Page 96 of Girl Between (Dana Gray FBI Mystery Thriller #5)

Dana stewed on the information they’d gathered at the Barton home the entire drive back to the station. It wasn’t much.

They’d gone over the information in the case file about when her second cousins went missing. Miriam had nothing new or contradictory to offer. She’d even been willing to answer Dana’s questions about when her daughter went missing and her friendships with the other girls and their families.

Dana had been hoping it would spark something in her mind about the current victims. But it had been fruitless. Yet she couldn’t erase the hundreds of images of missing persons covering Miriam’s walls from her mind, or her haunting final words.

“It’s horrifically sad,” Dana finally said. “How can that many women continue to go missing?”

George shook his head. “I wake up every morning praying I’m making a difference, but when you see something like that …” He shook his head again. “If I were her, I don’t know if I could keep going.”

Dana turned to him. “You can. You have.”

An unspoken understanding passed between them. “Who told you?” he asked .

“Lena.”

George ran a hand over his face, disguising whatever he was feeling.

“Don’t be mad,” said Dana. “I asked.”

“Why?”

“It’s important for a good working relationship.”

“Is that all this is?” he pressed.

“George …”

“It’s all good,” he said, pulling into the precinct. “Really.” He continued after he put the truck in park. “The moment I met you I knew you were running. I think it made me want to stop running myself. If that’s the case, I owe you my thanks. But I think I’m finally ready to move past the past.”

“I wish I was,” Dana said, offering him a tight-lipped smile.

“Me, too.” George grinned. “Right place, wrong time?”

Dana laughed. “Story of my life.”

“Well, it’s been nice working with you.”

“Are you kicking me off the case because I don’t want to sleep with you?”

George turned three shades of red. “Shit! No, I-I just thought … Shepard’s been called back to D.C. You’re partners. I figured you’d follow.”

“Jake left?”

George nodded, slowly. “I thought you knew. Creed had him back on a flight to D.C. before the ink dried on chain of custody.”

Dana swallowed the lump in her throat. “I don’t like leaving things undone,” she said. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer to stay on and help with the case.”

“Of course. We can use all the help we can get,” George assured her. “Sorry,” he added. “I thought Shepard would’ve told you.”

“Yeah,” said Dana. “That makes two of us.”