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“One of my students is being abused.” Seven words that tear into my soul and cut out the last bit of hope I have for the human race. “I don’t trust anyone else but you, Carter. Please. We have to help him.”
Dead silence on the other end of the call. It goes on for so long that I think he hung up. Only he must have muted me, because when I’ve just about given up, noise fills the background and he is there again with a promise I’ll never forget.
“I’m on my way.”
14
CARTER
I hit mute as soon as Avery tells me one of her students is being abused. We are in the middle of a meeting in the bullpen, and everyone hears her when I answer on speaker.
“Who is it?”
“What did she say?”
“What’s happening?”
“Why’d you mute it?”
“Who is it?”
Remy, Linc, and Chief Townsend all start talking at once, peppering me with question after question that I don’t have the answer to, and I lose my temper.
“Shut the fuck up!” I roar, unable to hold the words back.
Avery James is quite possibly the only person who can elicit that type of emotional response from me. Just the fact that she is crying and asking me for help crushes every bit of control I have. She destroys me, and then she has to add to it.
“I don’t trust anyone else but you, Carter. Please. We… We have to help him.” When her voice hitches, I’m done.
I wait until the others have shut up before I unmute the call. I stare straight at the chief while I speak, too. Make it clear with my eyes that I’ll be running point on this case. I may not be a detective in Birch Harbor, but before my transfer to Maine, I had been, and I won’t pass a child abuse case to anyone else.
Chief Townsend told me before he hired me that he’d gone over my record. He knew what I’d seen. What I’d done.
“I’m on my way.”
The relieved exhale on the other end of the line is the only thing I need to hear.
I disconnect the call and spin around to see all of their curious faces staring at me.
“What?” I bark. “What is it?”
“You lost your patience,” Linc points out. “You haven’t so much as raised your voice since you’ve been back in Birch Harbor. But one phone call with Avery James and you’re yelling at us.”
“It is pretty interesting,” Chief adds. “I mean, I’m all for this. You know the protocols. You know what you’re doing. You used to do it in California. But I think it’s interesting that little Avery James is your kryptonite.”
Refusing to engage with them any further is the only way I can handle them. I turn to Remy, the only one of the lot who hasn’t started ribbing me about Avery.
“Can you do me a favor and feed the animals while I’m gone?”
I walk out to the sounds of laughter coming from the bullpen and dispatch, mentally preparing myself for what is coming next.
The receptionist isn’t at her desk when I get to Birch Elementary, but Avery is. She looks up in a daze, with tears still pooling in her eyes and an expression on her face I wish I could banish for her.
“You came,” her awe-filled voice caresses my skin, music to my ears. “I didn’t know if you would or if you’d send someone else, because I didn’t text you.”
“Hey.” I crouch down, adjusting my uniform so I don’t end up stabbing myself with my baton. “I told you I was on my way. I wouldn’t lie. Not to you.”
Avery’s brown eyes spill over with the unshed tears, and my heart breaks for her. What she undoubtedly found out must have broken a piece of her. Only the gods above knew that every case I worked in California had the same effect on me.
