Author's Note: Happy New Year, everyone! May God bless you all richly in 2022! Thank you to all who continue to read, to all who leave reviews, and to my awesome beta readers, Piscean6724 and katbybee!
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Chapter 10
Ramona groaned as she looked in the diaper bag. Only one diaper left, plus the one that she had left in the other room for the baby's next change. She should have stopped to buy more on her way here yesterday. But she had worried they would be looking for the kid. They wanted to steal her baby. They didn't believe Ada belonged to her. Now, though, she was going to have to risk going out.
Ada was napping on the bed with the dog. Papa was sitting in the rocking chair, keeping watch. Ramona rolled her eyes. You'd think he didn't trust me or something. The dog didn't, she knew that. At least it wouldn't be a problem much longer. She kept thinking it would start getting sick soon, but it hadn't yet. She was impatient for the symptoms to emerge, but she would just have to bide her time. She couldn't get near her baby while the dog was around, so she had no choice but to get rid of it.
Ramona shuddered. She had been afraid of dogs for as long as she could remember, though she couldn't remember any particular reason why her chest would tighten and her heart thud when she had to be near one. Giving the squares of baking chocolate to the dog a couple hours ago had been terrifying, but necessary. And when Papa thought she was about to kick the animal, he didn't really need to worry… she would never admit it, but she was too nervous to carry through on the threat — she just wanted the beast to move. But it must not have recognized her pulled-back foot as a potential source of harm, because it just lay there till Papa called and then got up and lumbered off without even reacting. Papa must have coddled the creature same as he coddled Ada.
She smiled slightly, thinking of what was about to happen. Soon, she would be able to deal with Papa. He didn't approve of Ramona being a mother. She could tell. The way he kept scolding and bossing her around… the way he never took his eyes off her when she and Ada were in the same room… the way he refused to hand the girl over when told to. Like he thought he was better than his own daughter. He hated her, just like Ada did. Well, he was in for a big surprise once his dog was no longer around with those big teeth ready to take a bite out of her. She was going to take Ada and leave in his car and drive away, and if he tried to stop her — well, she had already secured one of the kitchen knives in the pocket of her coat. No one was going to take her baby away from her.
She glanced into her childhood bedroom. Papa had dozed off in the rocking chair, but the dog raised its head and growled a warning. Ramona's heartbeat quickened and she broke out in a light sweat. Quickly, cautiously, she backed away. No need to let them know where she was going. The grocery store was only a short drive away. She would go out, buy diapers, and be back within fifteen minutes.
Anxious not to waken Papa, she grabbed the diaper bag from Teo's room — Papa was too interested in looking through it — then tiptoed down the hall and around the corner to the kitchen. She intended to take Papa's car, but she couldn't find his keys anywhere. She did find a jar filled with tens and twenties, and she emptied it into her purse. Then she snuck out the front door and walked around to the back of the house to where she'd parked her car out of sight of the road.
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For the second time that day, Nancy Halverson fetched Johnny from the guest house to take a phone call from Detective Seward. This time, Sarah Kate followed him back to the house and watched intently as he took up the handset and put it to his ear. "Hello, Detective… John Gage here." He squeezed his eyes shut again, his entire body tensing as he awaited whatever news was coming.
"Mr. Gage, we've made an arrest. Ramona Martinez was spotted by a patrol officer coming out of a grocery store down in Ridgefield, Washington, south of here. She resisted at first — pulled a knife on him — but he disarmed her quickly."
Johnny took a deep breath. His fingers gripped the handset tighter. "You have JoJo?"
The silence on the other end of the line spoke volumes. "I'm sorry, Mr. Gage," Seward finally said. "She didn't have the baby with her, but she was buying diapers. Police searched her car and found the diaper bag. Your wife's medications were still in it. They've been trying to get her to tell them where JoJo is, but she's not talking. She's being held at the Ridgefield Police Station. I'm about to head down th —"
"We're going too." Johnny's words rushed out, cutting Seward off. His little girl had to be somewhere near where they found Ramona, and short of locking him up, they weren't about to keep him away now.
"Mr. Gage…" On the other end of the line, Seward sighed heavily. "I don't think it's a good id —"
"We're going!" Johnny rubbed a hand across his face. He didn't feel like arguing. "Actually, never mind, Detective. We'll find our own way down there. Thanks for the update." He slammed down the receiver.
"They found her?" Sarah Kate was leaning forward, eyes wide and hopeful. "They got JoJo back?"
He shook his head. "No. But they got Ramona." He reached to squeeze Sarah Kate's shoulder. "You did great, kid. Thank you. Could you run and tell Nita to come over here, that it's not the news we wanted, but it's still good news? And maybe you can help Nancy watch Jamie for us?"
She nodded, then darted away. Johnny picked up the phone handset and dialed Harborview — he'd called with updates for JoAnne enough times now, he'd memorized the number. While he waited for her to pick up the phone, his mind was working a mile a minute, figuring out the next step.
It was Roy's voice, not Jo's, that came across the wire. "Hello?"
