Chapter 40

FORTY

Gulf Shores, Alabama

Friday, September 27

10:20 a.m.

It really was beautiful here.

But now she understood why Elyse had hated it so much.

Leigh hiked through the sand to where Ava stared out into the vast spread of ocean. It'd taken some overdue favors and a whole lot of federal and police references, including Detective Moore's, but the social worker had ag Sigu h. Particularly in part because Elyse had insisted on the placement and the fact Ava hadn't been registered in the foster system yet. So this felt like the next best option. "You ready?"

Dark hair lost its anchor around the fourteen-year-old's shoulders and flipped into the wind as she approached. Ava didn't answer right away. Watching a family with young kids rebuild a sandcastle as the water rushed to take over and dissolve the turrets they'd built. Screams got lost on the wind as they each tried to save the section still standing. "My parents used to build sandcastles with me. We'd stay out here for hours and get so sunburned. Even with sunscreen on. Then we'd go home and gorge ourselves on watermelon. We'd never have enough room left for dinner and one of us would always complain we ate too much, but we were happy."

"That sounds perfect. Long days at the beach." Leigh nudged her shoulder into Ava's. "We can always come back to visit, you know. Whenever you want as long as I'm not on a case."

"Are there beaches in Quantico?" Ava asked.

"A few. Not like this though." They fell into silence then, and Leigh turned her face up to the sun to counter the sadness inside. They'd both attended Ruby Davis's funeral this morning. Along with Saige Fuentes and her family. The Slaters had been there too. And Detective Moore, with the aid of a nurse. Closure. That was what she could feel between them. A shared experience that would bind them together for the rest of their lives, even if they didn't know it yet. Death always left a stain. In a hundred different ways. "Come on. We're going to miss our plane."

She took the lead in getting Ava into the backseat of the ride-share, holding the door open for her as if she were a child. It was strange. Suddenly stepping into the role as a guardian. Leigh wouldn't call herself a mom, even though that was what Ava needed. She collapsed into the backseat beside the teen. "Did you want to stop back by the house before we left?"

Ava stared out her window. "No. I've got everything I need. And I think the news vans are still there."

"They'll forget about all of this. Someday." The driver maneuvered free of the parking lot and set them on their way to the airport. "Until then you'll want to be careful of who you give your phone number out to. You can use mine if you have to. I programed it into your contact list."

"You really think they're going to want to talk to me?" There was a dip of fear in Ava's voice. One Leigh hadn't heard before. Like the possibility of anyone else approaching or reaching out to her had set off an internal warning system.

And Leigh could only tell her the truth.

"You're all that's left, if you think about it. The only one who knows what really happened apart from the police, and Detective Moore has promised to keep the details of the case close to the vest." Leigh thought back, to that time she rarely let herself go anymore. "It took until I was in college before the media figured I wasn't ever going to give them the story they wanted. Every once in a while, I'll get a random voicemail, or the FBI urges me to make a statement, but I've never broken. What happened to my family is for me. Not anyone else."

"Guess that's something I have to look forward to for the rest of my life." Ava turned away again, but Leigh had the thought she wasn't really seeing the cars and trees and people walking the sidewalk on the other side of the glass.

"The only difference between us is you don't have to do it alone." Leigh set a tentative hand on the girl's knee. "You've got me. No matter what happens, Ava. I will be here to help you through it. We can do this. Together."

That earned her a smile. The same smile Elyse had greeted her with when she'd come out of anesthesia less than three weeks ago. It was destabilizing and reassuring at the same time. Something she might never get used to.

The window cracked at a single touch of the girl beside her, and that hair went crazy. Free as they headed away from the vacation house that would forever haunt their memories, and Leigh wanted to memorize this moment. Because it would get lost soon. In the hard things they faced together in the future. In the nights Ava wanted her mother and not Leigh. In the grief of losing her father. She would remember this moment best of all.

"I need to make a call." Leigh retrieved her phone and thumbed through her contacts. Hitting the one that mattered most. The line barely rang before the line connected.

