Vanished

SIX

Day two, 1:00 p.m.: Ashley missing forty-two and a half hours

J.T. hurried to the nearest phone in the large outer room.

“Line one.” Madison stood to his side.

“Put a trace on this call.” J.T. lifted the receiver, his hand tight about the cold plastic to keep it from trembling.

“We’re on it.” Madison placed a pad and pencil on the desk.

Although the call would be recorded, J.T. appreciated the paper in case he wanted to take notes. Phone to ear, he said, “J. T. Logan here.”

There was a pause of several seconds, then a mechanical voice, rough, deep sounding, came across the wire. “I’ll say this one time only. I want a hundred thousand dollars in small bills in exchange for your daughter. I’ll call you again in a couple of hours to tell you where to bring it. Just in case you’ve forgotten what’s at stake here. Listen.”

J.T.’s grip tightened even more.

Then he heard his youngest daughter’s voice. “Daddy, where are you?”

Click.

“No!” The connection ended before he could say anything to Ashley. His baby had been only a phone call away.

His numbed fingers opened, and the receiver crashed to the desktop. Ashley’s anguish-filled words echoed through his mind. He would never forget them or the fear that vibrated through each word. He leaned into the desk to keep himself upright. His fingers dug into its wooden edge as he tried to bring his emotions under control enough to speak.

“Did we get a location?” Madison asked for him.

Rachel stood up from her computer. “He used a landline. We didn’t have enough time. The only thing we got was the call was made from somewhere in Crystal Springs.”

“He’s here,” J.T. whispered, and lowered his head for a few seconds while he fought the overwhelming anger that seized him. “Ashley’s here.”

“Maybe. Ashley’s voice could have been recorded. She might not be with the man. He may be here only long enough to get his money and then be gone. What are you going to do about the money?”

Madison’s question forced him to quash all the emotions that would stand in his way of doing his job. J.T. straightened and faced her, reassured by her calm tone and serene expression. “Find it somehow. I’ll start with the bank.”

Kim moved toward him. “What did the kidnapper say, Daddy?”

J.T. glanced back at his daughter, her eyes large, her face so white he was afraid she would faint. This was why she shouldn’t be down here. He wanted to shelter her as much as possible, but it was too late. “He wants a hundred thousand dollars.”

“A hundred thousand!”

He rounded on Kim, grasped her shoulders and brought her close, hoping to convince her Ashley would be all right and praying he was right. “This is a good thing. He’s opening up a dialogue with us. If he’s motivated by money, it might be easier to get Ashley back. And because he called, we know he’s somewhere in the area, not several states away.”

“Yes, but do we have that kind of money?” Kim tightened her arms about J.T.

“Honey, you don’t need to worry about that.”

As the front door opened and Susan entered with several sacks of food from the café, Neil stepped forward. “Can I do anything?”

J.T. gave a shake of his head, then turned to Madison. “Will you take the kids to Emma and Colin’s? When Kirk comes in, I’ll send him over to relieve you.” He trusted his deputies and Madison to keep his children safe, and right now that was paramount to him if he was going to do his job.

“Yes, of course.”

“Dad, I’ve got my car.”

“With the kidnapper so close I would prefer someone with you.” When Neil started to say something more, J.T. continued, “Please, son. I don’t want to have to worry about you and Kim while I’m trying to put together the money.”

Neil nodded once, a frown on his face.

J.T. took hold of Kim’s shoulders again and kneaded them. “Honey, I’m afraid you’ll have to spend another night at the Fitzpatricks’. I’m sorry, but I’ll have to be here until the ransom has been dropped off, until—” the last words lumped together in his throat and he couldn’t get them out “—until Ashley is released.” He couldn’t think of what would happen if she wasn’t. This was his chance to get his daughter back.

“I’ll get my things.” Kim’s shoulders sagged.

“I’ll let you and your brother know as soon as I find out anything.” J.T. peered at Kim until she gave a slight nod in acknowledgment.

While his daughter went back into the break room for her purse and iPod, Madison closed the space between her and J.T. “How long do you think it will be before Kirk returns?”

“Maybe an hour or so. He went to Central City to check out that abandoned car. It might be the one Mrs. Goldsmith saw leaving the area. Right now we need every clue we can get. Let’s hope it pans out.” He moved into her personal space and lowered his voice. “I have to know my children are safe. With you I do. I know you want to be in the middle of the ransom drop, but I trust you and Kirk to take care of Kim and Neil. He’s been with me almost from the beginning, he and Ted.”

