Last day people ! I can't believe we made it ! Thank you so much for your support, I wouldn't have pull through without it ;)

This piece is a sequel to day 27 : Like finding a snow flake in the Artic.

Day 31: "It's not your fault."

They had been back from Alaska for nearly a month now and Andy felt more lost everyday. Sharon had really taken hard not to be able to fulfill her promises to nail the person responsible for all those missing women. Since their return, she had withdrawn into herself. She rarely talked, she didn't laugh anymore. And the worst part was that he didn't know what to do about it. Hell, he had himself struggled adapting back to their life in LA.

A month later, he was still in the process of reacclimating himself to California life, he who lived in the sunny state for nearly all his adult life. He never fathomed that a month outside would unsettle him like that. The harder thing to get accustomed to was the noise, the constant noise of the city. Actic wasn't quiet either, far from it. From his many trips along the years in the Mojave desert or at Joshua Trees, he knew the popular belief that deserts were the most quiet places on her was far from true. Those flat immensities were prone to be incredibly windy. The absence of any resistance along the way made the air whistles loudly, creating a music of its own. Up north, it caught in the plastic enrobing the newly constructed and not yet finished buildings, making it flap loudly. It caught in the house's stilts producing terrifying howling sounds. They woke up with a start their first night in town, wondering if the sound came from a wailing infant or kitten or if a wolf was near their hotel. Gun in hand, they had made their way outside only to see it was nature's lamentation.

He remembered fondly what happened next. Frozen to the core from going outside in their pajamas, they had used the most ancient way of warming up. They had made love, in the middle of the night, faint northern lights visible through their window, Sharon's moans drowned out by the howling wind. It was magical. So they had repeated the experience, many many times. Being there, with lots of time and little to no distractions, was very conducive to intimate moments. You would have thought that the horrors they saw, because they saw their fair share during their time up there, turned them off. It wasn't the case. Maybe they needed to forget, maybe they needed to connect or maybe they had time for the first time ever, giving them the opportunity to enjoy that aspect of their relationship. He had rarely had such passionate moments with a woman before and was glad to be able to experiment that with Sharon. Making love in the morning was a fantastic way to start the day as much as it was an amazing way to fall asleep. But there was something so decadent, so naughty about sneaking back to their hotel for a little quickie during their lunch time.

Because they had been taking lunch break and started working 9 to 5, not doing a minute of overtime for a month. It was something he really easily got used to. It surprised him that after a lifetime in a high pressure job with incredibly long hours, he was able to slow down without problems. He was mostly worried for Sharon, he did not see her as the kind of woman who could easily relax and take her time. But she surprised him, for the best. She enjoyed it as much as him. They enjoyed taking long walks after work, exploring their new environment. She went to the sewing center and amazed him with her skills. Under the directives of the local women, she sewed a beautiful pair of leather mittens with a white fox trim. During their quiet evenings, when they did not spend time talking about their youth and their future, she knitted in front of the TV. She even made two decent hats.

Making mittens wasn't the only purpose of going to the sewing center. She made herself known, listened to what women had to say and forged some friendships. As awkward as Sharon could be, she had something that allowed her to relate to many of them: she was a mother, nothing was more important to her than her children. Her lifelong work in women's shelter and her own experience of an abusive spouse helped her understand certain issues and helped her navigate through some hostile territories. And going three times a week from 5 to 7 was more fruitful than most of their regular working hours. There, Sharon learned from one of the nurses about a Mexican woman who she suspected to be abused by her husband, the construction workers' boss.

What they found was beyond their imagination. Not only that woman was abused by her husband but they found out he prostituted her to his fellow coworkers. The story did not stop there, unfortunately. When the news of his arrest came to the village ears, one of the ladies who worked at the airport confided in Sharon. That man would bring women to Bethel, always using the same ID, Laetitia Muñoz, but they were always different women. How did she know that? Because he came in with a woman but always left alone. The magnitude of what they discovered brought Andy to his knees. Over the last 10 years, that man had brought at least one woman to Bethel per month, sometimes more especially during the holidays, being at the origin of nearly 150 women missing. 150 women. Gone. Vanished. Probably raped then murdered.

Never to be found again since he conveniently committed suicide after being arrested, on the watch the local police Captain. The same one who looked at Sharon like she was the finest piece of meat. That man the whole village believed to be responsible for the missing indigenous women. That officer who refused to take the nurse's statement and wouldn't let anyone fill in for a missing person. That piece of shit that disappeared out of thin air with all his belongings and nearly one million USD. How he amassed such an amount of money, they would never know. Neither would they learn what happened to hundreds of women, their body forever lost, their family forever grieving.

So he understood her. He really did. He just wanted her to get back to herself, and to him. With that in mind, he got out of bed, her side long abandoned, the sheets cold. He found her on the balcony, in the dark, hugging a pillow to try to muffle her tears. He walked purposely loudly, not wanting to scare her before kneeling next to her. He opened his arms and was surprised to have her throw herself at him. Her face tucked under his chin, kissing her head, he repeated it like a mantra, wanting her to impregnate with it. "It's not your fault."