Authors: Louise Behiel
He rose, followed her down the hall, closing the door behind them. “No argument from me about your plan.” But a niggling thought kept playing through her mind: he hadn’t said he loved her.
An hour later, Andie lay on her side, watching him sleep. Face relaxed, breathing slowly and even, he looked more peaceful than he had in a long time. She had a feeling he had a long way to go before he resolved his past, but she was willing to stay by his side, supporting and loving him through it.
***
“How come you’re in Andie’s bed?” Gray opened one eye even though he knew who’d woke him.
“Uhm.”
“Did you have a bad dweam?” Chloe tiptoed into the bedroom. “She always stays with Jamie when he has a bad dream.”
Gray lifted himself up on one elbow. “Yes, I did.” He hoped he could keep her quiet enough for Andie to sleep a while longer. He’d woken her several times last night, his desire for her insatiable.
“Why don’t you go out to the kitchen and I’ll meet you there. We can have breakfast together.”
“Okay.” She skipped out of the room and down the hall. Once she was out of sight, he slipped on his jeans bemoaning his memory. On his final check this morning, he’d forgotten to lock Andie’s bedroom door.
Softly pulling the door closed behind him, he joined her in the kitchen, taking the chair beside her.
Chloe pointed. “You have hairs on your chest.”
She verticaled her finger in front of her mouth. “I’m not supposed to tell anybody but my daddy has hairs on his chest too.”
“Your daddy does?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “He comes to see me sometimes. But I’m not supposed to tell Andie.”
“How come?”
“Daddy says.”
Gray felt a tingling on the back of his neck. “When does he say those things Chloe?”
She watched him carefully, considering. “When he comes to see me at school.” Her eyes filled with sadness. “If I don’t go to school I won’t see my daddy again.”
“You talk to your daddy at your school? He must love you very much.”
She nodded. “He wants me to come live with him.” Then she leaned in close. “But the bad people won’t let him.”
“Bad people?”
“They don’t want little girls to live with their daddies, only their mommies.” She stared at him. “Why can’t I live with my daddy?”
Thoroughly confused, he shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll have to ask Andie when she wakes up.”
Chloe shook her head. “Daddy said I couldn’t talk to her about him.”
“Did he tell you why?”
She shook her head. “No. Just that I couldn’t tell. But you’re different.”
“Why am I different?”
“You aren’t part of the damned ... sys ... system.” She checked out the design in the kitchen linoleum. “Do you know what the system is, Gray?”
The tingles on his neck turned into something stronger. “He probably means the people responsible for you right now, Chloe.”
He pulled her off her chair and on to his lap.
“Andie’s part of the system. And so is the woman who brought you to her.”
“Uhn uh. Andie’s not part of the system. I know.”
“How would you know?”
“Because daddy ‘splained the people in the system are bad and want to hurt us by keeping me here.”
“Andie wants to keep you here.”
“But she loves me.”
She dropped her head, fascinated with her bare toes. “I’m going to miss her.”
“Why?”
She shot him a look of exasperation. “’Cause I’m going to live with my daddy, and I won’t get to see her anymore.”
He hugged her close. “Honey, has your daddy told you when you’ll live with him?”
She shook her head. “He told me to be a good girl and wait.”
“I see.”
“Have you seen your daddy lately?”
“Nope.” She snuggled up against him. “He sometimes has to go away with the police. Maybe he’s with them again.”
He held her close. “You might be right honey. We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”
“Yeah, I ‘spose.
***
The social worker closed her portfolio and placed it in her briefcase. “Thanks for calling me, Andie. I’ll notify the police and see if we can find out anything about this guy who’s calling himself Chloe’s dad.” She rose from the table and slung the leather strap over her shoulder. “I don’t like to think he’s been coming to the school and no one’s noticed. Especially since she has no one listed as her father on her birth certificate.”
“Let us know what you find out.”
“No fear. I’ll call as soon as I’ve got anything concrete.” She extended her hand to Gray. “Nice meeting you,” then left them alone.
“I wonder if he’s responsible for the vandalism.”
Gray had been wondering the same thing. If he was in a police cell, it would explain why there’d been no trouble lately.
As they walked to the kitchen, she asked, “Have you thought about how you’ll begin looking for your family?”
“I told you I’m not doing anything until you and the kids are safe. Then I’ll probably fly down there and dig around a bit.”
“Where will you start?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He’d given it some thought but didn’t have a clear plan. Pops had told him the name of the church they’d attended. He’d also admitting to hearing Gray late one night, after he was supposed to be sleeping saying over and over “My name is Greggie. My name is Greggie.” He hadn’t said anything because Ida had forbidden the boy to use any name except the one she’d given him: Grayson Mills.
“We could start with a call to the police. They’d have some records.”
“Is there a limit on prosecution for kidnapping?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I hadn’t considered it.”
“Me neither, so I won’t call in the police except as a last resort.” Seeing Andie’s bewilderment, he knew he had to explain. “You’ve got to know I don’t agree with what Ma did. But Pop’s an old man and she’s not far behind. Making them spend their old age in prison won’t help anyone. Especially me.”
He swirled the coffee dregs in the bottom of the pot before filling his cup.
“What about old newspaper files?”
“What about them?”
“Come on, I want to show you something.” Andie took his hand and pulled him through the kitchen and down the stairs.
In the family room, after stepping around Billy’s ball equipment for the umpteenth time, she extended one hand and turned to him, smiling broadly.
