“Thank you, Sheriff.” Hughes grunted in response.
“No hits on the APB?” Adam asked.
“No. Nothing,” Hughes said. “It’s like he dropped off the face of the earth. My guess is he had another hideaway somewhere in the deep woods he’d been keeping just in case something like this happened. We did have some luck identifying the tire tracks leading away from the shack onto the service road. They match a tread made through Bridgestone back in the mid-eighties and early nineties. It would’ve been concurrent with the model car registered to Rainier at the time. The state police have been extremely cooperative. If he’s on the road somewhere in the state, we’re gonna get him.”
Clare smiled and nodded, knowing full well that wasn’t the case. She guessed it was more Hughes trying to reassert a semblance of control for her and Shanna’s comfort. Any irritation she felt was diminished by the fact she’d misled him as well. One lie traded for another.
She was drawn back from her musing by Dr. Latten’s appearance outside the interview room. He pulled the door shut behind him, leaving Shanna inside. “How is she?” Clare asked.
“Very good. Remarkably well for someone who has endured what Shanna has. She’s talking a lot more than when I first met her, really opening up. You’re who she credits with getting her through the worst of those years. She ‘kept you close,’ as she puts it.”
“We’re doing our best to make up for lost time.”
Latten motioned to Hughes’s office. “Mind if we utilize your space for a minute, Sheriff?”
“Go ahead.”
She followed the doctor into the office while Adam and Hughes remained near the lobby’s archway. Latten pushed the door mostly shut and perched on the only edge of Hughes’s desk that was clear. “I wanted to ask if Shanna has been experiencing any nightmares or terrors.”
“Yes. She had one last night, actually. It was like she was in a trance.”
“That’s common. Many victims experience stress within sleep or sleeplessness in general. Unfortunately, it’s part of the recovery.” He paused, shifting slightly where he sat. “Have you noticed anything else about her behavior? Anything strange?”
“Like what?”
“Like disorientation or bouts of euphoria?”
“No, not really. Other than being in awe of the outside world. Why?”
“It’s the fact of how well she’s doing that’s concerning me. Shanna has undergone extreme duress and in most of the cases I’ve dealt with, victims are much more removed. They retreat into themselves because that’s the only way they know to keep themselves safe. Shanna seems to be opening like a flower instead.”
“I thought you said she was doing very well.”
“And she is. It’s remarkable.” He waited, watching her.
Clare thought of the weeks and months after the night of the fire. How she’d felt outside herself, as if she were someone new slowly becoming aware of the world around her. “You think she’s hiding something?”
“I’m not saying that. People process trauma differently. But regardless, be on the lookout for any signs of overload. The last thing we want is for her to regress. I wasn’t pleased upon learning our good sheriff pressed her into backtracking her escape route.”
“That’s two of us.”
“I understand the necessity, but at what cost to Shanna?” Latten frowned. “In any case, it may have sped along this man’s capture. I believe once he’s apprehended Shanna will begin making even bigger strides. Closure is a powerful thing.”
“Anything else we should be aware of?” she asked.
“Stability is crucial for her recovery. Integration into everyday life should be measured. An overload could cause major setbacks.”
Clare recalled the anxiety Shanna had experienced in the hotel room the day before. “We’ve been trying to take it slow. It’s so hard to know what to say or do sometimes.”
“The most important thing is listening, letting her be the guide going forward. Think of it this way: Shanna’s been lost for years, both in the physical and mental sense. But the idea that just because her body is here doesn’t mean her mind has kept up. She has to find her way out of the woods herself. Your job isn’t to lead her, but to follow and hold her hand when she needs it.”
Clare thought of Shanna’s request that morning and felt a ripple of dread course through her. She imagined them together standing beneath the reaching arms of a dark forest, the sky blotted black with clouds. There would be no signs guiding their way, and the doctor didn’t need to worry about her trying to lead Shanna out of the dark, because she was lost as well. They would have to find their way out together.
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“You’re welcome. I’d like to continue to see her for as long as she is in the area, and is comfortable with me treating her. I assume eventually you will take her home with you, but until then she will need support.”
“Of course.”
“She’s very strong. She’s going to make it. You both are.”
As they left city hall and walked toward Adam’s rental she watched her sister—how she drank the world in with her eyes, how some color had returned to her features.
When they’d climbed inside the SUV Adam glanced at her, starting the engine. “Hotel?”
Clare sat for a time, gazing out at the sun-dappled buildings, the way the breeze nudged some of the scarlet leaves from a maple down the street. She heard Adam say her name and she turned, finding Shanna’s steady gaze on her as well. “Not yet. We have to go somewhere else first.”
Chapter Thirty-One
The road leading to the Refuge reminded Clare of a clogged artery.
Washed out in places and overgrown, the drive was slowly returning to nature’s embrace. After only a hundred yards Adam had to lock in the SUV’s four-wheel drive, the tires thudding over exposed rocks and fallen limbs. Clare gripped the door handle tightly, partially to keep herself steady amidst the rough terrain, but mostly because the voice in her head had been right.
She was terrified.
Shanna had been visibly thankful after Clare directed Adam north out of town, the city streets giving way to cracked pavement, then to gravel. Despite her sister’s appreciation, Clare still wasn’t sure it was the correct choice. Dr. Latten’s warnings about an overload continued to toll like a bell in her mind. Maybe Shanna believed seeing the place where they’d spent the first decade of their lives would put something to rest for her. Clare hoped so. As far as she was concerned, if she never laid eyes on it again it would be too soon.
“So you donated it to the state?” Adam asked as they navigated around and partially over the top of a fallen pine tree. Its branches crackled like dry bones beneath the tires.
Clare’s mouth was dry. She glanced at the center console but there was no water bottle there like she typically kept in her own vehicle. “Yeah. It came to me and I had the paperwork drawn up for the state to take it over about the same time we moved out of town.” Behind them the deputy piloting a cruiser followed Adam’s path around the partial blockade.