Bobby angled our fleet vehicle into the garage, parked in our assigned spot, and shut off the engine. I'd been quiet the entire ride back from St. Francis, which we both knew was unusual for me. Right now, my heart hurt, and I wasn't sure how to handle that feeling.
After a moment, he shifted in his seat to look at me. "Look, I know how you feel."
I held up a hand, cutting him off. "No offense, but you have no fucking clue of how I'm feeling right now." There was only one person who might begin to have an inkling of how I felt. He was still on his honeymoon.
"You're angry and frustrated with the system," Bobby continued as if I hadn't just cut him off. "You feel like everyone has failed her."
"For starters," I mumbled as I stared straight out the windshield at the concrete wall. "But there's so much more than just that."
"Yeah, I know," Bobby replied. "You're worried about her, and you feel as if you've lost her again, after just finding her." Out of my peripheral vision, I could see him shaking his head. "You didn't. Like I said before, when she's released, she'll be coming back here."
I closed my eyes and swallowed down a wave of nausea as I thought about the promise I made and was forced to break. "She's all alone."
"No, Les, she's not," Bobby argued. "She has you, and now she has us."
"But she doesn't know that," I said.
"I'd argue that she does. If she didn't feel as if she finally found someone to care about her, she would have let go of that bridge railing."
My body shuddered at that thought. I could still so easily picture her sinking into that murky water. "I have so many questions."
"Like?"
I opened the passenger door and stepped out. There was no point of continuing to sit inside the SUV. Especially, when Ram and Binkie were standing guard behind it. We might as well head into the building.
"Like?" Bobby repeated as we began to walk to the garage entrance.
"In her letters, she said that the police notified her family, but no one ever came to visit. In a different letter she talked about being moved to the on-site sober living home. She expected to be there for about six months. She said the facility told her because of her special circumstances, she'd be allowed to stay longer than normal. That way she could continue to receive therapy."
"Then, just a couple of months later, she wrote of how she feared they might be releasing her soon. She said the members of her recovery team were pushing her to go home to her family. She told them her family wouldn't accept her back after what she'd done, but she didn't feel like they were listening to her."
Ram reached for the door and opened it for us to pass through. "Why would those in charge of her recovery be so dismissive of that fact?"
"I have a better question," I said. "Why did the director of the center show up here, claiming she just up and walked away without a trace? According to what Casey said on the bridge, they bought her a bus ticket and sent her home."
We headed for the stairs. "Did you question him on the discrepancy between what he was saying and what she told you in her letter?" Bobby asked.
I shook my head. "My gut told me something nefarious was going on. That I needed to find Casey before I took my suspicions any farther. Unfortunately, all my searches for her came up empty."
"Even with what little you just told us, it seems to me that maybe someone was up to no good," Binkie said.
I glanced over my shoulder at him. "It couldn't have been just any someone. It had to be someone in charge at that particular rehab center. Someone with the authority to make the decision to release her."
"Which rehab are we talking about?" Ram asked.
"The Wishing Well," I replied. "When I first learned where she was, I looked it up. The facility had only been open about a year, but they treated more than just substance abuse. So, it appeared to be the perfect place for Casey, Maddie, and Izzy to land."
"For St. Francis to be comfortable referring patients there, they would have needed to meet certain guidelines and criteria," Bobby offered.
"Or knew someone on the inside," Binkie said. "I mean it's not uncommon to find politics and nepotism in any industry. Why would healthcare be any different?"
He made a good point.
"I think maybe it's time we did a deeper investigation," Ram said. "If they did Casey and the other two girls shitty, then I have to wonder who else have they screwed and why?"
It was a good question and one I'd asked myself multiple times since I'd received Casey's last letter months ago.
"I think you're right," Bobby said.
I should have looked deeper into the center the moment I'd received her last letter, but I didn't know much about drug treatment centers or how they work. So, while what they did felt wrong to me, I'd tried to convince myself that it didn't necessarily mean it was wrong. Especially since I couldn't find her.
Speaking of wrong, my thoughts turned to her family and what she said they did to her. "Also, if her family rejected her as she said, where in the hell has she been for the last three months? She grew up in a small town in South Central Pennsylvania. It doesn't take three months to get anywhere in the country by bus, let alone the middle of Pennsylvania. Plus, how did she end up back in Trenton and alone on that bridge?"
"All good questions," Ram said from behind me.
"So how do we get the answers?" I asked as we stepped onto Five.
"Maybe Casey will tell us," Bobby said.
I shook my head. "She won't be able to explain why they let her go with only a bus ticket and whatever was in her backpack. There couldn't have been more than maybe one or two changes of clothes in there. I mean what did she wear for clothing for the six months she was in their care?"
"We're going to need help to find out where the system failed her," Ram said.
"For now, let's just focus on getting her out of her psychiatric hold and back here. Once we know she's safe in our protection, then we can focus on the rest," Bobby said.
He was right. I needed to focus on her in the here and now first. Finding out where she's been the last three months and what happened to her would have to wait…for now.
The control room floor went silent as we entered and crossed to my office. Apparently, everyone heard about my encounter on the bridge and the subsequent fallout.
Once we were inside my office, Bobby motioned to Ram and Binkie. "Why don't you two partner up and head out?" It was, after all, still mischief night and we could use the extra patrols. "We won't be leaving the building again for a while."
