Page 69 of Last Seen

Chapter Forty-Eight

Halley

It is dawn before they are found.

The fire draws first responders from all the surrounding areas.

Fires anywhere are bad; fires in the Great Smoky Mountains can quickly become conflagrations that take out thousands of acres of property, private and federal.

The sirens shriek like lonely seagulls for hours until there is another glow on the horizon, this time from the east.

Ian is dead. The threat is gone.

But Cat is dead with him. An obscene Romeo and Juliet, the two purveyors of hell lie in the dirt above the horrendous world they created.

The women argue a bit about what to do. Summer wants to take the group and keep hiking.

Get as far away as possible. Heather wants to go back to Brockville for help.

Halley is not about to pull Cat’s son away from his mother’s body until he is damn good and ready.

They tell Halley some of their story. How Ian collected them.

How Cat took care of them. They claim Miles didn’t know, that Ian hid them from him.

Halley doesn’t know if she believes them. She holds her nephew and rocks him, humming, trying, so hard, to keep her own monsters at bay. The darkness has stopped being something protective. It is now full of terror.

In the end, two men appear from the dusty horizon. One is Cameron Brockton. The other is Theo Donovan.

“They’re here,” Cameron yells.

Halley is relieved to see them both. It must show on her face because his voice cracks when he sees her. He drops to his knees beside her.

“Halley? Baby. Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay. Handle them.”

Surely Theo’s presence with Cameron means they are safe now.

But Halley is never going to feel safe here again.

She’s been rocking Gray since his mother fell, and the blood is dried on them both.

Theo’s abject horror at the scene they’ve stumbled upon is quickly rewritten, his professional facade slamming into place.

Training kicks in. He starts gathering women and preserving the scene.

Cameron isn’t as schooled; he mills about like a lost duckling on the periphery, the truth of his world crashing down upon him.

His dead brother was holding a mass of women hostage, and now he is dead again. Lying in the grass alone.

We are all alone in the end.

The crime scene is sorted professionally.

Theo knows his job. Halley waits with Gray in her arms. He is fascinated by the blinking blue and white lights.

She is glad to see him looking around now, interested.

She has no idea what sort of mothering he received, whether he was raised alone with Cat, or as a part of the group. There is so much to learn.

The women and children are taken to a holding area to be reunited with their families, if they have them. Theo comes to Halley’s side.

“Hi,” she says.

“Did you—are you okay?” He waves a hand; the gesture encompasses the blood, the bodies, the child clasped protectively to her bosom.

“No. Not even close to okay. But God, am I glad to see you.”

He blows out a huge breath, and she is happy to see his relief. She’s not lying. Their problems seem minute in comparison to what the women of Brockville have experienced.

“This is Gray. My nephew.”

“Hey, pal.” Theo’s voice is shockingly gentle. “Can I help you get changed? We have some cool toys for you to play with.”

Gray raises his head and looks Theo directly in the face. He must see something there. Halley is shocked when he detaches himself and clasps his arms around Theo’s neck. Theo walks him away from the scene. The boy does not look back at his mother’s body.

They are moved to a motel in Bristol, devoid of charm or soul, and allowed to shower and change. Halley has no appetite but forces down a granola bar and banana. There are bruises on her wrists and ankles from the restraints. Her ribs are bound. She feels hollow. Detached from reality.

She is interviewed, again and again. She tells them everything she knows, which is not much. Then they bring Gray to her. He has had a bath and is dressed in Batman pajamas. They’ve given him a toy truck, and he runs it up and down his leg meditatively.

He is a quiet child. He has no idea who Batman is.

He never asks for his mother. He knows she is gone. And that breaks Halley into a million pieces all over again.

The media is now in Brockville.

While Gray naps, Halley watches the live shots.

The town looks utterly surreal. All of Glaston burned.

They lost the Farm, the crops, the restaurants.

Miles Brockton has been taken into custody—several of the women Cat rescued have levied claims of his involvement in their trafficking.

Of the involvement of other men in the Brockville community, the ones who came to them in the darkness.

Who hurt them. Who filmed them. Who enjoyed it.

