Chapter 62
Sixty-Two
It was almost nine when Kim pulled up outside Stacey and Devon’s home.
After briefing Mitch on her need for Karen’s diary when he found it, she had followed her team in standing down for the night. She just had a welfare check to complete first. The weariness was seeping into her bones as she took the stairs up to the second floor.
The constable was already at the door so she didn’t have to knock.
‘How is she?’ Kim whispered as Stacey closed the door behind her.
‘Shell-shocked but resilient. I think acceptance is coming, but there’s nothing about this journey that’s helped by being separated from her dad.’
Kim agreed as she took a seat at the kitchen table, where a colouring book and some felt-tip pens lay.
‘Dee dropped them off in her break,’ Stacey said, moving them to the side.
Kim smiled. She really had made the right call bringing Ava here. There was enough love in this small flat to care for a dozen children.
‘She’s probably still awake if you want to check on her,’ Stacey said, nodding towards the spare bedroom.
‘You sure?’
Stacey nodded again, and Kim tapped the door lightly before opening it.
Ava was sitting up in bed with her knees pulled to her chest. Her prosthetic was on the bedside table next to a tube of cream and a stocking.
She had a hand-held game lodged between her knees so she could play it with one hand.
Ava had already had to think about more things than most kids her age, but she just got on with it. She adapted.
‘Hey, kiddo, what you playing there?’ Kim asked, approaching the bed.
‘Pac-Man,’ Ava said with a smile. ‘Devon found it in a box and got new batteries.’
Kim glanced around the room. Stacey and Devon’s possessions had been placed in a corner and covered with a daisy patterned throw. A row of fairy lights had been tacked around Ava’s bed. A projector on the dressing table was making the planets turn on the ceiling.
‘Devon popped out to Home Bargains before going to work,’ Stacey said from the doorway.
A rush of gratitude surged through her for the two women who had done so much more than give a kid a place to rest for a couple of nights.
‘So, how are you doing?’ Kim asked, taking a seat on the bed.
‘I miss Daddy. A lot.’
‘I know, sweetie, and he misses you too. I’ve told him what a brave girl you’re being, and he’s very proud of you.’
‘Is he okay?’ Ava asked earnestly.
The question hit Kim somewhere in the chest. Her concern beyond her own predicament was well beyond her years.
‘He’s doing fine. Just concerned that you’re okay.’
‘Tell him not to worry,’ she said, and Kim reached over and hugged her. There was something incredibly special about this child.
‘I’ll let you get back to your game. I just wanted to check you were doing okay,’ Kim said, getting up from the bed.
She took one last look before closing the door. Ava’s attention had returned to the game, and although happiness was a distance away, she at least looked safe and content.
‘Listen, Stace, I just want to—’
‘It’s fine,’ the constable said, taking a seat. ‘I wouldn’t have wanted her to be anywhere else. She really is an exceptional kid… but what happens tomorrow?’
‘I dunno. I bought us some time, but I don’t know what we can do with it.’
‘She can’t go there, boss.’
‘I don’t know how to stop it. Social services have to complete the process.’
‘He ain’t doing it, boss. That kid idolises her dad. The ways she talks about him. The laughs they have, it’s bloody heartbreaking.’
Kim was in complete agreement. That was what she’d come to hear, as well as checking on Ava.
She’d wondered if she’d allowed her own opinion of Daniel Reynolds to colour her judgement on the possibility of child abuse. Stacey had never met him, but she had spent plenty of time with Ava. If there was any truth to the accusation, she and Devon would have felt it somewhere.
Trouble was, they were running out of time.
There was an avalanche coming, and she felt as though she was trying to stop it with a beach spade.
They were fighting this war on two fronts.
There was the accusation of abuse that neither she nor any member of her team felt held merit.
Secondly, the fact was that social services would struggle to return the child to a man who had no legal right to her, regardless of their bond.
She couldn’t rid herself of the feeling that Ava was never going to see her father again.