Page 127 of Weight of Guilt

Wren straightened, unable to take this anymore. She had to find Mason, not deal with all of this. “I’m going to the sheriff’s office.”

Nora turned from the kitchen. “Wren⁠—”

“I can’t stay here.” She grabbed her coat from the back of a chair. “If something comes in about Mason, I want to be where it happens.”

“You can’t make them find him faster,” Nora said.

“I know.” Wren shoved one arm into her coat. “But I can’t sit here while everybody else knows more than I do.”

“You have to be careful, Wren,” Mom said. “Please. I just got one child back. I can’t lose another one.”

It was the most motherly thing her mom had said in years.

She gave her mom a hug. “I will be. I promise.”

“I’ll take you to the station.” Nash reached for his keys. “I wanted to stop by anyway.”

Wren looked at him, gratitude warming her heart. “Thank you.”

Nash might not know it, but he was a true answer to prayer.

Chapter

Sixty-Three

The sheriff’s office looked like a war zone.

Every chair in the lobby had been shoved against the walls. Folding tables filled the open space, covered with laptops, maps, half-empty coffee cups, and cords running in every direction.

People moved everywhere. Deputies. FBI agents. Men and women she didn’t recognize, who wore windbreakers with letters across the backs.

Phones constantly rang.

Wren took two steps inside and stopped.

Someone had taped an enlarged picture of Mason to the wall.

Her chest tightened.

It was his second-grade school picture. Blue background. Hair combed neatly in a way it never stayed for more than ten minutes.

Underneath it, somebody had typed MASON LOVELESS, AGE 7.

Nash stopped beside her. “You okay?”

She kept staring at the picture. “No.”

“Wren.” Luke strode toward them from the other side of the room, Prine joining him.

Both were dressed in the same clothes they’d worn last night.

Wren met them halfway. “Anything?”

Luke’s expression answered before he did. “Nothing solid.”

Her stomach sank anyway. “What does that mean?”

Prine tucked her phone into the pocket of her windbreaker. “We’ve had eleven tips since midnight. Each one has been checked. We’ve got people going through traffic cameras between here and Sevierville. CARD is working both directions off the state route.”