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Sam looked at her sharply. There was something more in her voice—something worse was coming.
“Okay, sorry. Go on.”
“I got the impression that he was coming off some kind of drug. I asked him if he’d taken anything, but he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. So I asked what he’d eaten since he’d run away. Not much. He said he found some fireweed shoots and young stinging nettles, and then just today he caught a rabbit.”
“Let’s not get into the rabbit,” Molly said quickly. Sam hid a smile. Was she ever going to get over that rabbit? How did she think people fed themselves before cattle ranches and grocery stores?
Ani went on. “Then I asked him what was the last thing he ate at home. He couldn’t remember. I asked what he usually eats, and it took him a while to answer. When he did, it was vague. Chicken, moose, venison, vegetables from the garden. Bread. No specifics on how those things were prepared. It was odd.”
“Do you have a theory?”
“I do. You’re not going to like it. And it’s just a theory.”
Molly exchanged a glance with Sam. “We’re all about theories around here. We come up with a new one every few minutes. Let’s hear yours.”
“Okay.” She hauled in a slow breath. “I think they put something in his food. Some kind of drug. It dulls his cognition. That’s why he can remember some things but not others. He knows how to trap and dress a rabbit, but not what he had for dinner. Meals are when the drug gets into his system, so that’s when he’s most affected by it.”
Molly looked just as stunned as Sam felt. What kind of family drugged their own child? And why? And then another thought—had Soraya smuggled in those drugs in her birth control?
“There’s another thing.” Ani turned to Sam. “How do you know he’s a Chilkoot?”
“Excuse me?”
“Do you know much about where he was born, or when? He doesn’t even know his birthday. He doesn’t call his parents ‘mom’ and ‘dad.’”
Come to think of it, he’d never heard those terms from Soraya either. “They have kind of an extended family situation out there. Maybe they don’t follow the usual nuclear family traditions.”
“That could explain it. However…at the very end of our conversation, when he finally relaxed, Elias gave me a hint about why he left home.”
Sam could sense Molly holding her breath; this was what she most wanted to know.
“He said he’s been having strange recurring dreams about people who seem familiar, but he doesn’t know who they are. It confused him so much that he wanted some time to think. He came to this cabin but the dreams didn’t go away. They got stronger, less like dreams and more like memories.”
She paused, picking at one of the bangles on her wrist. She wore several, interspersed with woven friendship bracelets.
“Okay, so…” Molly prompted.
“I think there’s at least a chance that he isn’t their biological child, and that he’s remembering his real parents.”
29
“But the red hair…” said Molly as speculation churned through her mind. “He looks just like the rest of the family. And he’s never been out of Firelight Ridge.”
“Obviously I can’t speak to that. I’m just going by what I picked up during our interview.”
“So he’s adopted, or a foster kid?”
“He’s definitely not in the foster system.” Sam shook his head firmly. “There’s no fucking way they would work with a state agency like that. Or even an adoption agency, at least not a legit one.”
Molly didn’t disagree with that. “It could have been more of a casual adoption, like they took in the child of a distant family member who couldn’t handle him. That doesn’t involve adoption agencies.”
“It’s possible, I suppose,” Sam said. “Or it’s something worse.” He caught Molly’s eye. ”I wonder if that’s why they were shooting at us.”
“Shooting?” Ani gasped, her beautiful dark eyes widening as she wheeled on Sam. “Who are you, and what have you gotten my friend into?”
“No one gets me into anything I don’t want to be gotten into, you know that.” Molly waved away Ani’s worries. “I’ve promised to help Elias and I’m going to help Elias. I also promised to figure out if someone killed Daniel, and it all seems to be connected. So don’t blame it on Sam.”
“Someone has been killed?” Ani was looking more and more alarmed. “What is going on out here?”
