Raised by Wolves

Chapter 83

CHAPTER 83

AFTER LUNCH, ELLIS Howells calls Chester Greene to the stand.

The chief moves stiffly to the front of the room, obviously uncomfortable in his new suit and tie. He sits down and clears his throat, looking at Howells like he’d rather fight him in the street than answer his questions in a courtroom.

“We attempted to identify and locate Kai and Holo’s family,” the chief testifies. “But they do not remember their parents, and there were no reports of missing children matching Kai and Holo’s descriptions. They don’t know their last name, and if they have birth certificates, no one knows where they are.” He looks over toward our table and his eyes meet mine before flicking away again. “Kai and Holo might not officially exist.”

Howells paces the floor in front of the judge. “But what made you think you should take them home with you? What is it about these two children that causes the adults they encounter to lay spurious claims to them?”

“What does spurious mean?” Holo whispers.

“Shhh,” I hiss.

“It means false,” Lacey tells him. “I swear, if that you-know-what keeps talking, I’m going to—”

“Objection, Your Honor,” John Adkins blurts. “Conjecture.”

“Sustained.”

“What you need to know,” the chief says stiffly, “is that I became a police officer because I wanted to help people, and because I wanted to serve my community. I’ve always done what I thought was right and best. So when those two children came running out of the woods, wild and scared, what seemed best to me was to take care of them. You can’t do that in a jail. So I let them into my home. I told myself I could teach them about life among… well, among other humans.” He glances over at Holo and me again, and his expression softens. “Though I’m pretty sure they taught me more than I taught them.”

“That’s very poetic,” Howells says. “What I ask the court to remember is that you, Chief Greene, did not maintain contact with the proper authorities, including Ms. Pettibon. You did not go through official channels when you took those children into your home.”

“I didn’t know if they were lost, or if they were runaways, or if they were abandoned on purpose! All I know is that they were cared for . Kai and Holo were loved by Wendy, and they were loved by us.”

Howells practically sneers at this. “Love doesn’t negate laws ,” he says. “You talk as if Kai and Holo were stray kittens you could take home with you! But we don’t play finders keepers with human children.”

“I’m well aware of that fact,” the chief says. “But I was working on their case. I have been all along. But as far as I could tell, they had nowhere else to go.”

“Right. Until you discovered Wendy. And the whole entire past that Kai and Holo had lied about.” When the chief doesn’t say anything, Howells presses him. “You learned that these two adolescents had been lying about where they lived.”

The chief sighs. “Yes.”

“But Kai and Holo still did not reveal their true identities.”

The chief throws up his hands. “Because they don’t know them!” he cries. “Look,” he goes on, “say a girl runs away from home and she winds up on the streets. She meets a boy out there. They grow up together, sleeping rough in Seattle or Boise. Eventually they have a couple of kids themselves. They do this all on their own. They live their lives off the grid and under the radar. And so when they go missing in the woods, no one notices that they’re gone. No one knows to look for the two little kids they left behind, whether on purpose or not. Thank God that Wendy was living out there in the national forest. Otherwise a hunter or a hiker would have stumbled across two tiny, frozen corpses.”

I swear I hear a stifled sob from the back of the room. Wow, does someone actually feel sorry for the kids they called animals—freaks?

“That’s quite a story, Chief Greene,” Howells says.

“You got a better theory?” the chief challenges. “The point is, the story I just told has a happy ending—that is, if you and the state of Idaho will stay out of it. Kai and Holo have people who love them and will take care of them until we can find their next of kin. And Wendy Marsden, who was lost for decades, has been found.”

Howells smiles smugly. “And you are of the opinion that Wendy should continue to raise Kai and Holo?”

The chief hesitates. Lacey goes tense.

“Yes,” the chief finally says. His voice is emotionless. “I am of that opinion.”

Lacey’s shoulders slump down. She reaches for my hand and squeezes it. “I knew I couldn’t keep you,” she whispers. “But I wanted to.”