He pushed the plate away and sat up straighter. "The truth. Once we know what that is."

"It's Christmas. Little kids are supposed to bask in the festivity and make wish lists and eat too much candy, not lose their mothers."

Sophie wanted Kade to agree, and she wanted him to take her in his arms the way he'd done on Sunday. She wanted him to kiss away her sadness and tell her they would work things out for the little boy they both loved. Together.

He didn't.

"Christmas or not, Sophie, he already knows." The chair rollers rattled as he shoved up from his seat and went to the single window. Through clenched teeth, he said, "He always knew. That sweet little kid has carried the terrible knowledge all this time. And he couldn't tell us."

"Oh, Kade." She couldn't stand it any longer. She went to him, slid both arms around his rigid back and pressed her cheek against his flannel shirt.

He gripped each side of the window with a hand as if holding on could keep him from feeling. But she knew people. She knew him. And he was aching inside.

"You did everything you could, Kade."

"Not enough."

"I can't imagine what you went through last night, but it had to be awful."

The muscles of his back tightened. "It's my job."

"You're a man. With a big heart. Who loves that woman's boy." With slow circles of her palm, Sophie rubbed the tension between his shoulder blades and silently prayed for him.

He went right on staring out the window at the bleak December landscape and said nothing for the longest time.

He wanted to be the strong one, even when he was hurting. He was the guardian, the protector.

"You don't have to be strong for me, Kade," she said gently. "I know you're upset."

He turned then and touched her face, a tender look in his eyes. Her heart filled. She was certain he had something more to say, but his cell phone interrupted.

After a glance at the caller ID, he said, "The police chief," and answered.

The conversation was brief and as he slowly slid the phone into his jacket, he said, "He found something in the house he wants me to see. He says it's important."

Chapter Eleven.

Kade knew only one way to tell her. Straight-out.

Adrenaline pumping from the discovery, he drew in a deep breath, leaned both palms on her round dining table and said, "Davey was born without a voice."

Sophie's gray eyes widened with shock. "But that doesn't make sense. I thought only deaf children were born mute."

Kade had been as stunned as Sophie when Chief Rainmaker showed him the fat notebook crammed with wide-rule paper and dark, scribbled cursive. He'd spent an hour browsing through the rambling, sometimes erratic writings.

"Apparently not," he said, voice low. Davey and Sheba were only a few feet away in the small living room watching cartoons. Even now, the zippy music of Tom and Jerry seeped through the walls, a contrast to the serious discussion going on here. "We don't know the whole story-and we may never-but at least we have some information, thanks to a journal kept by Melissa Stephens, Davey's mother."

"And she wrote that Davey has never spoken?" Sophie slowly withdrew a chair from the table and slumped onto the seat. "Ever?"

"Never."

Stunned, she propped her elbows on the gleaming cherry wood and rested her chin on folded hands. "I can't quite come to grips with that."

Her hair swung forward. Kade resisted the urge to brush it back, to feel the silkiness on his skin. Duty first. Always.

"Neither could she, apparently." He tugged a chair close to hers and straddled it, too juiced to sit for long. Seeing the pieces of an investigative puzzle come together did that to him. "She wrote long, stress-filled pages about his illness, as she termed it. She had some notion her mistakes had caused the problem."

Sophie turned her face toward him. "What had she done?"

Kade shrugged a palm. "She never said. Maybe she never knew."

The journal's discovery had eased his anxiety, as he hoped it would Sophie's once she'd absorbed the shock. Davey had not been abused or mistreated, at least not in the ways he'd imagined. If Melissa Stephens parented poorly, she did so out of ignorance and fear.

"Appears she worried about everything. Worried D.H.S would take him away. Worried he'd be bullied at school. She was phobic about her mute son."

"So she didn't take him out into the world. At least not very much."

"Right. Not even to school. She was terrified of school authorities, although she mentioned homeschooling at one point."

Sophie's folded hands thudded to the tabletop. "I have my doubts about that."

"I think she did her best." He dangled his fingers over the top of the chair and onto Sophie's forearm in a light tickle of reassurance. "In her own way, she loved him, but she was a scared, lonely woman with no apparent support system. She was afraid to go out in public, afraid of people."

In a gesture so natural Kade didn't notice in time to resist, Sophie turned one hand up and laced her fingers with his. "Agoraphobia?"

So much for duty first. Aw, who was he kidding? Sophie and Davey came first, no contest.

"Maybe," he said. "Hard to say because she doesn't appear to have sought treatment."

"What about her family? Didn't she have relatives to help her?"

"The police are checking into that. Into all her background for that matter. But the journal mentions no one but Davey."

"That's incredibly sad."

"Yeah."

He squeezed her fingers, letting her in close now that he'd gotten himself under control. Hard as it was to admit, he needed this, needed her.

Earlier, when the discovery of the body had been so raw inside him, he'd feared imploding right before Sophie's eyes. He wanted to be strong for her. For both of them.

