“Sorry, but a dead man’s got it now. I was abducted. With Blake Ives’s daughter. We’re okay now, though. I think.”

I should have broken it to him differently, but I wasn’t thinking all that clearly by then. Now that I was out of the way of immediate harm, reaction was setting in.

I interrupted his own quite understandable reaction and said, “I’m borrowing someone’s phone, so I can’t talk long. Can you come out to the sheriff’s station in Palmdale-maybe see if you can get Zeke Brennan to come along with you? I’m not in as much trouble as I was in an hour ago, but I think I’ll need an attorney. And I…” I took a deep breath, struggled to stay calm. I tried to give him a condensed version of my day so far. He interrupted, asked for the phone number I was calling from, and wanted me to tell him exactly where I was and to give him the name of the store. So I handed him over to the clerk, who provided all of that information, then handed the phone back to me. He was looking at Carrie and me in wonder.

“Are you okay?” Frank asked.

“Getting there.” I asked him to call Blake Ives, and to try to reach Roy Fletcher, who might still be at Graydon Fletcher’s place. “And if he’s got a girl named Genie with him, I think that might be Caleb’s sister-Oh, here’s the sheriff’s department,” I said, seeing a cruiser pull up. “Oh, and the Express.”

“The Express is there?” he asked with some heat.

“No, but will you call them?”

“Maybe. That may cause some difficulties. Let me talk to the deputy.”

Apologizing to the clerk, I waited for the deputies to come inside, then handed the phone to one of them saying, “It’s for you.”

Before he took it, he asked his partner to wait outside with us.

Carrie, who had stayed huddled next to me, was trembling as we walked out. I put an arm around her shoulders, and her tears began to fall. Part of it was undoubtedly just the scare setting in, as it was for me as well, but it occurred to me that she had probably never been this far from home or around so many strangers at one time.

“You okay?” I asked. “Sure you aren’t hurt?”

“What will they do to me?” she whispered.

“Do to you? What do you mean?”

“I mean, who will I live with?”

“I don’t know.” I thought about it for a moment. “Maybe your father, Mr. Ives. Or they may find someone for you to stay with while they sort things out. They’ll probably try to contact your…your dad, and I know they’ll try to find out where your mom is.”

She looked away from me, then started crying hard. She curled back into my shoulder. I tried to think of words that might soothe her, and decided just to let her cry. I don’t think she had any more real hope that her mom was alive than I did.

After a time, she quieted.

“Do you have kids?” she asked in a small voice.

“No, I don’t.”

“Don’t you like them?”

“Oh no, I like them a lot. Why do you ask?”

She turned red. “Maybe they’d let me stay with you.”

I hugged her shoulders. “I would love to have you stay with us, but I don’t get to decide that. Besides, you might not like it-I have a husband, a friend, three dogs, and the fattest cat you ever saw living at my house. Here, I’ll show you.” I opened my wallet and flipped to the photos of Frank, Deke and Dunk, and Cody. “I don’t have pictures of our friend Ethan or of Altair yet. They’re just visiting.”

She asked questions about the animals and Frank. We only spent a few minutes doing this, but somehow it had a calming effect on both of us.

OVER the next several hours, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Huntington Beach Police Department, and the Las Piernas Police Department all wanted to talk to us. So did a tremendous number of members of the media, although they didn’t get much more than footage of us leaving the LASD Palmdale Station. They made up for that by talking to neighbors in Huntington Beach (“very quiet,” “kept to themselves”) and getting aerial shots of an abandoned BMW and the removal of remains from the desert.

The bodies of Giles Fletcher and Bonnie Creci/Victoria Fletcher had been found half a mile from the border of the Angelus National Forest, a half-mile that kept the Park Service and the FBI off the list of our questioners.

Frank arrived with three passengers. I had expected Blake Ives and my attorney, Zeke Brennan, but I was amazed to also see Graydon Fletcher, who was hanging back a bit.

As he hugged me, Frank whispered, “You okay?”

I nodded.

“Don’t worry about Graydon.”

When Blake Ives was introduced to her, Carrie smiled uncertainly and said hello. When she saw Graydon, she ran to him, shouting, “Grandfather!” and burst into tears as she hugged him.

I had to admire Blake Ives. He was overjoyed to see her, weeping, in fact, but he didn’t push or make a scene. He patiently waited while Graydon comforted Carrie.

Graydon soothed her, and when she had calmed down again, he said, “Carrie, do you know who Mr. Ives is?”

She nodded.

“I’m so happy that he’s found you,” he said. “We all have lots of questions about how you were separated, and I know you’ve had an upsetting day. But he’s a good man who has been hoping to see you for so many years, and I wanted to come to let you know that no matter what else has happened today, this part of your life will be just fine. Meeting your father is a reason to rejoice.”

She looked back and forth between them, then said to Blake, “I read Ms. Kelly’s story about you in the paper. It’s…nice to meet you.” She held out her hand.

He took it and, although I could see it was killing him, refrained from doing more than gently shaking it for a moment.

He came down to eye level with her. “Carla-I mean, Carrie-do you want me to call you Carrie?”

She thought about it and said, “Does it hurt your feelings?”

“No,” he said softly.

“Okay, well, if you don’t mind, Carrie’s what I’m used to hearing. I like the name Carla, but I might not remember you’re talking to me when you say it.”

“Carrie it is, then. I look forward to getting to know you again. Mr. Fletcher has been telling me about you on the way here. He’s right-we’re both so glad you’re all right and weren’t hurt too badly, and we both want to make sure you’re happy and safe-that’s what matters most to both of us, okay?”

“Thank you,” she said. She looked to Graydon. “Where’s Dad?” She blushed and said, “I mean…”

“It’s okay,” Blake said.

“I don’t know where he is, Carrie,” Graydon said. “I’m worried about him and your brothers and sister. I have a lot of questions to ask him, but mostly I’m worried.”

“Mom…”

“I’m sorry.”

That brought on the tears again. Somehow, in that upset, she let Blake comfort her, too.

A pair of Fletcher’s sons who were lawyers arrived, apparently on their own initiative. Graydon refused to follow their advice about not saying anything, and simply told them to be quiet or wait for him in the lobby. I guess he still held some power as the patriarch, because they shut up.

Graydon couldn’t explain-for her benefit, or to the various law enforcement officials who wanted to know-why Giles Fletcher had taken his niece and a newspaper reporter hostage. He couldn’t imagine any reason for Giles to harm Bonnie-whom he referred to as Victoria-or anyone else. He had been shocked, he said, when reading the morning paper to see the story about Blake lves. “I didn’t see the paper until late this morning, but I immediately recognized Victoria’s photo, and while I wasn’t quite so sure about Carrie, of course, I could see the resemblance. I-I wanted to talk to Roy. I’ve been leaving messages for him.”

“He didn’t go to your house?” Carrie asked.

“No, honey, he didn’t. Is that what he said he would be doing?”

“Yes.” Her forehead wrinkled in worry.

Carrie told the story of her morning, including some parts I hadn’t known. Except for her fear and a quality of innocence, one could easily forget she was a child-her vocabulary was beyond that of a number of adults I know, and so was her intelligence.