Daniel looked at Marisol.
She considered the question, then said, “If everything is approved and the people caring for you agree, we can try to arrange a visit.”
Daniel appreciated the careful wording.
No promises that depended on somebody else’s authority.
Emma noticed too.
“Try is different from promise,” she said.
Marisol’s eyes softened.
“Yes.
It is.”
Emma nodded as though filing that away.
Before leaving, Daniel gave his contact information to the officer and to Marisol in case they needed clarification about what he had witnessed at the freight yard.
He did not ask to become part of the girls’ case.
He did not imagine himself their rescuer.
He had found them.
Then he had done the next necessary thing.
And then, when leaving would have been easier, he had stayed long enough to make sure somebody actually listened.
At the door, Emma called his name.
Daniel turned.
She stood beneath a borrowed blanket several sizes too large, Grace beside her.
“You said you wouldn’t let anything happen without asking questions first.”
Daniel remembered the promise exactly.
“I did.”
Emma glanced toward Claire’s folder on the desk.
Then she looked back at him.
“They asked questions.”
It was not gratitude.
Not exactly.
It sounded more like surprise.
Daniel nodded.
“They did.”
That seemed to satisfy her.
He stepped outside with Rex into the rain.
The storm had weakened to a cold drizzle.
Gray Haven’s streets were almost empty as Daniel drove back toward the abandoned freight district to finish the report his employer would require.
The shipping container was still there when he returned.
Of course it was.
Rust did not disappear because something terrible had happened beside it.
Rainwater still ran down its walls.
The door still hung crookedly open.
Inside, Daniel’s flashlight found the place where the twins had been sitting.
Nothing about the space looked remarkable.
That disturbed him most.
Two children had chosen this place because, in their minds, it had offered something home did not.
Distance.
A hiding place.
A door they could watch.
Rex walked inside and sniffed the floor where Grace had held onto him.
Then the dog looked back at Daniel.
“Yeah,” Daniel murmured.
He completed his report carefully.
Not lost children.
Children intentionally hiding.
Not found wandering.
Found sheltering inside abandoned property.
Not merely reluctant to return home.
Expressed fear of their father.
