Page 127 of Random in Death
When the service ended, the woman in black announced a reception in another area. The family would join those who chose to attend shortly.
Eve watched people file out, some weeping, some clutching hands, and hoped for the buzz she didn’t expect to come.
“I thought you’d be here.” With Jake, Nadine stepped up to her. “And you wouldn’t be standing like this if he’d come.”
“No.”
“The girl from last night’s okay?”
Eve nodded at Jake. “She is. We’re going there next. She was released today.”
“Okay, good. I wanted to say something to the family, but I don’t know if this is the time for it. I don’t want to go into the reception. Feels wrong.”
“You brought the whole band.”
“We all felt…”
“Exactly the right thing to do. Hang on a minute.”
Eve walked down to where the family stood with Charles and Louise.
“Mr. Harbough, Dr. Harbough, my partner and I wanted to pay our respects.”
“Thank you. The girl from last night,” Julia began.
“She’s home by now, doing very well. We’re closer. I can only tell you I believe we’re closer to finding him.”
“She’d never say that if it wasn’t true.” Charles laid a hand on Julia’s arm.
Julia laid her hand over it. “You and Louise have been a huge help the last few days. We’ve been leaning hard.”
“No.” Louise shook her head. “We’ve leaned on each other.”
“We had Shane’s brother take our parents to the privacy room. They needed a few minutes. Louise, would you and Charles mind taking Reed into the reception?”
“Of course not.”
“But, Mom, it’s Jake Kincade. It’s Avenue A. They came.” It wasn’t excitement in his voice, but gratitude, Eve noted. “They came for Jenna.”
“I see. But you go on with Charles and Louise, okay? We won’t be long.”
“Jake would like to speak with you, but he doesn’t want to intrude.”
“It’s not an intrusion.” Together they walked toward where he stood with Nadine.
“Thank you so much for coming. Thank all of you so much.”
“Ma’am. I’m—we’re—so sorry.”
“Julia. Julia and Shane. I was the first person to hold her, then we held her together, didn’t we, Shane?”
“We did. I was terrified, but we did.”
“And you were the last to hold her. You held her when I couldn’t, when she needed holding. We’ll never forget you were there for her.”
Julia put her arms around him, let out a long sigh.
Obviously struggling, Shane cleared his throat. “Jenna admired you, so much. All of you. Avenue A? That was the bar of excellence—she called it that. The bar of excellence she wanted to reach. I’ve asked myself what it could mean that you were with her when she left us. I have to believe it was a gift. I need to believe that.”