“Ta Da.”
Gray was at a loss. The room looked like it had every other time he’d been down here. But obviously he was missing something important to Andie.
She tugged him forward again. “Come on, slowpoke.” Then she leaned over and turned on the computer.
“Uhm, I don’t feel much like playing games tonight, Andie.”
“Of course not. We’re going to use it to begin the search for your family.”
His heart quickened. “We are?”
“Yeah.” She sat in the chair, and moved the mouse around the screen a bit.
He hadn’t used a computer much. He wrote his bids manually and banked the old-fashioned way – with a card at a machine. Bonnie and Billy had taught him to play a few games but they beat him every time. The technology didn’t turn his crank the way it did for the kids.
Andie showed him how to bring up certain programs and how to search. She began with the websites listing missing children, but nothing matched the information they knew about Gray.
Then she tried the name of the church he’d got from Pops. Her search request brought up a dozen pages of possible sites. “Darn.”
She typed in something else and looked up at him. “What religion are you?”
“Nothing. Ma and Pops are Episcopal.”
Without responding, she turned to the screen, added it word to the search criteria, and hit ‘enter’.
“All right.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “These are all the records for the All Saints Episcopal Church in Seattle. “Let’s have a look and see what we can find out.”
Initially, the information seemed fairly general. It listed service times and Cub Scout meetings and choir practices. Nothing of any value to them.
But Andie kept clicking, reading and searching.
“Look at this.”
Gray leaned closer and read ‘Sod turned on new construction of the All Saints Church’. “They built a new building? That’s strange.”
He leaned closer to the screen, almost touching Andie’s shoulder. If Billy weren’t down here playing in his room with his handheld game, Gray would have been tempted to kiss the spot where her neck connected to her shoulder. But not with the possibility of having to explain anything to the kids.
So he turned his attention to the screen. “What?” He re-read the paragraph he’d just finished, trying to figure out what it meant.
“The church burned to the ground in nineteen ninety-five. They lost everything.”
“Can you find an article about the fire?”
She tapped on the underlined blue print. “This link should take us there.”
He hunkered down beside her to read the article then sagged. “They lost all their records.”
A small feminine hand rested on his back. “I’m so sorry.”
He looked up at Andie. “It’s a good thing I’m determined to find my family or I might think someone up there,” he pointed sky-ward, “Was trying to tell me something.”
“There are some other things we could check.”
“Like what?”
“We could see if the police keep any public information about unsolved cases.” She tapped in search criteria and they waited a few moments for the website of the Seattle Police department to come up.” After skimming all the pages, and all the links, Andie said “Darn. Nothing.”
They sat there silently for a few minutes. Gray lost in thought about his past and his family. “It was so long ago, we might not find anything.”
“It’s possible, but we’ll look until we’re sure.” She went back to the search engine and typed in a request for Seattle’s newspapers.
Half an hour of clicking and reading resulted in nothing. There didn’t seem to be an easy way to access the papers’ archives.
“I’m not surprised.”
“Me neither. But I hoped they might have some information about unsolved crimes or a police beat or something.” She quickly pressed her lips together then released them.
“Thank you for trying.”
“We haven’t hit the end of the possibilities yet. I’ll have to give it some more thought.”
They sat together in silence, a swirling mass of colors and shapes inviting them into an online casino.
“Are you up for the fireworks tonight?”
“Fireworks?” He wasn’t sure what she meant.
“Yeah, for Canada Day. There’s a great display at the Stampede Grounds around eleven.”
“Is it July 1 already?” He looked at the date display on his watch. “Wow. Where’s spring gone?”
“We’ve been busy. So what do you think? We usually go early to Ramsay Hill, behind the grounds, so we can get a great seat.”
“I’ve never paid much attention to the festivities, but sure, why not.” Then he caught himself. “Maybe I’d better pass, Andie. We still don’t know for sure if Chloe’s dad has been causing the problems around here. I’d feel better if I stayed home and kept an eye on things.”
“Absolutely not. If you don’t feel like going to the celebration, then we’ll all stay home, but you’re not staying here alone. If we’re all together and safe, the house doesn’t matter.”
He didn’t agree with her and was about to say so when she waved her hand.
“Don’t get all protective about the place, Gray. I learned a long time ago, things don’t matter, only people. So decide, either we all go or we all stay.”
***
At ten PM, Calgary’s night sky was still light as Andie and Gray hauled lawn chairs and blankets from her van. Her plan demanded comfort for watching fireworks. Especially with kids who were excited but awake way past their bedtimes. Technically, the younger ones were supposed to nap in the afternoon, although it rarely happened. It didn’t matter. National independence was important enough to keep her charges up late.
They climbed over the cable that doubled as a fence, then spread out the blankets and set up the chairs, which the kids wanted, so they’d stay awake longer.
Last year they’d come to the same place to watch several nights of the Stampede’s bigger display. The kids loved fireworks. Even Bonnie passed on being cool to enjoy them.
Whatever had been bothering her oldest hadn’t been resolved, even though she couldn’t put her finger on the problem? She’d been quieter than usual and she looked like she wasn’t sleeping well. When asked if her work or school or friends or something was bothering her, Bonnie shrugged the question off. She refused to talk about her mother or half-brother, except for monosyllabic replies about their general health. She wasn’t the happy-go-lucky girl she’d become over the past few years. Andie chewed on her bottom lip as she watched her oldest daughter relax and behave more like herself than she had for weeks.