Karen Rose - Have You Seen Her?

"Well?"

Neil opened his mouth, then closed it again as a furry shadow crept to the corner where his button had fallen. He put his finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet and together they watched the Templeton family cat pick the button up between his teeth.

Quietly they followed until the cat crawled under a chair in their unused spare bedroom. Neil picked up the chair, and the cat hissed, then ran. Leaving behind a pile of shiny buttons.

Mrs. Templeton's eyes were huge. "Do you think…?"

"I'm praying, ma'am," Neil said and meant it. "Very, very hard."

Friday, October 14, 3:30 P.M.

"You have company," Seth said and Jenna groaned. Casey was gone and Jenna wanted to sleep.

"Go away, Dad. I don't want any company." "You'll want this guy," Seth said and opened the door to her room, letting Jim bound in, tail wagging, tongue lolling, looking healthy and happy. Good as new. "Wendy said Jean-Luc had to stay for another few days until his sutures were healed more, but that Jim could come home."

Jenna took one look at Seth's happy face and Jim's wagging tail and burst into tears.

Friday, October 14, 3:30 P.M.

"Steven," Kent said and Steven lifted his eyes from his paperwork to Kent's excited face.

"What is it?" he demanded, rising to his feet. "What do you have?"

"New information," Kent said, the young man's tension almost palpable. Certainly catching. Kent laid two sheets holding DNA prints side by side on top of the clutter of Steven's desk. One was a bit faded and bore a bright yellow sticker declaring it confidential property of the State of Washington. The other was new.

"Liz's favor came in," Steven said and Kent nodded.

"This is William Parker's DNA from the sealed record in Seattle," Kent said, his voice crackling. "This is the DNA from the hair we found in the Clary clearing."

Steven leaned forward and squinted. "And?"

"They're not the same," Kent said triumphantly.

Steven looked at him in confusion. "So? We already knew

Rudy was in class that day. So he's either not William Parker or wasn't at the clearing or both."

"He could still be Parker," Kent said. "The Clary clearing DNA is not the same as Parker's, but it's dead close. Close enough so that the two came from blood relatives. And not a father/son because the sample from the Clary clearing came from mitochondrial DNA which only carries the maternal genetic print. William Parker wasn't in the Clary clearing, but a blood relative with the same mother was."

"That leaves the brother," Steven hissed. "The brother everyone said was too slow to notice."

Liz hurried in just then. "I came as soon as I got your call, Kent. What's happened?"

"It was the younger Lutz boy." Steven grimaced, slamming his fist against his desk. 'The one everybody said was too slow to be involved. Dammit, Jenna even defended him. Poor boy, knocked around by his thug father."

"And he well might have been," Liz said, still breathless from running. She quickly looked at the DNA prints, Kent's neatly typed conclusion, and nodded her understanding. "But we won't let that stop us. You'll be wanting a search warrant on the Lutz place?"

"With a big red bow," Steven said from behind gritted teeth.

"I'm on it," Liz said. "Great work, Kent. Steven, call Neil. He'll want to know about this."

Friday, October 14, 3:45 P.M.

Neil spread the buttons out on the sheet of aluminum foil Mrs. Templeton had stretched across her kitchen table. One by one he separated each button from the pile with his gloved finger.

Then breathed a prayer of thanks both for Mr. Whiskers' consistent habit of button pilfering and for the sudden return of his memory. He picked up a pewter button and held it up to the light, watching me way the shadows bounced off every turn of the design.

"You recognize it? ' Mrs. Templeton asked hopefully and he jerked his attention back to her.

"Yes, ma'am." He dropped the button back into the pile. "Do you have a Ziploc bag-new and unused?" he asked, then wrapped the buttons in the aluminum foil and dropped the foil in the bag. "Close the bedroom door and don't go near the area under the chair,'' he instructed. "Forensics will vacuum to make sure the cat didn't take anything else frorr ycur daughter's bedroom."

Neil rushed to his car, his precious Ziploc bag of evidence clutched in one hand. And prayed like he never had before.

Friday, October 14, 4:30 P.M.

Charlie stuck tv r head in Jenna's room. "Aunt

Jenna-"

Jenna sat up in bed snarling. "I know. I have company.

Send him home, whoever it is."

"I don't know, Aura jenna, I think you'll want to see him." Jenna dragged herscli out of bed, muttering all the way.

And stopped short at tne sight of Brad Thatcher standing un-easily in Allison's living room. He took a look at her face and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Marshall."

"It's not as bad as it looks," she lied and sat on the sofa. "Sit, Brad. What's on your mind?"

He sat, blinking at her brusque tone. He licked his lips, opened his mouth. Closed it.

Jenna sighed. "Brad, do you have something to say or not?"

"It's about my dad," Brad said and stared down at his feet. '"He was wrong last night, but you need to understand why."

Jenna frowned. "How do you know what happened last night?"

"Everybody knows, Dr. Marshall." He ventured a tiny grin. "None of the guys want to come near you anymore. They're all afraid they'll be singin' soprano."

Jenna huffed a single chuckle. "So what brings you way out here, Brad?"

Brad reached into his pocket and pulled out a ratty folded sheet, curled at the edges. "This."

She opened it and went still as the written words on the page jumped out at her… tired of chicken nuggets, soccer games, and diaper changes. The boys are yours and you're welcome to them … She carefully put the note on the lamp table, her hands trembling. "You knew?"

Brad's brown eyes widened. " You knew?"

"Your father told me today. How did you know?"

Brad looked away. "I found the note."

Jenna's heart clenched at the thought of a boy reading those terrible, hateful words from his own mother. "When?" But she knew before he answered.

"Last month."

"Oh, Brad." She'd wanted to know how a boy could change overnight. Now she knew.

"So, if you knew about my mother, why didn't you come home?"

Jenna sighed again. "Oh, Brad. It's not that simple."

He glanced at her sharply before standing up to stare out the window, his hands in his pockets. And even though physically Brad resembled his mother, in that moment he looked so much like Steven that she wanted to start crying all over again. "Do you love him, Dr. Marshall?"

She wouldn't, couldn't lie. "Yes."

"Then it's simple."

"No, Brad, it's not. He doesn't trust me."

Brad made a frustrated noise. "Do you know how many people know about that note? Four. And I'm not even supposed to know. Father Mike knows because Dad told him early on. Then for four years he told no one. Until you." He turned from the window with a frown. "He trusted you with something he didn't even trust with his own family. That's how much he trusts you."

Brad's words echoed in her mind. That's how much he trusts you . But she shook her head, remembering last night. The pain of the boys' fists had been nothing compared to the knowledge that Steven had abandoned her. Because of something she hadn't even done. "It's not enough."

Brad's eyes flashed. "Last night he told Helen he wanted to marry you. She told him you'd come back. She's already planning her trip to the Serengeti." He stared at her with such authority, she wanted to back away. From a seventeen-year-old. "And what about Nicky?" he demanded.