"This is Hailey," I said automatically into my phone after briefly glancing at the name flashing on my screen. We had talked to my CI and Jay was making plans to talk to his buddy after lunch, but we were just about to head back to the department before he took off again.

"Hi, Hailey. It's Ellen." Eva's school secretary said almost pleasantly, but I almost detected a little bit of guilt for having this be an everyday thing. "The recess monitor brought Eva into the office a few minutes ago. I'm not sure what happened, but she came in pretty upset. You have a minute to talk to her?"

"Yeah."

"Hi," Eva said simply, although I knew it was more than that. I had stayed up late last night googling things like helping a child get adjusted to a new school, helping a child cope with death, and even what could be causing her stomach aches she frequently dealt with on a daily basis. One thing that popped up that didn't occur to me was bullying, which I didn't like at all and hoped would never happen.

"What's going on? Ellen said you were upset while out at recess?" I locked eyes with Jay. I could tell he was listening in and trying to process everything that was happening on my end.

"Yeah. My stomach hurts. I wanted to come in."

"Your stomach hurts and you wanted to come in?" I repeated, trying to understand where she was coming from and what was going through her mind. Still, I couldn't help but feel like her answer was significantly different from the last time she had stated her stomach hurt. It could be the same issue that was plaguing her or something different altogether.

"I don't know. I was walking out to the playground and it just started hurting."

"What did you eat today?" I was marking off a checklist of anything I could think of in order to narrow things down if that was even possible at this time. There were so many reasons it could be that she wasn't feeling great, but it often seemed to be when there was anything "school-related" going on.

"Chicken tortilla, carrots, milk, and jello." She prattled off, her tone raising to one of proudness.

"That all sounds like good food." I looked over at Jay, who was keeping a straight face as we continued to inch closer back to work. I wasn't sure what he was making of this conversation, but if he wanted to say something about it, I knew he would later on in his own way.

"I was really hungry, so I ate it all."

"That's good because you didn't really eat breakfast this morning. Did you eat lunch really fast?"

"Sort of. The kid next to me ate faster because he wanted to go outside with his friend." Pulling the car out to a familiar street, I knew we were only about five minutes from arriving back at work. As much as I wanted to sit here and talk to her, I also needed to get back to work and I wanted to encourage her as much as possible to go back to class, while also trying to make sure nothing more serious was going on.

"I see," I knew she had answered that question directly and I was going to try and ask her more about it later if I still didn't get a direct answer from her. I felt like our conversations were a lot better, face to face. "How is your stomach feeling now?"

"Okay. Still hurts a little."

"Are you going to be okay until I can pick you up tonight?" Jay pulled into the parking lot, right next to the remaining police issued cars.

"Yeah." Again, something about her response made my heart drop. She sounded so defeated and I wanted to take away whatever was bothering her. "The bell just rang."

"I heard that." The faint ringing sound stopped, which brought the familiar drum of a ringing phone at the office. Thank goodness for two lines. We had been surely been tying this one up for the past ten minutes, "Why don't you put Ellen back on the phone for me for a minute."

"K." She told me then passed the phone to Ellen. "Here."

"Hailey."

"Hi, Ellen. I take it you heard most of that?"

"Yeah, I did. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure yet." Jay caught my attention to lock up when I got finished with my call. I reached out my arm for him to stay and mouthed I was almost finished as he leaned back in the driver's seat. "I just got custody of Eva earlier this week, so I know she's still adjusting to being with me and to a new school. If you could have her teacher call me when she has a minute, I would appreciate it."

"Sure thing. I will have her call you when she can. In the meantime, I can walk Eva back to her class if she's ready to go." I could see her physically asking Eva if she was ready now that she had talked to me. "She says, yes. That would be fine."

"That would be great, thanks. Thank you for helping her."

"My pleasure. Call if you have any questions?"

"I will. Bye."

"Bye."

"You okay?" Jay checked as I hung up the phone, one hand on the door release as he was about ready to step out onto the asphalt. He refrained from doing so until he made sure we were okay, and I was pretty sure this was the only time we were getting before we had to reconvene with the team.

"I don't know. I kind of felt like it helped that she talked to me."

"But."

"I can still tell there is something bugging her that she wouldn't say over the phone. I mean, she practically burst into tears when dad came up on her spelling list last night. Maybe you're right."

"About what?"

"About her not getting the closure she needs." I turned towards him as the metal of the seatbelt clanked against the side of the car with a deep thud. "I mean, if you think about it, her parents were killed in a car accident, she's met by a social worker that she doesn't know, meets her birth mother for the first time and is thrown into a new school."

"That's a lot to handle at one time. So what are you thinking about doing?"

"I still need to talk to Eliza, Eva's social worker and see what she can tell me. Maybe I'll call her tonight after dinner. I'm hoping that her teacher will call me back later this afternoon when she's finished with school. Between the three of us, I'm hoping we can come up with some solution to help her."