Chapter 4 #2
“Yes. He has a Superman tattoo on his forearm that he got when he was sixteen to remind himself that he could do anything.”
Ava nodded. “Do you use the tattoo to signal safety?”
“I guess. I hadn’t thought of that way, but you’re right. I know that Andy’s not going to harm me in anyway. So he feels comforting, so does Cassidy, and I can tell you’re wearing Daisy by Marc Jacobs…I like that.”
“Good, you’re building a new normal for yourself,” Ava said. “When you feel the memories of the cabin creeping in, remember the routine and people and the smiles here. Go through your day here in the hospital. That will ground you here. Make this start to feel like your new normal.”
Fern nodded. They spoke some more about other things she could do when she felt herself slipping into the past. “Are you sure you’re up to talking to Officer Benally?”
“As long as you are here with me,” Fern said.
She left Ava to go and get Chay. He waited for her in the floor waiting area. Her first thought was of that almost kiss they’d shared in her foyer. It took her a minute to realize she was staring at his mouth. Finally she tore her eyes away, but not before he lifted one eyebrow at her.
She just shook her head at him.
“She’s…go gently. I’m not sure how much information you’ll get from her. If I see that it’s causing her any kind of agitation, I will ask you to stop and leave.”
“Of course. I don’t want to make anything worse. I just need to hear from her what she remembers.”
The hospital room had two guest chairs, and Fern invited him to sit down in the one that was farthest from the bed. Ava pulled a chair up between him and Fern. Fern looked so small on the bed.
It reminded Chay of how he’d felt when his mom left. He pulled out his notebook to distract himself from that unpleasant memory.
“Thank you for meeting with me,” he said.
“You’re welcome. I really don’t want to talk about what happened, but I also don’t want anyone else to go through what I did,” Fern said.
“That’s what we are all hoping to avoid. In the report—” he glanced down at his phone, where he had her statement up “—you mentioned you were walking out of your office…”
“Yes. I’d finished working.”
“What do you do, or did you do?”
“I’m a medical coder,” she said.
“Did you notice anything odd in any of the transcribing you had done? Make a report to anyone?” Chay asked.
Ava watched him work, which made him want to impress her.
He’d had time to gather his thoughts while he’d waited for the appointment.
One of the things he’d learned from his mentor was to be methodical.
Slowly work through every detail. It had led to a record number of arrests and convictions for the perpetrators that Chay arrested.
“No. Nothing like that. I don’t believe it was work related…them taking me,” she said.
“Probably not, but better to cover all bases. Who is your boss at work?”
Fern gave him the name; he jotted it down.
“Had you been out and maybe rubbed anyone the wrong way?”
“Uh, I didn’t really ever go out. I had lunch with some work colleagues at Chili’s at Christmas, and that’s about it. I’d made two runs to the library to pick up books and DVDs I’d put a hold in for.”
Chay jotted that down.
“Okay, so, the men who took you. Did you notice them at all before the day they abducted you, perhaps turning up in places you frequent?” he asked.
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her body.
For a minute she closed her eyes, breathing deeply, and Ava leaned closer to the other woman.
The tension left Fern’s body and she opened her eyes.
“No. I didn’t see them when they took me, either.
I heard a van pull up behind me. I was grabbed…
it was terrifying… I tried to get free.”
Chay felt compassion for the ordeal that Fern had survived. She went on to tell him that she couldn’t see anything when they dumped her in the van. She kicked and hit out at them but felt the prick of a needle and got drowsy as her hands and feet were bound.
“What’s your next memory?”
“The guys coming in to feed me,” she said.
“Would you be able to describe them to me?”
“I really can’t recall what they looked like. They weren’t visibly Native American, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said. “They sounded like they were from Utah, like the guys I know. One of them was taller than the other.”
“My height?”
“A bit shorter, I think. I wasn’t really clearheaded.
Whatever they were giving me was pretty strong.
I really hated being drugged. I had no control over anything, and it stirred up memories from when I was a teenager.
I sort of focused on the granola bar they kept trying to feed me.
I threw it at them once, but they only came once a day, so I was hungry.
They let me use the bathroom and then I’d pass out again. It’s all just so hazy.”
That fit with what she’d reported. “Then one day you woke up and they weren’t there?”
She shook a little bit, wrapping her arms around herself again. “It took me a while, maybe an hour or so, to realize that I was awake and they weren’t coming. It was the first time in days that I was aware. Cold and scared, I tried to figure out how to escape.”
She looked at Ava and spoke directly to her.
“I wasn’t sure if they were coming back but was afraid they’d get back before I could get out of the cabin. I was panicking. I just wanted to get away from them.”
“That makes sense,” Ava said softly. “You did really well. Got away, and even though you hadn’t meant to knock over the heater, that fire saved your life.”
Fern nodded. “Funny how an accident did that.”
“Maybe your subconscious knew it would be a signal and help would arrive.”
“Maybe it was just dumb luck,” Fern said wryly.
It was the first glimpse of personality he’d seen from her, and he hid his smile. He asked her a few more questions, but after the fire there had been others involved, so he had multiple accounts of what had happened.
“Did you see any signs that anyone else had been held in the cabin?” he asked her as he was wrapping up.
“I didn’t think to look,” Fern said. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You’ve been very helpful,” Chay said. “Thank you again for talking to me today,” he said, standing. He tipped his head to Ava, who smiled at him, and then he left.
There wasn’t much new information from Fern, but hearing the woman’s story gave him more insight.
Her life was pretty solitary. A thought circled in the back of his mind that he wanted to dismiss, but it was hard to.
No one had filed a missing-person report for Fern until she had missed four days of work.
Fern didn’t have any close ties. She worked in a doctor’s office, with a few friends from work, but that was it.
She lived alone. He knew she had been in the foster care system, as had Camille Lancaster from Wilson.
Was that the connection? Maybe someplace in the foster care system where their paths had crossed?
He waited in the hall for Ava, who looked surprised to see him when she came out. She led the way down the hall, and he followed her. When they were at the elevator, she propped her shoulder against the wall.
“Get what you needed?”
“I think so. Thank you for arranging it,” he said.
It was really hard to stop thinking about that moment when he’d almost kissed her at her house, but his mind was distracted by the case. He said goodbye to her when they both got to the bottom floor, and he watched as she went to her office.