"Didn't think I'd hear from you." Her father's voice chased back that liquid fire that refused to let up over the past week. It would've left on its own eventually, but she'd never been more grateful for him than right then.

"Hi, Dad. I'm coming home. I was thinking we could have dinner tomorrow night. To make up for me canceling on Sunday. We can order out from that Chinese place you like." The tears burned then despite her refusal to give them their way. "I know you're probably still upset with me, but there's someone I want you to meet. Someone important."

"Is that so?" Joel Brody had mastered the art of neutralizing his voice. Something he'd never been capable of doing before he'd gone to prison, but no matter what'd happened and how long ago, he was still her dad. "Like a boyfriend? Am I gonna have to give the ‘respect her or die' talk already? I just got out of prison two months ago. You gotta give me some more time."

"No. Nothing like that." Her laugh jerked the tears from her eyes, and she swiped at her face. And she waited. Waited for him to forgive her, to tell her everything was going to be okay. That she didn't have to do this alone either. Because that was what parents were for, even when their kids were thirty-seven and had faced and brought down two killers. If Elyse had taught her anything in these past few months, it was that unconditional love did exist. And she needed it now more than ever. "You were right before. About me. I guess I've been doing everything myself for so long, I forgot that I could rely on other people. I just felt better knowing I couldn't get hurt because I was the only one at fault for anything that didn't work out. It's something I'm working on, but I wanted you to know I love you. You and Chandler, and I'm going to try harder to be more open to that. Because I know you wish you had been there for me. And I've got to give you the chance."

"I love you, Leigh." No middle name this time. She was making progress. "I'll see you when you get home. No canceling."

"No canceling," she said. "I promise."

She ended the call but framed her phone with her uninjured hand.

Ava's head had slumped against the seat while she'd been on the phone, her eyes closed, and Leigh couldn't blame her one bit. The past week had taken a lot out of her. Out of them both. And she'd let Ava take all the time she needed. Even if they missed their flight.

Her phone vibrated with an incoming call. She glanced at the name scrolling across the screen and answered. "Aren't you supposed to be resting?"

"How many times am I expected to watch Everybody Loves Raymond before they let me out of here?" Detective Moore asked. "I just keep imagining I'm slapping the mother-in-law over and over. Is that normal?"

"At least you got a comedy. I got stuck with old horror movies. I think I might've hallucinated one of the doctors as Michael Myers at one point. I may have freaked a few people out. That's the fun of the good drugs, Detective. Enjoy it while it lasts. Because going back into the real world wounded sucks." But, still, Leigh could empathize. She chanced a quick glance at Ava. "But I have a feeling that's not why you're calling."

"The geofence warrant came back. The one we requested around the time and location of Samuel Thornton's murder," the detective said.

Leigh leaned forward in her seat and lowered her voice. "What did you find?"

"There were three cell phones in the vicinity of that house around time of death." Detective Moore shuffled something indistinguishable over the line. Though Leigh couldn't imagine what. The woman was still recovering from two holes in her midsection. "One belonged to Thornton. A search of the house allowed us to recover the device in his home. It's a burner. No official registration. That's why I couldn't get any cell phone records back for him. Turns out it's also the same number Elyse called you from. She must've used it to contact you just after she killed him. Though she's not talking anymore to give us a reason why. We were able to access the device and found all the evidence we needed to connect him to Poppy Slater, Ruby, and Ava. Messages, photos. It was quite a trophy collection."

"Too bad we can't use any of it to put him behind bars," Leigh said. "Abusers don't do well in prison. He would've suffered."

"Would've made me feel better too." The detective went on. "The second was registered to Saige Fuentes, which makes sense. Saige's GPS doesn't last long because I'm assuming Samuel Thornton turned it off and got rid of the device, but we know she was there according to her and Elyse Portman's statements."

"All right." Leigh wasn't really interested in either of those. "And the third?"

Detective Moore waited a beat. "Belongs to Ava Portman."

*