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“Her previous caseworker quit.”

“Paul quit?” Barbra asks with her brows tight. “Why have they not called to tell me this?”

“They’re playing catch-up. I believe the only reason I got a call is because I have been emailing and calling, trying to get information.”

“You said that you learned something new,” Steven says, and I open the file folder in front of me and pull out a photo of Ezra, flipping it around. He’s cute, with hair a shade darker than his sister’s, big brown eyes, and a gap-toothed smile.

“Does he look familiar to you?” I look between Steven and Barbra.

“No.” Barbra picks up the photo and examines it. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before.”

“Who is he?” Steven asks while Lucas looks at the photo his father is now holding.

“That’s Romey’s brother.”

“She doesn’t have a brother,” Barbra whispers, and I meet her gaze.

“She does. He’s her brother on her father’s side.”

“I’ve seen this kid before,” Lucas says, cutting into the conversation, and we all focus on him, but he’s looking at his dad. “Remember a few weeks back when I drove the kids to that jump place Romey wanted to go to because her friends were all going, but they bailed?”

“I remember,” Barbra says, looking around her husband to meet Lucas’s gaze.

“She had been with this kid, actually she and the boys both were. They all hung out the entire time we were there.”

“Are you sure it was him?” I ask him, and he focuses on me.

“Yeah, I . . .” He shakes his head. “Barb had given me money to get the kids food, and I remember Romey asking if I’d pay for the kid to have something, too, which I thought was weird.”

“How old is he?” Steven asks.

“Eight.”

“He’s Henry and Jackson’s age.” He looks over at his wife, and a silent conversation ensues before Barbra looks at me.

“Why would her caseworker not tell us about him?”

“I don’t have an answer to that question, but I do think that the two of them might be together.”

“With their dad?”

“No,” I tell Barbra softly. “Ezra has been living with a foster family for a month and has been missing for just as long as Romey has been gone.”

She gasps. “Oh my god.”

I focus on Lucas. “How was your relationship with Romey?”

He looks over at his dad, but Steven is busy comforting his wife. “I didn’t live in the house when she moved in, but I’d say we were cool.”

“You and she are closer in age than she and your younger brothers are. Did she ever confide in you about anything going on in her life?”

“No, I mean sometimes she would talk about things happening at school or whatever, but nothing outside of that.”

I nod and ask, “The last time you spoke with her was the night before she left?”

“Yeah, we talked a little at dinner, but then I took off to hang with a friend. I got home late.”

“What time was that?”