24. Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jake
Nothing could have prepared Jake for the overwhelming emotions he’d felt watching the scene unfold in front of him. Hell, nothing could have prepared him for the entire last half hour or the entire last week. But watching Shirley Davis’s tears as she’d hugged her son for the first time in fifteen years . . .
Yeah. Nothing could have ever prepared him for that.
He’d known Shirley since he’d moved to town five years ago, but he’d had no idea she was the mother of the young boy who’d gone missing in 2009, disappeared as he’d been walking home from school. And that... that was also unbelievable.
Rye was Ryan Henry Davis. The Ryan Henry Davis that Jake so clearly remembered hearing about, watching news stories about.
The knots in Jake’s stomach twisted more as he stood off to the side of the room, watching Rye bury his head into his mom’s messy hair, his whole body trembling with sobs. It wasn’t lost on Jake that the last time Rye had hugged his mom, he’d probably barely reached the top of her shoulders, if that. Now, Rye was two or three inches taller than her. An adult. An adult who’d had his childhood stolen right out from under him.
And it also wasn’t lost on Jake how incredibly, incredibly huge this moment was.
He’d had no idea. No fucking idea. Even his wildest speculations over the last week hadn’t brought him anywhere near this truth.
Rachel and Sue stood back from Shirley and Rye several feet, tears in their eyes. Sue’s hand covered her mouth, and she was shaking her head lightly, just watching. Wayne had his arms crossed over his chest as he half sat on one of the desks. And hell, even he looked misty-eyed.
Wayne caught Jake’s eye and tipped his head toward the office, then pushed away from the desk quietly. After a moment of hesitation, Jake followed, limping slowly around the back of the desk and then toward the office. When they got there, Wayne shut the door behind him and let out a long breath, running his hand through his thinning gray hair.
“Well, hell, Jake. This is wild. Never in a million years...” The older man’s gruff voice sounded even rougher than normal now, and he cleared his throat with a short cough.
Grimacing, Jake leaned back a bit against the wall to take some of the weight off his bad leg. “I remember watching the news when I was a kid, but I can’t even imagine...” He shook his head. “You all went through that, right here?”
“It was hell. Christ, Rachel was still new here, and she was on call alone that afternoon. It’d been such a quiet day. Then everything went to shit. We looked everywhere. Hell, we had everyone in the whole town lookin’ for that kid. And then everyone in the county! Detectives and investigators came in from all over. The FBI showed up. Goddammit, where the hell has he been all these years?” Wayne blew out another breath and slumped down into his chair as though feeling all of the defeated exhaustion he must have lived through fifteen years ago.
Jake swallowed hard, his gut twisting. Just the mere thought of where Rye had been... He didn’t even want to imagine, and yet, pieces started to fall into place. His voice caught as he spoke. “Wherever it was, Wayne, it had to have been worse than awful.”
“Yeah, you said as much. He’s terrified of near everything and won’t talk?”
“That’s, uh, the lightest way to put it.” Odd moments from the last week jumped back into focus. And suddenly, it was painfully clear why Rye had gotten so agitated when he’d found out it was November of 2024 . “Ah, fuck. He didn’t know what year it was, Wayne.”
“What?” Wayne was rubbing the bridge of his nose now as he stared down at a file on his desk—one of those old manila file folders marked with the logo of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department.
“He didn’t know what year it was. He was looking through my Nat Geo magazines on my bookshelf, and he pulled out the most recent one. He didn’t pick it because of the articles or the image on the cover. Dammit, why couldn’t I...” Jake balled his hand up into a fist and exhaled a frustrated breath. He should have known sooner that there was something worse going on than just... a man in trouble or whatever explanation Jake had ended up settling on in his head. “He picked the most recent one and then brought it over to me and...”
“He wanted to know the date?”
Jake nodded, and then he turned and looked out the small window of the office back toward the main room. They hadn’t moved. Rye was still hugging his mom, who didn’t seem able to let go of her son. Or maybe it was even the other way around.
God. Goddammit. He should have known. He could have gotten them back together days sooner. They’d have called out the coast guard for this, no question. Or heck, even just Hal with his string of boats for rent, like Krista had suggested that very first day.
“And we’ve got nothing else? He hasn’t told you anything?”
Jake shifted to look back at Wayne, shaking his head. “Nothing. I tried a couple of times, but he doesn’t talk much, and anytime I brought anything up, it was...”
“Upsetting?”
With a nod, Jake closed his eyes. “Yeah. Something like that.”
The sound of rustling papers had Jake opening his eyes again. Wayne was staring down at the writing on the top page in the manila folder, shaking his head.
“I’ve gotta call...” Wayne paused and blew out another long breath as he glanced at his watch. “Ah, hell, it’s already after five. I’ve gotta call the county, hopefully Craig is still in. Although I bet they’d send an officer out to his home for this, even if it was the middle of the night. And I need to call Roscoe at the FBI too.”
Jake nodded in response. It all sounded a bit daunting, and yet Jake could still feel all the overwhelming emotions from a few minutes before—all that love and hope and joy from Shirley and the incredible relief from Rye.
The phone calls Wayne had to make were what his sister would call “a good problem to have.”
He inhaled a long, deep breath and shifted uncomfortably. He’d been doing a good job of ignoring the pain heating up his thigh and radiating into his hip, but he couldn’t for much longer. He needed to sit. Soon.
From his seat at his desk, Wayne looked up at Jake, grimacing. “I don’t expect any of us will be sleeping tonight, really. They’ll send people out here right away. And they’re gonna need to question you, and the poor kid.”
Jake frowned. “He’s not a kid anymore, Wayne.”