Johnny's words spilled out so fast they almost got tangled up with one another. "Roy, they got Ramona. She didn't have JoJo with her, but she's gotta be nearby. I need to go down to Ridgefield… it's somewhere south. If Swede's around, can you get him to bring you over here? Tell him we just need a car and a map and we can get ourselves —"
"Slow down, Junior. Let me get a word in!"
Johnny took a deep breath. Ever since they'd started working together, his partner's calm and steady tone had been able to calm him down in moments of stress. "Yeah," he mustered. "Go on."
"That's good news. Listen, DJ has just been discharged. Swede's here and he's about to bring us over to the farm. He says we can use the second bedroom in the guest house. I'll tell him the news and we'll figure out about transportation. There are at least a dozen guys from the Seattle fire department who would be happy to drive us."
"Yeah. OK. Thanks, Roy." The door creaked open, and Johnny looked up to see his wife coming in, accompanied by Sarah Kate. "I gotta go talk with Nita. I'll see you soon."
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Matt squirmed in his seat as he waited for Tonya Diehl to finish a phone call. Melissa had insisted he come talk with Child Services about Sarah Kate, so here he was. But it wasn't going well.
Finally, she hung up the phone and picked up Sarah Kate's file. She looked it over, then set it down on the desk with a heavy sigh. "Mr. Carter, I appreciate your interest in the child's welfare, but I have no jurisdiction in her case. She's been listed as missing and endangered for the better part of a year now, and we have no choice but to send her back where she comes from."
"Which is?" Matt was on the edge of his seat, leaning forward, desperate for something encouraging to take back to Melissa.
"California. Specifically, Kern County. Her caseworker is coming on Tuesday to pick her up and take her back to her legal guardians."
Matt clenched his jaw. "The aunt and uncle who didn't protect her?"
Mrs. Diehl frowned. "You know more than I do, apparently, Mr. Carter. There's nothing about that in her file."
"She told JoAnne DeSoto about it. And apparently, she tried telling her guardians and her caseworker, but no one would believe her. No one but her father, who did what a father ought to do, in my opinion. I don't know what happened that he left her alone at that hotel, but at least he was trying to protect her." Matt stood up. His face felt hot and his hands were tightening into fists. He felt like the walls were closing in. He wasn't giving up, but right now, he just had to get out of here. He had one last shot to fire, though. "You're supposed to be about protecting kids, Mrs. Diehl. Please don't let this one slip through the cracks." Without another word, he turned and stalked out of the office.
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Tonya Diehl frowned as she watched Matthew Carter storm from her office. He was right. She owed it to Sarah Kate to make sure she wasn't getting sent back into a dangerous situation. She opened the file, prepared to read each page thoroughly. She hadn't done this yet — after all, what use was it to acquaint herself with every little detail of this case when she just had to turn the girl over in three days?
As she read, her frown deepened. The story the file presented was convoluted and much about it made no sense. For instance, Sarah Kate said her real last name was DiAngelo, and that name had gotten Tonya this file and a quick response from Bakersfield, but the surname wasn't anywhere in the file. The child was referred to as Sarah Kate Benedict throughout. Wherever her father Marcus was mentioned, even on the original birth certificate, his surname had been redacted.
As best Tonya could tell, for most of her life, Sarah Kate had been little more than a pawn in the machinations of the adults who were supposed to care for her. During her early years, her father had been mostly absent, wandering in and out of his daughter's life. His wife filed for divorce when Sarah Kate was three. Two years later, Corrinne [name redacted] (née Benedict) signed over custody of her daughter to her parents and walked away without looking back. Sarah Kate's grandmother had loved her, that much was clear. Her father continued to make occasional visits but seemed uninterested in moving his daughter from her maternal grandparents' care. Then Anna Benedict had died shortly before Sarah Kate's eighth birthday. Carl Benedict, in poor health himself, had passed his granddaughter off to his son and daughter-in-law after his wife was hospitalized. A few weeks before Anna's death, Peter Benedict and his wife, Judy, had initiated adoption proceedings. Child Services caseworker Millicent Collins had been assigned to Sarah Kate, presumably to assure that the placement was safe. She spoke in glowing terms of the Benedicts and the home they offered their niece. Peter Benedict was an influential lawyer. His wife was a stay-at-home mother who was utterly devoted to their son, Michael. Both had college degrees, a solid financial footing, and were committed to providing Sarah Kate with the best of everything.
Buried deep in the file was a note Sarah Kate had written to the caseworker. Tonya had missed it during her initial perusal of the file. Dear Miss Collins, I dont want to live with Uncle Peter and Aunt Judy. I dont like how my cusin Michael tuched me when I stayed with them while Gramma was sick. Please ask my daddy to come get me insted. I want to live with him. According to a notation from Collins, she had dismissed the complaint as unfounded, and admittedly, it could have been something entirely innocent, but there was nothing to indicate that Collins had taken any steps to be sure.
