Where the Forest Meets the Stars(88)

She nodded again, wiping her eyes with the soaked tissue.
“Gabe never said anything. The other day when I asked how things were going, he texted back one word: Good .”
“He has been good,” she said. “I haven’t seen him so happy since he was a young kid. Because of you. You made all of this happen.”
“Technically, we have to say Ursa did.”
“With her quarks?”
“Gabe told you about that?”
“He told me all about her. Please forgive me for calling the sheriff on that poor little girl.”
“You were right to do it. I should have, but I was mired in irrational behavior.”
“Because you love her. Let my husband help you.”
“I guess I can use any help that’s offered. What should I do?”
She pulled a phone from her purse and texted someone. When she finished, she said, “He’s out in the car. He’s coming up.”
“Your husband?”
“Yes, Troy Greenfield, your kickass lawyer.”


37

Troy, a genial, stocky man, had Jo tell the whole story right there in the hospital visitors’ lounge. He asked lots of questions and took copious notes.
When she went back to her hotel, Jo wasn’t necessarily more hopeful about her chances of getting Ursa, but she felt better because she would have fewer regrets. She would know she’d done as much as she could.
Lenora Rhodes and Dr. Shaley disappeared for several days. Now that Ursa was well enough to leave the hospital, they would decide where she would live. Three days after Lacey’s visit, Troy called Jo just before she left her hotel room. “I have good news and not-so-good news,” he said.
Jo’s heart pounded wildly.
“You aren’t going to be charged,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“It took a while to make them say it definitively, but I pestered them into giving an answer. I told them we needed to know because we were going to hire John Davidson—a talented defense lawyer—if you were charged.”
“Is that why they didn’t charge me? They were afraid of Davidson?”
“In all honesty, I doubt that had much to do with it. I had a long talk with Detective Kellen last night, and it mostly boils down to his admiration for Gabe. If you were charged, Gabe was in the crosshairs as well—because Ursa had spent many days on his property. Both McNabb and Kellen hated to see Gabe punished.”
“Am I imagining this sounds really chauvinistic?”
“You aren’t, and I argued that point. That was when Kellen made it clear he’s always been on your side. He respects your drive to help a child you didn’t even know. And your case was strengthened by what that first deputy told you the night you called the sheriff. I asked them to question him—”
“Kyle Dean?”
“Yes, and he admitted he’d given you opinions about foster care, very personal opinions, that might have confused you. McNabb had been leaning toward charging you, but when he saw that the questionable behavior of one of his deputies would be a key factor in the trial, he backed off.”
“Wow. Lacey is right—you are a kickass lawyer.”
“Thank you,” he said, chuckling.
Jo was relieved, but she couldn’t much appreciate Troy’s good news when his not-so-good news was about to slam her.
“As for Ursa,” Troy said, “I’ve made no headway with the social workers, and I can’t apply law to their decision about her future. I’m sorry to tell you, I think they’ve chosen a foster family for her.”
“I think they have, too.”
“I’ll stay on it, Jo. Let’s not give up yet.”
“Can you get me visiting rights or something like that?”
“As a nonrelative, you have no legal right to visit her. You’d have to work that out with the social workers and the foster family. But I’ll look into it, okay?”
“Okay. Thank you for everything you’ve done.” She could hardly see the end button on the phone through her tears.
Lenora was in Ursa’s room when Jo got there. She took Jo into the hallway and broke the news. Ursa’s prospective foster parents would visit Ursa after lunch. She requested that Jo not be there when they met, and she also asked her to help Ursa accept that she soon would go home with them.
“Did you even consider me?” Jo asked.
“Joanna . . . how could we?”
“Why not?”
“We try to place children in two-parent homes—”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. Ursa has clearly stated what she wants, and it’s not a mother and a father who are complete strangers. And you know, I have as many resources and qualifications as a married couple.”
“It’s not only that you’re single. It’s everything else in addition to that.”
“What?”
“You’re in school. Your health status is uncertain. And we can’t ignore the child endangerment situation.”
“They aren’t charging me.”
“Charged or not, you displayed poor judgment.”
“Now that you know what Ursa is like, do you think I could have done better? She was going to run if I got the police involved, and I knew she was safer with me than on the run.”
“You know there was more to what you did than that.”
“Like what?”
“You were mothering her.”
“And that eliminates me as a candidate to be foster parent?”
“It’s why you did that worries us. You’d just lost your mother and had your reproductive organs removed.”