She gave him a half smile. “You don’t need to worry about them. Concentrate on getting the money put to gether. I’ll return to help when Kirk gets to your house.” She laid her hand on his arm. “Kim and Neil will be fine.”

With Madison’s reassurances J.T. realized his children would be okay. As he watched her gather up her purse and wait for Kim, he thanked God for her presence these past two days. She had kept him sane in an insane situation.

Confusion in her expression, Susan approached. “What happened?”

“There’s been a ransom demand.” J.T. looked toward the break room.

“How much, boss?” Susan laid several sacks on the desk and gave one to Madison.

“A hundred thousand.” J.T. watched his daughter trudge toward him.

His secretary whistled. “I have a couple of hundred dollars. You can have it.”

Madison turned toward him while Kim and Neil walked toward the front door. “I have some money saved, too. Just let me know. It’s not much, but it’s a few thousand.”

“Thanks, you two, but let me see what I can come up with first.”

A hundred thousand! The equity in his house wasn’t nearly that much. He didn’t know how he was going to come up with the amount in such a short time. But if he had to, he would go door-to-door asking for donations.

Lord, help me!

Day two, 3:30 p.m.: Ashley missing forty-five hours

“A hundred thousand dollars!” Emma picked up her glass of iced tea and came to the table. “Does J.T. have that kind of money?”

Madison slid her gaze toward the doorway, not wanting Kim or Neil to hear. The kids were in the den with Emma and Colin’s twin teenage daughters, making more posters while Madison was talking with Emma about how Kim and Neil were holding up. “I don’t think so. I called a few minutes ago and Matthew said J.T. hadn’t gotten all the money together yet.”

After putting her drink on the table, Emma crossed the room to the desk, picked up the phone and dialed. “Dad, I don’t know if you’ve heard but J. T. Logan’s little girl was kidnapped the day before yesterday.”

Madison remembered meeting Emma’s father last year. He was a wealthy businessman who lived in Chicago.

“Yes, it has been hard on everyone. J.T. finally received a ransom demand today for a hundred thousand dollars and—” Emma stopped in midsentence, her eyebrows slashing downward as she listened to what her father said. Suddenly her expression changed to a full-fledged smile. “I knew I could count on you, Dad. J.T. will appreciate it as will everyone in Crystal Springs. Thanks.”

Emma swung her attention to Madison. “Dad’s donating the money for the ransom. I’ll let J.T. know so he doesn’t have to worry about that. He has enough on his mind at the moment.” She pressed the button on her phone to disconnect her call to her father then punched in another number. “This is Emma. I need to speak to J.T.”

Silence filled the kitchen while Madison suspected someone was getting J.T. She tuned out Emma and thought about the fact there was a ransom demand made almost two days after Ashley disappeared. That was unusual. Why so late? Had the kidnapper taken Ashley somewhere else and then come back here? Was the child alive? Abandoned? Maybe the abductor killed Ashley so he was trying to get something out of it since he no longer had the little girl. She hated the direction her thoughts were taking her, but these questions needed to be considered, even proposed to J.T.

When Emma hung up, a smile graced her lips. “At least I could help J.T. in one area.”

Madison glanced down at her watch. “The kidnapper should be calling back soon.”

“And you want to be there when he does.”

Although it wasn’t a question, Madison answered, “Yes. I’m flattered J.T. wants me guarding Neil and Kim, but I want to be there for…” Suddenly she realized what she was admitting by saying, “for him.”

She cared more than a colleague should. Three years ago she had been engaged and at the church for her wedding when she’d discovered her fiancé had gotten cold feet and called off their wedding. In the end he hadn’t been able to accept the profession she had dedicated her life to and he’d known he wouldn’t be able to change her mind about being a police officer. At least she hadn’t been standing at the altar when he had backed out of getting married, but she could still remember facing her guests and telling them she wasn’t going to become Mrs. Brent Harrison that day. In that moment when the pain of rejection had overwhelmed her, she had decided it was best to go through life alone. Now her feelings for J.T. were making her question that decision.

Kim entered the kitchen. Confusion clouded her expression.

How much had Kim overheard of her conversation with Emma? “Did you get a lot of posters made?”

Kim shrugged. “I suppose so.” Just inside the doorway, she surveyed the room. Her teeth dug into her lower lip. “What if Dad can’t pay the ransom?”