Presumably, Sarah Kate had found a way to communicate with her father as well, because he arrived three days after Anna Benedict's funeral. After a loud fight with Peter Benedict, he abducted his daughter at gunpoint. The pair disappeared before police could arrive. Marcus's old white Plymouth was found a few blocks away, but he and his daughter had vanished. Peter Benedict claimed that Marcus had demanded money from him, promising not to contest the adoption if he was paid a large enough sum. Despite Sarah Kate's absence, the adoption was pushed through. Marcus [name redacted] was charged with kidnapping, and Sarah Kate Benedict was listed as missing and endangered.
There was a reference to an additional file on Sarah Kate's father, but this was not included in Sarah Kate's file. Tonya picked up the phone and dialed the number for Bakersfield's Child Services office. She would request the missing file in hopes that it would clarify some of the questions the information she'd been given had brought up for her.
Soon, the receptionist answered, and Tonya was transferred to the caseworker. "Hello, Miss Collins? This is Tonya Diehl in Seattle. I've been reading through Sarah Kate DiAnge… I mean… Benedict's file and I see a reference to a file on her birth father. Could you please send me that?"
A sharp intake of breath followed by a long silence met her request. Then Millicent Collins cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Diehl, I'm not sure what you mean. There's no other file. I trust you'll have Sarah Kate ready to travel by noon on Tuesday. Her adoptive parents are eager to see her again, and they will be coming to Seattle with me."
Tonya caught in her breath. There wasn't much time. Probably, there was nothing she could do. Maybe she should just let this go and trust that Millicent Collins had done her due diligence. "Yes, yes, she'll be ready," she promised. She couldn't say anything else at this juncture. But she was going to honor Matthew Carter's request. Sarah Kate DiAngelo would not slip through the cracks on her watch.
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Manuel awoke to the sound of Ada whimpering. Haven lay panting on the bed, her body twitching. Her tongue kept licking at the air, which Manuel recognized as a sign of nausea. Ada was watching with wide, worried eyes. "Goggie sick?"
It took a moment for the situation to register, but then Manuel was on his feet, crossing to the bed in an instant. Murmuring gently, he stroked a hand across Haven's left side, moving it just behind her left front leg where he could feel her heartbeat. He wasn't sure how fast it should be beating, but it seemed to him that it was racing. She kept licking at the air, and he caught a strong whiff of chocolate on her breath.
"Damn," he muttered. The only chocolate he had in the house was a slab of baking chocolate in the pantry. He didn't eat sweets all that often, but on occasion he got a hankering and he liked to be prepared. He kept it up out of the dog's reach, but if Mona had forgotten to put it away… or worse, if she had intentionally given some to Haven… "Mona!" he shouted. No response. "Mona! Get in here… now!"
The words hung in the air, unanswered. Had Mona stepped out while he was dozing? He glanced out the bedroom window and saw that her car was no longer parked out back of the house. He sighed and shook his head. Of course, she's gone without a word. No knowing when she'll be back.
He wasn't sure how much chocolate Haven had ingested, but he knew that even a few ounces of baking chocolate could be deadly. He needed to get her to the vet now. But he couldn't manage carrying both her and the baby to the car. He turned in a circle, trying to get his thoughts together. Finally, he murmured a desperate prayer. When he made the sign of the cross over his chest, little Ada's fingers grasped his and moved side to side, then up and down with him. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out again, then dropped a kiss on the little girl's head. He felt calmer now. She could walk, and there was only one step down from the front porch, and from there a short distance to his car. He would just have to watch her closely. "Sweetheart, I need to set you down so I can pick up Haven. We have to take her to the doctor."
He set Ada on her feet, and she watched solemnly as he pulled Haven into his arms and cradled her against his chest. "OK, little one," he instructed, hoping she understood well enough to obey him. "Let's go. Stay right with me." He pulled the dog into his arms. Ada followed at his heels as he made his way out of the bedroom, down the hall, and across the living room to the door. Ada seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation. All the way to the car, she kept right next to him, and she neither argued nor fussed.
He got Haven situated on the front passenger seat, and then he turned to Ada. He was pretty sure that some rule about strapping kids in special seats in the car had come into force since his own children were small. He didn't have any such seat, but this was an emergency, so the seatbelt would have to do.
He picked Ada up and set her in the middle seat in the back of his station wagon, then fastened the lap belt and pulled it tight. "You sit still now," he said sternly, but he punctuated the order with a kiss on her forehead. Satisfied that she wasn't going anywhere, he moved around to the driver's seat, got in, started the car, and pulled out of the driveway. Steering with one hand, he stroked Haven's soft fur with the other. Her breathing was shallow and much too fast. He swallowed hard. This dog had been a gift from Teo before his first deployment, about four years ago. She'd come to him as a puppy, barely nine weeks old, and had been a balm for Manuel's loneliness ever since. He couldn't bear the thought of losing her, of learning to live without her again.
He turned at the corner, heading for Ridgefield's veterinary clinic. When he pulled into the empty parking lot, his heart sank. A large sign on the door said, "CLOSED." With a deep groan, Manuel pounded a fist against the steering wheel. Next to him, Haven yelped as if in pain. A second later, she vomited all over the passenger seat.
From the back, Ada's little voice said, "Pee-ew!"
"Hang on, baby girl," Manuel said as he turned the crank handle to lower the window. "Guess we'll have to go see that lady vet down the road."
