He finished the pie and asked whether there might be another piece. Millie laughed, partly from relief and partly because she was finally hearing a child's voice ask for something simple. "There's a whole pie back there," she said. "We can manage another slice." At the counter, Danielle smiled down into her cup. Heather and Ben exchanged a glance that carried a little more ease than either had felt since the children arrived.
Nearly an hour later the pay phone near the restrooms rang. Its metallic bell cut through the diner like an alarm, and Ethan straightened so fast that Rosie stirred against his shoulder. Millie crossed the room and picked up the receiver. "Millie's," she said. She recognized Grim's voice before he gave his name.
"Both kids still there?" he asked. "Both here. Rosie is sleeping and Ethan's had enough pie to keep my cook busy until morning." Grim was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice was lower. "Good. Keep them there."
"Victor, what's happening?" Millie asked. She moved the receiver closer to her mouth and turned toward the kitchen door so Ethan could not read her expression. "She's alive," Grim said.
"We've seen movement inside. But the woman is locked in, and there are men watching the road. One of them is in a patrol car." Millie felt a cold pressure settle beneath her ribs. "Can you get her out?"
"We're working on it," Grim said. "I need time to know who's at that place and who's doing what. Don't call the local department. Not tonight. If you need immediate protection, call state dispatch and tell them where you are. But keep the local names out of your mouth until I know who is being paid."
Millie closed her eyes for one brief second. "I understand," she said. "Call when you can."
When she hung up, Ethan was watching her. He seemed to have known the moment the phone rang that it concerned his mother. "Is she alive?" he asked before Millie reached the booth. There was no room for a softer question, and she respected that.
"Yes," she said. "Mr. Hayes says she's alive. He and his friends are trying to get her somewhere safe."
Ethan nodded, then looked at his sister. "She's been alive the other times," he said. "Clay always got her back anyway."
Millie sat opposite him and leaned forward. "I know that's what happened before," she answered. "But those are facts about before, not rules that have to govern tonight." She touched the table near his hand, close enough to offer comfort, not close enough to demand that he accept it.
While Millie was speaking, Grim crouched beside a low stand of desert brush a mile from the Cole trailer. The rain had eased, but water still slid down the back of his collar and gathered in the seams of his gloves. Beyond a crooked line of fencing stood a single-wide trailer with a security light burning above its door. A pickup sat beside it, along with a second vehicle Grim recognized from sightings near Clay Mercer's property over the years.