his from then on. That I couldn't leave."

"How did you escape?" The answer was clear by then.

"My mom. She found me." A sniff enunciated those words. "I told her everything, about the bookstore and the photos. I showed her the messages. She must've saved them on her phone to keep the proof. But I was scared he might really kill me. That he would try to come after me again. So I deleted my social media accounts, and I made her promise not to go to the police. She begged me to change my mind, but she didn't want to risk it either."

"What did your mom say?" Leigh asked.

"That I shouldn't worry." Ava finally locked her gaze with Leigh's, and a semblance of control returned in the girl's expression. "That she was going to take care of it."

Had Elyse followed through? Leigh's phone vibrated with an incoming call, and she pulled it free from her blazer. Detective Moore. She answered. "Were you able to track down Samuel Thornton's sister?"

"Not yet," the detective said. "There's been a development with Saige Fuentes."

Leigh almost didn't want to ask. Didn't want to have to tell Ava a friend she'd known for years had been added to the tally of ones she'd never see again. "What kind of development?"

"Saige is alive." Detective Moore let that sink in for a moment. "She just walked through her mother's front door."