Little White Lies

up.

“Well… that family that lived in that house, they still live there. Though I’m sure she’s a grandmother by now. I heard on the news that their son-or grandson-I don’t know. Anyway, he’s missing, and I hoped maybe you could help.”

She’d come to ask for his help on behalf of Charley? “Are you talking about the Turner Point family?”

She nodded.

“There are detectives working that case, Mom. It has nothing to do with the FBI.”

She waved a hand through the air. “Oh, I know, honey. I just thought maybe you could be helpful-seeing as you live right here and all. You’re so good at what you do. You have all those commendations and awards.” She pointed to the framed plaques that adorned his office.

“Do you really even know them, Mom?”

She sat up tall in the seat. “Does it matter?”

Wyatt decided a few prying questions wouldn’t hurt. “How? You met them once, thirty-four-odd years ago, right?”

She softened again. “You never take for granted those who have helped you along the way. Plus, they were so kind-the four of them. They took care of me at one of my darkest hours. I’m not sure I would have survived without Charley, let alone been able to cope. She, Lily, James-and there was one more. I can’t remember his name.”

“Cael?”

“Yes!” She wagged a finger in Wyatt’s direction. “But, Charley… she’s the one who helped me. I think she must be in her fifties or sixties by now. I’ll never forget her.”

Charley had helped his Mom? Wyatt wracked his brain for the right story. He shook his head-a futile attempt to clear his confusion. “How old were the rest of them then?”

She closed one eye, the other and popped them open. “In their twenties. I haven’t seen them since then, but I wrote a few times, and they responded.”

“What do you mean?” He folded his arms on his desk, his head nearly at rest on them. His mother had both irked and intrigued him.

“Oh, I sent letters to them about you and as you got bigger, about your life. Since they were there… when you were born, I thought they might like to keep up with you.” She closed her eyes as if in mid-memory. “I told them about high school and going off to college and you settling right here back in town.”

She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Charley always wrote me back and thanked me for the letters. They sent you Christmas and birthday presents, too. Bet ya didn’t know that.” She pointed a quick finger at him.

Wyatt shook his head and let out a small laugh. “Uh, no.”

She’d never told him, and he’d always assumed the gifts came from his parents-even when both of them lost their jobs during the recessions, he’d been oblivious.

“Anyway, I thought maybe you could help. I don’t know who lives there now-probably a daughter or other children-but my letters always get there and are always answered, so I keep sending them. I was just hoping maybe you could help me pay them back a little.”

What can I do? “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you, honey.” She turned her watch toward her face. “I gotta run.”

“Where ya off to?”

“Lunch with your dad.”

Wyatt walked around his desk, lowered to the side of his Mom’s chair and hugged her right there in her spot. He breathed in her familiar scent-some perfume she’d always worn.

“One more thing. I brought something for you.”

“What is it?”

She dug through her bag, eyes and hands intent. “This.” Out of it, she pulled a box. “We cleaned out some drawers.”

Wyatt took it from her, rubbing the soft velvet. Together, they stood and walked to the door.

“I thought you might want that.” She reached up with one hand and pulled him forward for a kiss on the cheek. With a pat and a ‘you take care’, she headed down the hallway.

Wyatt opened the box to find the ring and stone as it had been tucked within almost two decades before. The one he’d intended to give his first love-the one Lily-or Leena, as she’d been called then-had forced him to promise to hold.

***

Charley carried a cup of hot tea in each hand as she bumped Lily’s door open with her butt. “Hey, Lil.”

Lily, covered to her neck in blankets, tracked Charley’s movements with red-rimmed eyes.

“Having the dreams again?”

Lily nodded.

Charley eased a hip onto the side of the bed as Lily sat up and took the tea.

“Thank you.” Her breath hitched.

Charley patted Lily’s legs under the blankets. “Detective Bland stopped by this morning.” Lily’s eyes lit up. “He said they’re looking at every lead that comes to them.” The pile of photos on Lily’s nightstand caught Charley’s eye.

She pulled them into her hands. On top, a picture of her and Chase on her bed, reading Goodnight Moon.

Tears welled in her eyes.

A flip to the second revealed Chase’s first Halloween as Batman, with Lily as Robin, James as the Joker and Charley as Batgirl.

Her breath hitched.

“Why do you have these in here, Lil?”

Lily set her tea on the table beside the bed and knocked tissues from the same. “In case-” The tears began again.

Charley let her own fall but not on the photos. Another of her and Chase at his first baseball game, where he’d hit the winning run.

A smile escaped, along with the bubble of a laugh. He’d run the entire bases without stopping, as if his pants had been on fire, though the ball never left the infield.

She turned the next photo to Lily. “We’re going to find him, Lil. We are.”

Lily smiled as the image of Chase in her kitchen, covered in flour from the biscuits they’d made together, faced her. Cael had helped, managing to cover himself just as much as Chase.

“Did the detectives say anything?”

Charley shook her head as she flipped to another image of Chase with the mouse-the third time he’d snatched it from school. His mischievous grin gave his plans away. “We’ve followed up on every lead. I promise.” Charley’d researched every one as it came through.

She, James and Cael had hounded the station countless times in the previous two days. She’d learned to cope after getting her good cry out of the way.

Lily pulled out another snapshot from Chase’s first day at school with his Superman lunch box.

“I know it doesn’t help that we have no leads, yet, but everyone is still working to find him… and Sophie. James and Cael are out looking now, even.”

Charley flipped over a picture of Chase at his favorite restaurant: McDonald’s. “We have to go into town for groceries, Lily.”

Lily leaned back into her pillow, closing her eyes. “Can you go without me?”

“I could…” Charley shrugged. “… but I’m not going to.” She sipped the tea she’d held between her knees and waited for Lily’s reaction.

Her head lolled forward as she opened her eyes. “But-”

“Lily?” Charley squeezed Lily’s calf through the blankets until she had her attention. “You see this face?” Charley turned a picture of Chase’s first missing tooth toward Lily. “We will not stop. We’re going to find him-them.