Chapter 23

I had not slept well the night before, too many things buzzing around inside my head. There was still the Anya thing back there rattling around, and it certainly needed to be settled. There, too, was there the license application, and of course, the good news, bad news conversation that was about to take place with Helen Atkinson.

I pulled my minivan into the parking lot of Ed's place. I had expected to wait at least a few minutes for Helen, but her catering van was parked alone in the lot. I shut down my minivan and opened the door. When I stepped down from the van, Skeeter crept cautiously from the shrubs. She was obviously hungrier than she was afraid of the strange van. I considered it a mixed signal.

"Helen, come meet your new customer." I said over my shoulder, while I kept eye contact with Skeeter.

Skeeter seemed to be sending me messages with her eyes. Mostly it was just one word 'WELL?'

"Bring the food, Helen," I demanded, "And move slowly, please."

"Do you think he likes ham?" she asked.

"Skeeter is a she, and look at her. I think she would even eat liver." I said.

"Are you kidding? She would love my chicken livers in red wine sauce. Everyone loves them, even people who hate liver," Helen said, defensively. "Now what do I do, she is drooling."

"You speak softly and move slowly forward. Get as close as you can, but when she starts to back away, put the plate on the ground and back away."

She got within a few feet of Skeeter before the animal looked panicky. Once she did, Helen sensed it and put the plate on the ground. Helen backed to where I stood and said. "Poor thing, what's happened to her."

"I have no idea, she just showed up here. She is only here at this time of the morning. She will eat, then be gone till tomorrow. Maybe she lived near here and her family just moved away, or something like that. I think she started out life with a family. It's just a feeling, I have no proof. Something has happened to make her afraid of people. She is a big dog; you can see how people might be afraid of her."

I watched Helen looking at Skeeter and I just knew the time was right to tell her the bad new. "Helen, there is no good time or way to tell you this, so I just have to do it. Sue died in prison two years into her four year sentence. She might have been paroled the same year, but she didn't make it long enough."

Helen began to sob. I moved to hug her while she sobbed gently. Then the strangest thing happened. The dog I couldn't bribe to come near me, moved to rub her nasty fur against Helen's leg. Helen's hand fell onto the dog's neck. Skeeter tensed, then relaxed.

"What about my granddaughter?" Helen asked.

"She went into the foster care system and got lost. Kids from that system don't always do well and she would be over twenty now. Lucas is going to check some more public records today. Then we'll make a new plan."

Helen seemed to get a hold on herself with the news that there was some hope. Hope her granddaughter, Topaz, might be traceable. She stopped crying and moved toward her van. She was defeated for sure. Skeeter moved to the bushes with almost the same gait. My own eyes teared up. If I had been a more human person, I would have been balling.

I decided then that even if it took ten years, I would find that little girl. Even though she wasn't little any more, she was still lost. I was going to make it my mission in life to at least give her the chance her mother didn't have. The chance to come home again and spit in Thomas Wolfe's eye.

Just as soon as he came into the office, Lucas viewed the tapes from the night before. It was his morning routine. When he saw Helen, Skeeter, and me, he said, "This place never ceases to amaze me. Getting chosen to work with you was the most awesome stroke of luck."

"Wait till you get to the downside, Lucas. Find the daughter, I don't give a shit if you have to rob graves, just find that kid. Speaking of graves, find where Sue is buried. I mean the exact plot where she is buried, not just the name of some potter's field. One more thing, if you ever say awesome again in my presence, you are fired."

"Yes, Boss," he said.

"And get that license application ready for me to file. I'll sign the damn thing, but you get all the forms I need printed off. I bought you that fancy printer, now I want to see it working."

It was true. Since my first week back, Lucas kept tell me how much better his life would be if only he had a first rate printer for his computer. Neither Ed nor I had any interest in printing things. If we needed something printed, I just copied it to a thumb drive then carried it to an office supply house to have it printed. It was inconvenient, but we didn't do much printing so it was okay with me. Lucas assured me that if he had a laser printer, things would be different. It was true that I didn't drive to the Office Depot as often, otherwise nothing much had changed.

Jennifer hadn't been sure that I needed a license for either of my endeavors, but if I did it would be the license from the private protection agency. It was a catch all for every private security business. The requirements were ten years of law enforcement experience and two qualified references. There was a college education trade off for experience, but I had to pass on that one. I reached out to Blevins and Jennifer for the references, so I was on my way. In the meantime, Jennifer said to keep on doing what I was doing. She promised that she would handle any fallout.