Page 32 of Abandoned

Footsteps fell on the wooden porch outside.

Miley froze, terror filling her eyes.

Those were not the eyes of a woman who was doing fine with her boyfriend.

Zara stood, and Miley did as well. They turned to the door.

A middle-aged woman stood on the other side of the screen door.

Miley’s sigh of relief was felt through the whole single-wide. She opened the door and let the woman inside.

The woman smiled at them both and handed a slip of paper to Miley, who read it. She nodded and went to the kitchen.

The woman studied Zara and smiled.

Zara pointed at herself. “I’m Zara Grant.”

From the kitchen, Miley said, “Oh, Claudia can’t understand you. She’s deaf.”

Zara signed. I’m Zara Grant. Do you speak ASL?

Claudia smiled. Yes. I’m Claudia. I’m here to ask for a cup of sugar. I ran out while baking, and I’m almost done.

Miley came back with a Ziplock bag of sugar. She’d added to the note.

Claudia signed to Zara. Tell Miley thank you for me.

Will do. It was nice to meet you.

You too. Claudia gave Miley a quick hug and left.

Zara turned to Miley. “She said thank you.”

“That’s so awesome that you can sign. Can you teach me?”

“Sure. I have to get back to work soon, but I’d love to show you a few today, and maybe we can get together and I can teach you more.”

“I would love that. Claudia is so sweet, but writing notes gets tiresome. I’d love to be able to communicate with her more clearly.”

Zara checked her watch before sitting down and teaching Miley the basics of sign language.

Exhausted, Will pulled his squad car into its parking spot just before midnight and the end of shift. He was wiped. After taking Rainie in, he’d responded to multiple calls. Then during a routine traffic stop for a broken headlight, he’d busted a drug dealer who not only had an abundance of drugs, paraphernalia, and cash, but also an illegal firearm. After taking that guy in, he’d pulled over another druggie. At least that one was only high on weed.

But the shift was finally over. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep, although he did hope to at least see Zara first.

He went into the station and took care of his end-of-shift duties. He changed in the locker room, and when he came out, Zara was exiting the women’s locker room.

She smiled at him, but it was a weak, tired smile.

“The rest of your shift was fun too, I take it?”

She chuckled. “Not as fun as yours from what I hear.”

They walked out together, and she told him about teaching Miley sign language and the rest of her shift, which while busy, held nothing as intense as dealing with a drug dealer.

He walked her to her car, which was parked two down from his truck.

“You know you don’t have to walk me to my car. We’re at the police station.”