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“Hah. You’re too kind.” He knew he sounded like a gargoyle when he spoke. “So, this is where you live?” He gestured to encompass the country estate. “Did you change careers or something?”
“Yes, actually. I gave up nursing to do hippotherapy.” Her smile grew strained. “But that’s not why I called you. Let’s go back into my office and talk.”
She led him through the smaller of two doors at the back of the barn, into a waiting room bright with windows that overlooked the riding ring and filled with mismatched chairs.
“Have a seat.” She crossed to the nearest sofa and sank down onto it, gesturing to the armchair across from her.
As he eased onto the worn cushion, he stated the obvious, “You’re expecting.”
With a sigh, she propped the heels of her boots on the scarred coffee table. “Yes, just eight weeks left.”
Fitz heard only exhaustion in her answer. “Congratulations. And your husband? Is he still with the state police?”
She shook her head. “No, no, he’s not. But that’s not why I need to talk to you.”
Hearing real fright in her voice, Fitz set his iPad on one knee and roused it. “You said in your message that your sister has disappeared while doing mission work in Venezuela.”
“Yes.”
“What on earth made her go there?” A level-four travel advisory warned Americans not to set foot in that tumultuous country. Ruled by a tyrannous dictator, Venezuela’s economy had crumbled, resulting in rampant crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure, hunger, and kidnappings.
“Well, last summer, Grace went on a church-sponsored mission trip to an orphanage in Puerto Ayacucho, which is down near the jungle. She’s a first-grade teacher, and she also speaks Spanish, so it sounded like something right up her alley, but the truth was she went to get over her divorce.” Faith shrugged. “Anyway, last summer she came across a little orphan boy and fell in love with him. She started the adoption process right away, but, of course, it takes so much time. She had to leave him there last summer, and it nearly broke her heart. This summer, she was going to bring him home with her.”
Faith paused to catch her breath. “But ever since the assassination attempt on Maduro by those Americanmercenaries”—she painted air quotes around the word— “every U.S. citizen in Venezuela is being rounded up by Maduro’s soldiers and arrested.”
“Right.” Fitz had read about that in a report two weeks ago.
Faith rubbed her stomach as she spoke. “Grace stopped calling me because there’s only one cellular provider in Venezuela, and she didn’t want to advertise her location. Her last message to me was on WhatsApp three days ago. She said Maduro’s soldiers were looking for her. Her Irish host had found them a boat so they could cross the Orinoco River into Colombia, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. That’s the last news I’ve heard from her.”
“You don’t think she’s safely in Colombia but has no internet connection?”
“No. I don’t know if you give credence to this kind of thing, but Grace and I are mirror twins. We’ve always known when something is wrong with the other. I started to feel like something was really wrong yesterday.”
“I see.”
“You probably think I’m panicking for nothing.”
“Not at all. Intuition has saved my life more than once.” He glanced down at his iPad. “Spell the name of the town she’s in.”
“I can do better than that.” Grace rolled onto one hip and pulled an index card out of the rear pocket of her shorts. “Here’s her exact address in Puerto Ayacucho. She’s been staying with Irish missionaries who live there year-round.”
Fitz copied their names and their address into his software program. “What’s your sister’s full name?”
“Grace Elizabeth Garrett. She reverted to using her maiden name.”
“Do you know her social?”
“Yes.” Faith relayed it to him, then heaved a sigh as he entered it into his form. “I’d be so grateful if you could find her and bring her home.”
Looking up from his iPad, Fitz caught a careworn expression on Faith’s pretty face as well as a sheen of tears in her bottomless eyes. For the first time, he noticed the dark circles under them and the stress firming her lush lips. “When was the last time you slept?”
She managed a wan smile for him. “I look that bad, huh?”
“You look beautiful but exhausted.”
“Hmph.” Her eyes twinkled with the liveliness he remembered.
“Hey.” He surprised himself by moving out of the armchair to sit beside her.