Emma took a sip from her tea. “That won’t be a problem. My father is donating the money.”

“I’ve seen shows on TV where the kidnappers warn the people about bringing in the police.”

“Kinda hard to do that since your dad is the sheriff.” Madison rose. She knew the direction Kim’s thoughts were taking and hoped to put a stop to them. “The kidnapper didn’t say anything about not bringing in the police or FBI.”

“Why not? That seems strange.”

“Not everything is like on TV.” Madison walked toward Kim, not wanting to get into all the odd aspects of the case.

Emotions flickered across the teen’s face. First puzzlement, then doubt before resignation settled on her features. “I guess you’re right. I still think it’s odd, though.”

“Maybe he’s challenging us.” Emma sat again at the table. “Some criminals like to do that because they think they’re better, smarter than the police and the FBI.”

To Madison the whole case had a strange feel to it. She couldn’t quite figure out what bothered her, but she would. It was too important not to.

The doorbell chimes penetrated the silence.

“I’ll get it,” Grace called from the hallway.

Madison heard a male voice, then a few seconds later Kirk appeared in the doorway. Relieved to see him, she snatched up her purse, but before taking her leave, she stopped in front of Kim. “Your dad knows what he’s doing. I’ve worked with many police and sheriff departments, and this one is run efficiently because of J.T. which gives us a good chance of getting Ashley back safely.”

The teenager crossed her arms and dropped her gaze away. “I know.”

But Kim’s body language negated her words, and Madison wasn’t sure what else to say to the teen to alleviate her guilt and doubts. Only Ashley’s return would do that. Maybe the ransom would work. Sometimes it did.

Father, please let this be over soon. I don’t know how much more J.T. and his family can take.

In the living room Madison pulled Kirk to the side. “What about the car?”

“It had to be the car Mrs. Goldsmith described. The partial license plate number matches and it’s metallic blue. The Central City police have dusted for fingerprints but so far haven’t found any matches other than the owners’. It was abandoned in a field outside of town with the CD player gone as well as a case of CDs. There isn’t much else. No one saw anything in the area. The nearest house was half a mile away.”

“No evidence that Ashley was in the car?”

“None the police found. There are some unknown fingerprints inside. They just aren’t in the database.”

“Thanks. Maybe something will turn up later.”

Anxious to get to the sheriff’s office, Madison hurried toward the foyer. Neil stood next to Grace near the front door. His solemn eyes—eyes that reminded her of J.T.’s—connected with hers.

“Please let us know what’s going on. The hardest part of all this is not knowing.”

“Neil, I’ll call when I have some news. I promise.”

As the door closed behind her, Madison hugged her arms to her, a tremor rippling down her body. Bright sunlight contradicted the mood of the town. A pall hung over Crystal Springs.

As she made her way to her car, a bird trilled in a nearby oak, lush with green leaves. Last year she had admired the cleanliness and well-kept feel of Crystal Springs. She’d even thought it would be a nice place to retire one day. Scanning the landscape, she saw the same tidy lawns, recently painted houses and beds teeming with flowers. Nothing had changed, and yet everything had.

An evil presence had invaded Crystal Springs. Quaking, she slipped behind her steering wheel. For a second she thought of switching on the heater even though the temperature outside was in the low seventies. Coldness embedded deep in her bones as though the wickedness wrapped itself around her.

Day three, 10:30 p.m.: Ashley missing fifty-two hours

Blackness shrouded the terrain before J.T. He focused on the pain shooting down his back from the tightly corded muscles in his neck and shoulders. Any thing to take his mind off his mounting doubt—and fear this wouldn’t work.

He hefted the duffel bag from the backseat of his Jeep. The sound of his car door slamming closed echoed through the eerie quiet. He couldn’t even hear the water lapping against the shore ten yards away because the night was so motionless. There was not a wisp of a breeze, as if everything had come to a standstill and was waiting.

The hairs on his nape stood up. He was being watched by the Feds, but who else? This whole setup didn’t feel right. After receiving the second call from the kidnapper, they’d had hours to stake out the drop-off point. It was pitch black out here now, but something else was going on, he was sure of it.

At least Neil and Kim were being guarded not only by Kirk but also Rachel at the Fitzpatricks’. So if this had been a ploy to get to his other children, it wasn’t going to work.