"You're exhausted," she said softly.

He was tired to the marrow, but there would be no sleep today. Probably not tonight, either. "I'm okay."

She rose and came around behind to knead the knotty slope of his shoulders.

He tensed, the hard knots tightening to the breaking point. "You don't have to-"

"I know," she said, a smile in her voice as she stroked along his hairline. "I want to. Relax."

Relax? When his heart had shifted into overdrive?

She karate chopped the top of his shoulders. "I said relax, McKendrick. Don't make me have to hurt you."

Sophie hurt him? He chuckled, and when he did, the cords of stress in his neck eased.

"That's it," Sophie said. "Let go."

Let go? He wanted to grab her and never let go.

But he kept those random thoughts to himself and let his head fall forward in a pendulum sway.

"You're pretty strong for a girl."

She gave him another karate chop. "Watch it, buster."

He chuckled again and let himself relish the surprising strength of Sophie's fingers against his tight, tight muscles.

Last night's ugliness dimmed a bit. Being with Sophie had that power.

Doing his best not to drool, he dropped his head deeper and deeper until his forehead rested on the chair back. Sophie massaged and hummed while in the living room Scooby and Shaggy raced around saving the world.

He wished it was that easy.

After a while, his neck felt like putty and he fought the urge to doze. Sleeping on the job was not allowed.

Reluctantly, he placed a hand on Sophie's to stop the glorious kneading.

"Thanks," he said. The word came out in an embarrassing slur. He cleared his throat and sat up straight.

"Better?" she asked, coming around to his side.

"Much." He drew in a deep, cleansing breath. Her macaroon scent swirled into his brain. A man could get used to this, he thought. With her around, he'd go soft as a marshmallow in record time.

Right now, he couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad one.

"What now?" she asked and the simple question jerked him back to the terrible reality of death and an orphaned child.

"We have to tell him."

"Yes. He needs to know, and he needs our assurance that he did everything he could and nothing was his fault."

Raking a hand over his mouth and chin, he sighed a noisy sigh. Reality stunk. "He has bad dreams."

"I'm not surprised," she said. "I doubt if he really understands what transpired. Those awful days are inside him and he can't share what he knows or fears."

Kade pushed up from the chair, heart heavy with dread. So much for the relaxing massage.

"All right, then," he said. "Let's do it."

The conversation went easier than either adult expected. Davey had known his mother was gone, and even though his eyes filled with tears, he seemed relieved when Kade told him he'd done the right things and his mother was simply too sick to get better.

Sophie made comments about heaven and Jesus and how much Davey's mother loved him. Kade cleared his throat a couple of times, moved by her gentle compassion and the way Davey clung to every word. And to Kade's neck.

"She knew how much you loved her, too," Sophie said, touching the place over Davey's heart.

He nodded, fat tears quivering on his pale eyelashes. Kade tightened his hold on the skinny waist and tugged him closer, wishing he could absorb the pain and let Davey go free. Davey's thin arms clung with a desperation that ripped Kade's heart out.

Sheba, with her dog sensibility, nudged close to her favorite child and whined. Davey reached a grubby, nail-bitten hand to Sheba's head. The connection seemed to comfort them both.

The four of them, man and woman, boy and dog, were locked in a circle of grief and love. For all his determination to remain aloof and professional, Kade accepted that he was done for. No matter what happened from here, he was connected by this experience. To these people. Letting go would not be easy. Not now.

Over Davey's head, he met Sophie's questioning gaze. He nodded, signaling agreement. Davey would grieve and process in the hours and days ahead. They'd help him all they could. If there was a chance he could talk again...

"Davey?" Sophie asked, stroking his hair the way she'd stroked Kade's, kneading and tender and comforting all at once.

Davey raised his head from Kade's chest and left a warm spot on his shirtfront, right over his heart.

Sophie handed him a tissue from her pocket, and Kade almost smiled. The teacher was always prepared.

"Have you ever been able to speak?"

The adults knew the answer, but Kade also knew where Sophie was leading. The sooner they started, the sooner they'd know if Davey could be helped.

Davey scrubbed the tissue over his tearstained cheeks and shook his head no.

"Did your mama ever take you to a doctor to have your throat checked?"

The small face screwed up in thought before he shook his head again.

Sophie and Kade exchanged glances. No big surprise there.

"Add that to your Christmas list," he murmured, tugging Davey back to his chest. For some reason, he couldn't keep his hands off the hurting boy. Though, come to think of it, Davey seemed to be handling things better than the adults.

Of course, he'd been dealing with his mother's death these past few weeks on his own. Amazing kid.

"I'll call the clinic today." Sophie sat back on her heels. "Dr. Stampley didn't discover anything amiss before, but he mentioned more tests. We were going to see an ENT after the first of the year anyway. Maybe we can move things up."

If there was any way to help Davey, Kade was all over it. He'd even pay for the office call. "I'll take him myself. Anywhere, anytime. Name the day."