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"I don't even want to consider the possibility."
Will felt the same way, but it was something to keep in mind. Jackie Zabel's BMW was missing. The woman at City Foods this morning had been abducted right beside her car. Someone posing as a police officer could have easily fabricated a scenario to approach their vehicles.
Will said, "Charlie didn't find evidence of two different attackers being in the cave." He had to add, "Then again, he wasn't exactly eager to stay down there any longer than he had to."
"What was your impression when you were down there?"
"That I needed to get out of there before I had a heart attack," Will admitted, feeling the rat scratches on his arms start itching again. "It's not the kind of place you want to linger."
"We'll look at the photos. Maybe there's something you and Charlie didn't see in the heat of the moment."
Will knew that this was a distinct possibility. The photos of the cave would probably be on his desk by the time they got back to the office. They could examine the scene at leisure, the claustrophobia of the surroundings kept safely at arm's length.
"Two victims, Anna and Jackie. Maybe two abductors?" Faith made the next connection. "If that's their pattern, and Pauline McGhee is another victim, then they need a second victim."
"Hey," Leo called, waving them back. He stood at a door with a large sign on it.
"'Doctors' Lounge,'" Faith read, a habit she'd gotten into that Will both loathed and appreciated in unequal parts.
"Good luck," Leo said, patting Will on the shoulder.
Faith asked, "You're leaving?"
"The doc just handed me my ass on a platter." Leo did not look particularly bothered by the fact. "You guys can talk to the kid, but unless this breaks toward your case, I need you to stay away."
Will was slightly surprised by his words. Leo had always been more than happy to let other people do his work.
The detective said, "Trust me, I'd love to hand this over to you, but I got my bosses breathing down my neck. They're looking for any reason to kick me. I'll need a solid connection before I send this up the chain to get y'all on the case, all right?"
"We'll make sure you're covered," Faith promised. "Can you still keep a lookout for us on missing persons? White, mid-thirties, dark brown hair, successful, but not someone who's got a lot of friends who will miss her."
"Brown and bitchy." He gave her a wink. "What else I gotta do except gumshoe your case?" He seemed okay with it. "I'll be at the City Foods if anything comes up. You've got my numbers."
Will watched him go, asking, "Why are they pushing Leo out? I mean, other than the obvious reasons."
Faith had been Leo's partner for a few years, and Will could see her struggling with the desire to defend him. Finally, Faith said, "He's at the top of his pay scale. It's cheaper to have some fresh-faced kid just off patrol doing his job for half the pay. Plus, if Leo takes early retirement, he leaves twenty percent of his pension on the table. Throw in the medical, and it gets even more expensive to keep him around. The bosses look at that kind of thing when they're doing their budgets."
Faith was about to open the door, but stopped when her cell phone started ringing. She checked the caller ID and told Will, "Jackie's sister." She answered the phone, nodding for Will to go ahead without her.
Will's hand was sweating when he pressed his palm to the wooden door. His heart did something weird—almost a double beat—that he put down to lack of sleep and too much hot chocolate this morning. Then he saw Sara Linton, and it did it again.
She was sitting in a chair by the window, holding Felix McGhee in her lap. The boy was almost too big to be held, but Sara seemed to be managing it well. One arm was wrapped around his waist, the other around his shoulders. She used her hand to stroke his hair as she whispered sounds of comfort in his ear.
Sara had looked up when Will entered the room, but didn't let his presence disturb the scene. Felix stared blankly out the window, his lips slightly parted. Sara nodded toward a chair opposite, and Will guessed from the fact that it was less than six inches from Sara's knee that Leo had been sitting there. He pulled the chair back a few feet and sat down.
"Felix." Sara's voice calm and in control, the same tone she had used with Anna the night before. "This is Agent Trent. He's a policeman, and he's going to help you."
Felix kept staring out the window. The room was cool, but Will could see the boy's hair was damp with perspiration. A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek, and Will took out his handkerchief to wipe it away. When he looked back at Sara, she was staring at him as if he'd pulled a rabbit out of his pocket.
"Old habit," Will mumbled, embarrassed as he folded the cloth in two. He had been made well aware over the years that only old men and dandies carried handkerchiefs, but all the boys at the Atlanta Children's Home had been made to carry them, and Will felt naked without one.
Sara shook her head, as if to say she didn't mind. Her lips pressed to the top of Felix's head. The child didn't move, but Will had seen his eyes dart to the side, checking out Will, trying to see what he was doing.
"What's this?" Will asked, noticing a book bag beside Sara's chair. He guessed from the cartoon characters and bright colors that the bag belonged to Felix. Will slid it toward him and opened the zip, brushing away stray pieces of colored confetti as he explored the contents.
Leo would've already gone through everything in the bag, but Will took out each item as if he was carefully examining it for clues. "Nice pencils." He held up a packet of colored pencils. The packaging was black, not the kind of thing you usually saw on children's items. "These are for grown-ups. You must be a very good artist."
Will didn't expect a response, and Felix didn't give one, but the boy's eyes were watching carefully now, as if he wanted to make sure Will didn't take anything from his bag.
Next, Will opened up a folder. There was an ornate crest on the front, probably from Felix's private school. Official-looking documents from the school were in one pocket. What looked like Felix's homework was in the other. Will couldn't make out the school memos, but he could tell from the double-lined paper on the homework side that Felix was learning how to write on a straight line.
He showed this to Sara. "His letters are pretty good."
"They are," Sara agreed. She was watching Will as carefully as Felix was, and Will had to put her out of his mind so he didn't forget how to do his job. She was too beautiful, and too smart, and too much of everything Will was not.
He put the folder back in the book bag and pulled out three slim books. Even Will could make out the first three letters of the alphabet that adorned the jacket of the first book. The other two were a mystery to him, and he held them up to Felix, saying, "I wonder what these are about?" When Felix didn't answer, Will looked back at the jackets, squinting at the images. "I guess this pig works at a restaurant, because he's serving people pancakes." Will looked at the next book. "And this mouse is sitting in a lunchbox. I guess somebody's going to eat him for lunch."