A cloud slithered across the half-moon. J.T. switched on his flashlight. With no town lights nearby on this remote part of the lake, he carefully picked his way toward the shoreline. Something caught his boot and he stumbled forward. Catching himself, he directed the beam of light at his feet, his fear rising to lodge in his throat. A large root stuck out of the ground. Relief washed over him and his rigid stance sagged for a few seconds. He stepped over the obstacle and continued to move forward.

At the edge of the lake J.T. stared out over the water. His flashlight illuminated its smooth surface near him. He knew one team of agents was out on the lake nearby in case the kidnapper came by boat while the other two were on land. In addition to those teams, there were more at a distance, forming a wide perimeter around this location on the water and land.

As instructed, J.T. plopped the bag at the foot of a large pine three feet from the water, then began to retrace his steps to his Jeep. The kidnapper hadn’t said anything about not bringing in the police, but he had made it clear that if he didn’t get the money and get back to Ashley, she would die. That was why he had insisted that the Feds not touch the man when he took the bag of money. They were hidden well. Would it work? Could they track the kidnapper to where Ashley was being held—if the man even returned to her?

The hardest thing he had to do in all this was to drive away and not stay to see what happened, not to be involved in the stakeout. He had made Madison promise to call him immediately with any news while he sat at his office, as per the kidnapper’s instructions to him. As he pulled onto the highway leading into town, he wanted so badly to double back, but if the kidnapper was watching him, that could cost Ashley her life. He kept his Jeep pointed toward Crystal Springs. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly they hurt, intensifying the pain and leaving a burning trail down his back.

Day three, 1:30 a.m.: Ashley missing fifty-five hours

Her muscles locked in place, Madison maneuvered to ease the ache in her legs from squatting for hours. Her arms felt as though they weighed a ton from holding up the night-vision binoculars. A thicket of brush surrounded her. The scent of damp vegetation tickled her nose and several times she’d had to catch herself before sneezing because of the moldy odor.

“There’s movement out on the water. A boat.” A voice came through her earpiece. She swung the binoculars over the lake, visible from her vantage point. In the distance a craft came toward the shore at a fast speed. Suddenly when it was only twenty or so feet away, the boat veered to the right and made a tight U-turn.

“We’ve been spotted. Do you want us to follow the boat?”

“Stay put. I’ll radio the others around the lake to pick up the boat and follow it at a distance. It could be a trick,” Matthew Hendricks answered the two agents on the water.

She swung her binoculars to the base of the pine tree. The bag of money was still there. The roar of the speedboat’s engine faded in the distance. One of the teams patrolling the perimeter of the lake would pick up the craft and discover where it was headed. Until they heard back, they had to stay and stake out the money.

Again Madison moved to make herself more comfortable. A limb stuck into her back. She scooted forward away from the pointy branch. It was going to be a long night.

Day three, 4:30 a.m.: Ashley missing fifty-eight hours

J.T. slammed down the phone. The kidnapper got spooked, and the money was still sitting in the bag on the beach under the tree six hours after he’d made the drop.

He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, then rubbed them down his face. Ashley was doomed.

They couldn’t even find a trace of the speedboat that was used. Gone. Vanished into thin air, just like Ashley. He realized there were miles and miles of shoreline, but still the FBI had enough teams to cover the area.

What had gone wrong?

He’d taken a risk with his daughter’s life, and he’d lost.

With elbows on his desk, J.T. buried his face in his hands, his eyes burning from another night without any rest. He didn’t know if he would ever really get a good night’s sleep again. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Ashley’s face and heard her last words to him.

Daddy, where are you?

He collapsed back in his chair. Instead of being stuck here waiting, he should have been out there. Then maybe they would have found the speedboat. He knew the area better than most.

Drop off the money, leave immediately and go back to your office to wait for my call to tell you where Ashley is. He’d never forget the kidnapper’s last instructions before cutting the connection. He’d done what he was supposed to do, and yet no Ashley.

Lord, where are You?

Suddenly for the first time in six years the urge to find a store and buy any kind of alcoholic beverage he could get inundated him. He fished the keys to his Jeep out of his front pocket. The hand that held them quivered. He curled it into a fist and brought it to his lap.

Drinking wouldn’t bring Ashley back. It would only dull the pain temporarily. He’d found that out the hard way six years ago.

Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.

He could still remember those words being shouted at him by his wife, Lindsay, not hours before she was hit by a car while walking off her anger at him. The police had never found who had struck her, but even if they had, he couldn’t have blamed that person for his wife’s death. Not really. The guilt was his. She’d been out walking after dark, so angry she probably wasn’t even paying attention to her surroundings. And he was the one who had made her that angry.