I was no longer in the proper mindset to be out in the wild with a weapon and Bobby knew it.
Ram shot a nervous glance in my direction. When Ranger decided to start Rangeman it had just been him, Tank, me, and Bobby. The four of us were inseparable and always had each other's backs. We'd all initially taken on new partners as we expanded the company and trained new employees. The first two years we seemed to have a new partner every month. In the last two years, I'd partnered exclusively with Ram, and Bobby with Binkie. Because of that we'd all grown close and overly protective of each other.
"I'm okay," I said to Ram, knowing he was more than a little concerned about me. "Like Bobby said, unless there's an emergency, I'm not going to leave the building again tonight."
He hesitated only a moment before he gave a nod, then turned to Binkie, and the two of them headed out.
Once they were gone, I leaned back in my chair and rubbed the heel of my hands against my eyes. What a fucking day it had been so far. "So, what now?" I finally asked. Logically, I knew there were things I needed to do, but my brain was still too frazzled to properly function.
"Well, she's going to need clothes and shoes and personal needs items," Bobby began. The dress she was wearing was dirty and torn. The one in her backpack wasn't much better. So, the hospital staff gave her scrubs to wear. She'll need clothes and shoes to wear home from the hospital." He cocked his head to the side. "Funny, the other items in her bag were an odd combination of brick a brac."
"Like what?" I asked. I'd only seen the teddy bear partially sticking out of the top of the bag.
"Well," he began. "There was a braided bracelet, a small four by six painting of a sunset, a tattered and well used bible and a white and brown teddy bear that looked fairly new."
I scrubbed my hands over my face as I leaned back in my chair. "I sent her the teddy bear."
Bobby arched a brow. "You did? When?"
"I guess it was probably sometime in late March or early April. In one of her letters, she talked about how hard the nights were and how alone she felt. So, before I sent her my next letter, I bought the teddy bear and sent it to her. I told her whenever she was feeling alone, all she had to do was look at the bear and know I was with her."
"Damn," Bobby murmured. "That was really sweet of you."
His shocked tone made me frown. "You say that like I'm not capable of being sweet and caring."
Bobby held up his hands in defense. "I didn't mean it like that. I know you can be sweet. I've seen how you dote over Bomber whenever Ranger is away and she's worried about him. What I meant to say was that was really sweet to do for someone you didn't know all that well."
I shook my head. "I don't know what it is about her. From the first time I set eyes on Casey there was this weird pull that just drew me to her."
"Your reaction on the bridge tells me it's more than just a sexual attraction."
"It is," I replied. "Don't get me wrong, I think she's beautiful, but it's more than just a girl next door type of pretty. She's beautiful on the inside too."
"I'd ask how you know that, but you did say you've been writing to her for months."
I nodded. "I'm pretty sure we were writing to each other weekly after I sent her that first letter in early March. So, I have probably close to two dozen letters from her."
"That's a lot," Bobby replied.
"It is, but I've learned so much about the kind of person she is. I swear, Bobby, she's freaking incredible and I'm going to do whatever is necessary to help her."
"Well, you're going to need to start with getting her the basics. She's going to need a winter coat, gloves, hat, and boots. She'll also need new clothes, undergarments and shoes."
"Did you get her sizes?" I asked, "Because that wasn't exactly a discussion that came up while we were hanging off the railing earlier. Nor has it ever come up in any of our letters."
Bobby nodded. "Actually, since I was with her when they did the intake, I did. I have her height, weight, and shoe size and I know what size scrubs they gave her to wear. I think that's enough information for Ella to work her magic."
Knowing Ella would do exactly that, I picked up the phone and called her. A few minutes later she arrived at my office. "Sobrino, you called."
"Yes, Tia. I need your help." Bobby and I then proceeded to explain the situation with Casey and what we needed.
Ella pursed her lips as she listened, then asked. "Do you have a list for me?"
I shook my head. "We have her height, weight, and shoe size, and the size of the scrubs they gave her to wear, but I don't have much more than that to go on. She grew up Mennonite. After everything she's been through, I'm sure she'd probably feel most comfortable in conservative and modest clothes," I replied.
Bobby cut his attention from Ella to me, his eyes wide. "She's Mennonite?"
I shrugged. "From what I understand, yes." Which made the situation with Blackmore all that more horrible. "In her letters, she said the congregation she grew up in was extremely conservative. Almost to the point of being radical. I believe she referred to them as old order, whatever that means."
"Well, that's very interesting," Bobby replied.
"It is," I said. "I know she was worried they wouldn't take her back because of what Blackmore forced her to do. Sex outside of marriage is a big no-no. Drug use is also a huge sin."
"Both of those things are pretty much a sin in any religion," Bobby said.
"True," I agreed, "But she once told me about a friend of hers. The church excommunicated the friend because she decided to file for divorce against her abusive husband. Casey said the old order refused to acknowledge the divorce decree and accused her friend of adultery. The church leader forced them to shun the woman or risk suffering a similar fate."
Bobby frowned. "That's so wrong, but even so, Casey's situation was different. You would think they would understand that fact. Plus, I thought most Mennonite communities forgave for sins if the person confessed and made themselves right with God."
"Yeah, well, from what little I know, I thought so too, but not Casey's, I guess. Since all that happened after she stopped writing to me, I don't have the entire story, yet."
"None of that matters now," Ella said. "It's all in her past. We're her family now and we're going to help her get better."
