Here I Am. Send Me.--Chapter Thirty-Five

After Claire's confession, Evelyn and Chris try to determine what happens next.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

         Chris sat with Claire while Evelyn explained the situation to their police escort. While they waited, he asked, “Claire, who’s attacking Evelyn and me?”

         She sat without any emotion. There were no more tears. “I don’t know.”

         “Is it going to stop now?”

         “I have no idea.”

         Claire’s arrest process took hours and Evelyn and Chris gave multiple statements which lasted into the night. Each time they asked if they could go home, they were requested to wait in the lobby just a little longer.

         After eleven o’clock, they were still sitting in the hard, plastic chairs in the precinct house. They had been so caught up in the immediate issues of Claire’s confession and arrest, they had not thought of anything else. As the last of his medication wore off, Chris became fully aware of his pain level.

         He tried to get a conversation started with Evelyn to get his mind on something else.

         “What happens to Josey now? What’s her next step?”

         “Are you asking if we tell her that the daughter that she thought was dead and then was convinced was alive by everyone she trusted was dead after all? Do we tell her that the child she’s been raising is her husband’s child with another woman? This is all so crazy. Who would believe any of this?!”

         “No one. Which is why it was a great lie.”

         “If you tell a big enough lie, then everyone believes it because no one thinks you would be crazy enough to make it up.”

         “Exactly. But that doesn’t…”

         He was interrupted by the entrance of Police Sergeant Langley Wilson from headquarters who walked right up to Evelyn. “Ms. Dunham, you’ve been very busy.”

         “I’m just trying to protect the child.”

         “I get that, but I guess it remains to be seen whether she’s going to be better off after this. I’ve spent the last few hours on the phone with the district attorney’s office, and I’ve never seen them this confused. They’re going to put some warrant requests in front of the judge tomorrow and see what happens.”

         “Warrant requests?” Chris asked. “For whom?”

         “For the arrests of Courtney Wilkins, Rachel Marshall, and Calvin Marshall.”

         Evelyn’s eyes shot up. “But that’s Leyla’s entire family!”

         “So, it would seem. But that’s for smarter people than me to figure out. Claire’s confession implicated all of them in fraud and conspiracy among other things. Tomorrow we’ll find out how that goes. But at least you can now have some piece of mind that you’re no longer in any danger.”

         “We’re not?” Evelyn said. This was going way too fast.

         The sergeant smiled. “Everything is out in the open now. There’s no reason for anyone to want to silence you or warn you off the scent.”

         “What about revenge?”

         “I think that everyone implicated in this is going to have so much on their plates that they won’t have time to be thinking about revenge against you two. You can rest easy now. You’ve more than done your civic duty. You’ll probably get a commendation.” The last two sentences sounded sarcastic. “You’re free to go.”

         “But without police protection.”

         He smiled again. “We’re sure that none is needed. Get some rest.”

         Evelyn was perplexed. “Did we do something wrong?”

         The smile faltered for just a split second before he put it right again. “Not at all. You did your civic duty.” The touch of sarcasm was there again.

         Then he left the lobby and headed down the corridor toward the back of the building.

         Chris looked at Evelyn. “What was that about?”

         “We solved a case.” She couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice.

         “That’s a good thing. Right?”

         “The police force is very insular. You and I are outsiders. We don’t solve cases.”

         He nodded in understanding. “We were on their turf.”

         “Yeah. I guess we can go now.”

         Chris needed Evelyn’s help to get up out of the chair, and she pulled his arm over her shoulders as they walked out into the parking lot.

         As he buckled himself into the car, he looked over at her face which was dimly illuminated in the light from the dashboard. “What do we do about Josey?”

         “We tell her doctors. They’re the ones with the big degrees and the big paychecks. They can figure this out.” She was bone tired, both physically and emotionally.

         “How about Leyla? What happens to her?”

         “That’s up to DCS.”

         “DCS”

         “Department of Children’s Services.”

         “You mean she goes into the system.”

         Evelyn didn’t have the answers and was frustrated. Her emotions boiled over. “Yes! She goes into the system. That’s what the system is for. Sometimes, in this job, we don’t get a happy ending.”

         His voice was quiet. “Even if we really want it.”

         His tone brought her energy down. “Yes. Even if we really, really…” She started pounding the steering wheel with her fist with each word. “…really, really, really want it!”

         Chris reached over and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. She glanced over at him briefly before backing out of the parking space and getting out on the road. “Sometimes this job really stinks.”

         “It’s hard to change the world when the world doesn’t want to be changed.”

         “I don’t want to change the world. I just want to keep one innocent little girl from having her life ruined.”

         “Her life was ruined seven years ago. We’re just finding out about it now.”

         “Well then, maybe I want to unruin it.”

         “Me too.” He nodded. “I just don’t know how to do that.”

         “I don’t either.”

         The car became silent for several minutes as they passed under several stoplights.

         But Chris wasn’t ready for the conversation to end. “I don’t think we’re done.” He tossed the sentence out wanting her to explain why it was over and that they had done everything they could do.

         Her voice was almost a whisper. “I don’t, either.”

         “Then what do we do?”

         She thought long and hard. “We figure out what it is that we don’t know and why someone wants to kill us over it.”

         “It sounds easy when you put it that way.” He tried a smile that turned into a wince when he turned in the seat.

         They were pulling into the parking lot of his church. She noticed the wince. “Are you okay to drive?”

         He thought about making a macho joke but was too tired to come up with one. “I’m fine. But I admit to looking forward to taking my pain medication and getting some sleep. Will you be at the office tomorrow?”

         “Yeah. You?”

         “Yep. I’ll try and be in between eight and nine.”

         “I’ll see you then.”

         He started to get out of the car and then realized that he should kiss her good night. He hadn’t dated someone seriously in a while and the training wheels were still on. Turning back and leaning toward her evoked another wince.

         She noticed. “You’re sure that you’re okay to drive?”

         “It’s only a flesh wound.” Okay. He could come up with a macho joke, but not a good one.

         The kiss lingered and, even after a long and grueling day, the smell of her skin and hair created a memory that would fill his thoughts for the drive back to his house.

         Evelyn followed Chris out of the lot with her own thoughts being dominated by the kiss. But then the dismissive words and attitude of Sergeant Wilson intruded on and then obliterated the warm feeling. Her anger built. The sergeant was super supportive when he had the role of knight saving the damsel in distress, but, when she and Chris did what his precious police could not, the support dried up.

         If they were going to treat her like an outsider, then she would be an outsider. Instead of turning right toward her apartment in Madison, she turned left toward the office. She had work to do.