The great utopian experiment, the famed leader of the movement, felled by his basest interests.

Halley speaks with Noah, to make sure he is okay. To thank him for trying to save her.

She speaks with her father and endures his tears and apologies and gives a few of her own. She tells him the story of Cat and the women, what she knows, anyway. He wants her to come back to Marchburg. He is at home doing rehab and has plenty of time to catch up; he and Anne want to meet Gray.

Theo comes to visit every evening. He and Gray have some sort of bond that Halley is heartened to see. One evening, after the kid’s passed out in the bedroom, they sit on the motel room’s balcony, sharing a beer and talking.

“This is why I never wanted to have kids,” Theo says, looking over his shoulder toward the bedroom, where they left Gray sprawled like a starfish on the sheets.

“Because they might be orphaned?”

“No.” He takes her hand, and she lets him.

“Do you know how many times I’ve seen that look in a kid’s eye?

When we roll up on a scene and the shit’s hit the fan, and all that’s left are these little ones, and they are so shattered.

I couldn’t imagine ever being in charge of someone’s life like that.

Not their life, but their soul. I know what it felt like to lose a father, Halley.

To watch them lose their people, again and again, knowing how that feels? Broke me.”

She sits with that confession. “I wish you’d told me that before.”

“I should have. But it’s impossible to explain unless you’ve seen it for yourself. Now you have.”

“You know that Gray is mine, now, Theo. Cat left him to me, and I won’t give him up. I can’t do that to him. He saw his mother die. I know what kind of scars that leaves.”

“I understand. I don’t want you to. I don’t want to, either.

” He sighs and gives her a rueful grin. “Damn kid’s gotten under my skin.

To grow up the way he did? And then to see him in your arms, covered in blood .

.. I’ve never been so happy in my life.

I want to re-create that feeling. I want to come home again and again and see you holding him, see him in your arms. A little less blood next time, though. ”

She smiles. “He’s going to outgrow them fast enough.”

“Then he’ll fit in mine a little longer.”

She fights back tears. “I have to tell you something,” she says. “And you’re never going to forgive me.”

“I already know. You’re forgiven.”

Her mouth drops open. “How?”

“Oh, your pal told me. So did his dad. Charming folks.” He sets down the beer.

“Listen. I hate that you were with him. But I’m not such an asshole that I can’t admit I screwed up.

I pushed you away, I forced you to walk.

I was scared. And yeah, then you screwed up.

But if that was it, that was the only time?

Maybe we call it even and try again. Take the kid to McLean.

Let him meet Charlie. I bet they’d love each other. ”

“The only time?”

“Don’t make me say it, Halley.”

She realizes what he thinks. “I didn’t sleep with him, Theo. It was a kiss. That’s all.”

“What?” The relief cascades out of him. “The asshole didn’t say that.”

Halley looks out over the parking lot to the misty mountains in the distance.

She thinks about Noah, knowing there is absolutely zero chance at a future between them.

She does not belong here, and she is not going to stay.

The moment she is cleared, she is taking Gray and leaving.

She will have to see him again sometime, though. Gray is his nephew, too, after all.

But she knows how she feels about Theo. It’s always been Theo. When she saw him emerge from the haze of the fire, the fear on his face, the relief, she knew there was no other person she could ever be with. It might be bumpy. It might not work. But he is the one.

“We can try going home,” she says. “But we have to ask Gray what he wants, first.”

“Fair enough.” Theo drops her hand. “I have something for you.”

“What’s that?”

“Letters. We found them in the tunnels. They’re going to be tied up in evidence for a long while, because we’ve got a pretty solid idea of the terrors that were going on below Brockville.

And she gave us a couple of other tidbits.

The farm? Massive graveyard. When Ian finished with his women, he buried them under the fucking crops.

They’ve recovered four bodies so far, matched them to missing persons cases.

There are more. The guy was a freaking loon. ”

Halley thinks about the words Heather spoke in the dark. “ Need to bury the ashes of the ones we’ve lost. Purify them. ”

She wasn’t just crazy. She was hoping the fire would set the souls of his victims free.

“What about his dad?”