“Christ, that’s right. Fifteen years. Dammit, he’s twenty-three now, isn’t he?” Wayne’s grimace deepened. “How the hell did we miss this? Where was he all this time?”
They were rhetorical questions, Jake knew, but god, how he wished he could answer them.
“Be soft with him, please, Wayne,” Jake said. “He’s terrified. Whatever happened to him...”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Maybe he’ll talk to Rachel. Or Sue. She should probably do an exam—”
“Pretty sure he’ll refuse that,” Jake cut in, shaking his head. He pushed away from the wall and glanced back out the window to the main room. “And I mean, I’m not one to tell you how to do your job, but...” Jake trailed off, grimacing as he looked to Wayne.
“I know, this needs to be handled delicately. And I’ve never really been known for being delicate. Dammit.” Wayne set his hand on top of the file folder on his desk, one finger tapping roughly on what looked like a date. “Alright, well, do you mind sticking around for a while yet? Or we can just call you to come back in? It might be hours, I suppose, until someone can get here. And that’s assuming...”
Wayne’s sentence faded out without finishing, and he seemed to become lost in thought. Then he was picking up the phone. “I’d better get started on these phone calls. Just don’t go far, okay? And, ah, hell, we don’t know who did this and if they’re still out there.”
Jake’s eyes widened. Holy shit, he hadn’t even considered that. He’d been promising Rye he was safe all this time, when the truth was, they had no idea if that was actually the case.
“Don’t worry,” Wayne said quickly, as though he’d heard Jake’s thoughts. “We’re gonna figure this out, and we’ll make sure he and his mom don’t go anywhere without protection until we do. Rachel and I won’t let anything happen to him. Not again.”
With a short nod, Jake said a quiet “yeah, of course.” Then he hooked a thumb back over his shoulder. “Mind if I head back out there? I need to talk to Sue about something and sit down for a bit.”
“Ah, no, no. Go ahead. I’ve gotta make these phone calls anyway.”
“Thanks, Wayne. Let me know what else I can do to help.”
Wayne nodded, but he was already dialing the phone, and then he sat back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair again.
Jake turned and limped back out into the main room.
“Thanks, Sue. You have no idea how much I appreciate this,” Jake said quietly as he stuffed the small pill bottle she’d just given him into the pocket of his jeans and set his new cane up against the desk next to him.
Sue smiled softly at Jake and then took a seat in the chair to his right. “I might have some idea. You’ve talked to Dr. Snow? ”
“Yeah. I’ve got an appointment set for next week. Cora told me not to worry, but now I’ve got this weakness in my hip. I’m sure it’s just muscle fatigue from this last week, though.” At least, that was his hope.
Sue’s hand set gently on his shoulder for a moment, and she gave him a light squeeze. “From everything you’ve told me, that’s probably right. And I’d tell you to keep taking it easy, but I’m pretty sure you haven’t been taking it easy.”
Jake chuckled and shook his head. “Well, you know me, Sue. And with Rye there the last week, I probably did more than I normally would when my leg’s acting up. It should be, uh...” He was going to say it should be better now. After all, he’d only have to cook for himself and do laundry for himself and take care of himself. But the truth might be something not quite so black-and-white.
“Aw, don’t tell me that you, Jake Wright—the man who has always said he thrives off quiet time and seclusion—are going to miss having a roomie now,” Sue teased with a crooked smile.
And Jake could only roll his eyes and grin back at her as he shook his head. Yeah, the truth was somewhere in the middle. He did love the quiet beach and his home and his life, as much as it wasn’t what he’d always pictured himself doing, but he’d also definitely appreciated having Rye there for the company, despite all the stress and worry, of course.
He tore his eyes away from Sue and looked back across the small room. Rye sat next to his mom on a wooden bench near the front of the building, the tension back in his shoulders as he stared down at his hands, which were clasped tightly in his lap. His mom had her arm around him, and her eyes were red from crying. Rachel had pulled up a chair to sit with them and seemed to be asking Rye questions... that Rye wasn’t really answering.
God. What awful things—
“He sure seems healthier than what you described to me that first day,” Sue said, and when he glanced back at her, she was watching Rye too.
Jake cleared his throat and nodded and then turned his attention back across the room. “Yeah, yeah, for sure. He’s been okay, mostly. Sometimes, uh, he wouldn’t eat. He didn’t have lunch today. I think he was too nervous about coming here. And a couple of times, he had this nasty cough, but it seemed like it was almost more tied to something, uh, emotional, maybe, rather than him being sick.” After a pause, Jake added, “I’m not sure he’d agree to a checkup, but...”
“Yeah, I expect not. Though, given what you just said, I’d really like to listen to his lungs and make sure there’s nothing going on. Pneumonia can hit hard, and it’s easy to do a round of antibiotics to stop an infection if there’s something there. ”
That thought made Jake’s stomach drop. “Maybe I can talk to him. Convince him. If he refuses, I mean.”
Sue nodded, and then they both sat in silence again, watching as Rachel continued trying to talk to Rye. Rye looked to be getting progressively agitated, though, and Jake was just about to stand up and intervene or something, when Rachel said, “That’s okay, Rye. We’ll try again later, when you’re ready, okay?” Rachel’s eyes met Jake’s for the briefest moment before focusing back on Rye, but Jake could both see and feel her concern.
Rye kept his chin down as he blinked several times and then squeezed his eyes shut again. His arms moved to clutch at his stomach, and he seemed to shrink in on himself a little more.
But then he nodded. And he pulled his feet up onto the bench, wrapped his arms around his legs, and buried his head down into his knees as he trembled.