When Lindsay had been killed, he’d thought he had hit rock bottom. But he hadn’t. He’d still had a ways to go in order to begin the climb up out of the abyss he was in. It had taken waking up one day in an alley, beaten, unable to remember how he had even gotten there to realize he had a problem. Thankfully he had hired an excellent live-in housekeeper to watch his children because what had started out as an occasional drink had become an addiction for him. All he had craved was alcohol to the exclusion of his work and family.

J.T. stuffed the keys back in his front pocket. No, he couldn’t fall apart right now. Ashley was still alive—she had to be—and needed him to find her.

A soft rap at his door brought him around. “Come in.”

Madison entered his office, tiny lines of exhaustion feathering outward from her blue eyes, flat from lack of sleep. “Matthew ordered me to get some rest. Of course, that’s nearly impossible with all that happened. He left half the teams in place, but he figures with dawn approaching the kidnapper isn’t going to show up.” She plopped in the chair to the side of his desk, an arm’s length away. “Actually he’s pretty sure we scared him totally away.”

“How in the world did that happen? I thought you were going to be concealed.” He heard the savage ring to his words and clamped his jaws together to keep from saying anything more that he would regret.

“We were. I think the kidnapper had night-vision goggles like we did. That’s about the only way he could have seen the agents in the boat hidden behind that abandoned dock. It was pitch-dark out there on the water.”

“How did he escape the other boats?”

Madison lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t know. You would think this guy knows something we don’t. It’s as if he just vanished on the lake. A figment of our imaginations.”

“Could anyone see him? Make out any of his features?”

She shook her head. “He wore a black ski mask or something like that. It was hard to tell.” She massaged the knot of tension forming on the side of her neck. “He may still call again.”

J.T. shot her a piercing look. “Who are you kidding? Our chance is over. We—I blew it.”

“I don’t understand this whole situation. He waited two days to ask for a ransom. He had you leave the money in an isolated part of the lake with a lot of hiding places to conceal us. He gave us hours to get set up to wait for him. Either this man is very dumb, which I don’t believe, or he is up to something else I haven’t been able to figure out.”

“How about to torment me further?”

“Maybe. That would fit in with someone you put away in prison.”

“Yes, it does.” J.T. scraped his hand over the stubble of his three-day-old beard. He knew he looked a sight, but he just didn’t care. “I need to tell Kim and Neil what happened.”

“I’d like to come with you.”

“You should get that rest your boss ordered you to get.”

“It isn’t gonna happen. You should get some yourself.”

“It isn’t gonna happen.” He shoved to his feet. “I don’t want to wake them if they actually went to sleep last night. Care to walk to Emma and Colin’s? I could use the fresh air. Maybe it will clean out the cobwebs in my mind.”

“That might do me some good, too. Crouching in that thicket most of the night made me stiff all over. Walking should help loosen me up again.”

J.T. offered her his hand. The softness of her skin against his jolted him and caused him to pull harder than he should have. Madison came up too fast and nearly knocked him back into his chair. He managed to catch himself and steady her against him. He took a deep breath. The scent of apples and cinnamon surrounded him. An interesting combination. Again he was reminded of a piece of apple pie.

The realization he continued to hold her longer than necessary stunned him momentarily. What was he doing? Quickly he separated from her, trying not to inhale too deeply. Her scent was playing havoc with his senses, making him think of picnics and warm summer days, making him forget for a heartbeat that his daughter had been abducted. “Ready?”

Madison blinked. Puzzlement creased her forehead. “Yeah.”

Her slow response made him wonder if she had felt that brief connection and been just as surprised by it. He followed her out of his office, noting the almost-deserted station.

Derek stood at the counter, near the phone, reading the newspaper. The deputy glanced at J.T. and straightened. “Sir, is there anything you want me to do?”

“I’m heading to the reverend’s to see my children. I want you to forward any calls I receive to my cell phone.”

“Will do.”

As Madison reached out to open the front door, someone pushed it in. Elizabeth and her son entered, ready to clean the place. Surprise flickered across the older woman’s face.

“You’re here early. Or did you even go home last night, J.T.?” Elizabeth handed her son the container of cleaning supplies and he walked toward the back.

“I’ve been working, but I’m heading out right now.”

“Any progress on finding Ashley?”

“We’re working on it.” Tension threaded his response as he placed his hand at the small of Madison’s back and directed her out the door.

