Page 104 of Weight of Guilt

“Would he go with his father, if his father came?”

“His father’s a paramedic, and he was on a call. He’s on his way here now.”

Principal Rowe wrote that down. “Grandparents? Anybody else on the pickup list?”

“My sisters.” Wren was already scrolling for their numbers on her phone. “I’ll call them. But they would have told me if they came.”

She called Nora and Marlowe. No one knew anything. But her sisters insisted on heading to the school.

Time crawled by.

Wren stayed on her feet, sometimes pausing, sometimes pacing.

She looked over as the front doors opened. Cody rushed inside. He crossed the office in three strides and stopped in front of her, frantic energy emanating from him.

“Anything?” he asked. “Did you find Mason?”

“Everyone is sweeping the building, hoping for the best.” The words caught in her throat. But if she were truthful with herself, she didn’t believe Mason was here. Some kind of motherly instinct told her he was gone. That he’d been taken.

Just like Christian.

A cry lodged in her throat.

Luke came in behind Cody, and they all met Principal Rowe in the hallway.

“Cafeteria’s clear,” the principal told them. “So is the gym. We’re checking classrooms now.”

“Show me the cameras,” Luke said.

“Follow me.”

They all crowded into an office with multiple monitors. A security guard pulled up the footage, and they watched as he ran the north corridor.

There were so many people, it was hard to know what to look for. Wren kept searching for glimpses of Mason, for some kind of hint as to what had happened.

At 2:50 a man came through the door with a cardboard box against his hip.

“There!” Cody pointed at the screen. “Who is that guy?”

“I’m not sure,” Principal Rowe muttered.

Wren leaned closer, trying to get a better look.

The guy wore navy pants, a navy shirt, and a baseball cap. He kept his chin down and the box up.

In other words, he didn’t want anyone to see his face.

Just like the man at the hospital.

She wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen the man before or not—which she was sure was the point.

“Play that again.” Luke’s eyes narrowed as he watched the screen.

The security officer played the video again.

“Looks a little like the man at the hospital.” Luke looked at each person in the room. “Anyone recognize him?”

Principal Rowe shook his head. “No one we’ve talked to.”