When J.T. stepped onto the sidewalk, rosy orange streaks fanned out across the eastern sky. The gray light of dawn muted the landscape, and the quiet of a town still asleep contrasted with what had gone on the night before.

Madison looked up and down the street. “You would never think that a kidnapping occurred here. It seems so peaceful, the perfect place.”

“There’s no perfect place.”

“Yes, there is but not here on earth.”

J.T. strode down the sidewalk that ran the length of Lakeshore Drive. “After giving myself to Christ six years ago, I didn’t think anything could shake my faith. Well, I was wrong.”

Madison stopped, forcing J.T. to do likewise. He turned toward her, bleakness erasing any gleam from his eyes. “Don’t give up hope. This is the time to cling to Christ. He’s your salvation.”

J.T. expelled a long breath. “I know. But when I heard my little girl asking where I was—” he laid his hand on his chest “—it felt as though my heart shattered into hundreds of pieces.” His voice broke. He swallowed several times. “The pain was unbearable. Why didn’t the kidnapper come after me? I’m the one he’s angry with. Ashley has nothing to do with it.”

“As much as I wish it weren’t so, the innocent often suffer. God is with her.”

“It didn’t sound like it on that tape.” J.T. started forward again.

Madison bled for him. She reached out and placed her hand on his arm. He glanced back, agony in every line on his face. “God is with her and you.”

“Six years ago when I was drinking heavily after my wife’s death, I thought I couldn’t go any lower. Again, I was wrong. This is rock bottom.”

Drinking heavily. The words knifed through Madison. Her past held her in a haunting nightmare for a few seconds before she realized she wasn’t a little girl living in Chicago, but grown and in Crystal Springs.

“Right before you came in, I almost left to find something to drink. I wanted to, but I can’t. Not if I’m going to find Ashley. What if she’s lost to me? I don’t know if I can fight the urge…” His words came to a quivering halt.

Madison planted herself in front of him and took hold of his hands. “Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t try to second-guess what might happen. You’re strong. You’ll deal with it for Kim and Neil’s sakes. You have people here who will help you.”

His gaze drilled into her. “You’re the first person I’ve told about my alcoholism. I don’t like sharing that past life with anyone. Kim and Neil don’t even know all that I went through.”

“Don’t kid yourself. Your children are sharp. They knew.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Well, maybe Neil knew something was going on, but I was careful not to around them.”

“Probably Kim did, too. I don’t usually talk about my past, either. My father was an alcoholic, and he never kicked the habit. He drank until the day he died. His liver failed him.”

“How old were you?”

“Twelve. I knew, had for years.”

J.T. began to walk again, clasping Madison’s hand. “You know the part about drinking that was the worst?”

“No.” She didn’t know if she wanted to hear the answer. The whole subject of the conversation was too painful.

“The loneliness. I lost all connections with others. I lived for the next drink. It numbed my feelings to the point that I didn’t feel at all.”

“You can only run so long from your emotions.” She’d done her share of avoiding her feelings, especially after her father’s and later her brother’s death. As a teenager she had rebelled until she’d gotten herself in a situation where she’d had to decide whether she was going to follow the crowd she hung with and do drugs or say no to what they offered her. Thankfully she turned to her family’s minister and found a place for herself in God’s house.

“Yeah, I know you eventually hit a brick wall. When I finally started A.A., I had to face everyone in the group. That’s when I sought God’s guidance.”

“And He was there for you through that journey.”

“I wouldn’t have made it without Him. These past six years I’ve been trying my best to make it up to my children.” As J.T. passed a bench on the outskirts of the park, he gestured to it. “Want to sit? I think it’s still too early to see the kids.”

“That would be nice. My mind wants to keep going. My body is saying slow down.”

Madison sat next to J.T., their hands no longer clasped. She missed the physical connection that had offered her some solace as their conversation plunged her into her past. Finding out that J.T. was a recovering alcoholic shook her more than she cared to admit. The day before when he had said something about his problem, she’d pushed it away successfully, not able to deal with it at that moment. She never wanted to live as she had growing up with her father and his problem. It nearly destroyed her and her family.

The rosy orange streaks faded into the blue of the sky as the sun peeked over the horizon. A male cardinal flew overhead, followed by its mate. They perched on a branch of an elm tree that shaded the bench. The scent of some honeysuckle bushes to the left sprinkled the air with their sweetness. Any other time she would appreciate the beauty around her.