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“In the back.”
“Is that where he slept the last time he was here?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mind if we have a look?”
She rose and led them down the hall.
IT WAS THE FADED ROOMof a teenager from years ago. Old movie and music posters. Pictures of athletes from fifteen years past. A small gunmetal desk with a dusty PlayStation console and a pair of headphones. Some dog-eared Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels along with books of a technical nature were lined up on a small bookshelf. The bed was a twin and neatly made. The carpet was old and stained.
Decker and Jamison stood in the center of the small space and looked around, while Purdy remained in the doorway blinking away tears.
“I come in here sometimes and sit on his bed,” she said, staring at it. “He’s thirty now. Enlisted right out of high school. Time goes by so fast. Hard to believe. Seems like I just came home from the hospital with him.”
“Did he have a computer?” asked Jamison.
“One of them laptops. But he took that with him. We don’t get real good whatever-it’s-called, out here.”
“Internet connection? Broadband?” said Jamison.
“Yeah. He would always complain about that. But what can you do? Couldn’t up and move the dang farm.”
Decker opened the closet door and peered inside it. There were a few clothes on hangers. He went through the pockets. On the floor was a cardboard box. He pulled it out and set it on the bed. Inside were some books, magazines, and some loose printed pages. Decker looked at the books and magazines and ran his gaze over the pages. The books and magazines all dealt with technical subjects, mostly having to do with electronic communication applications. The loose pages were about various military installations in Maryland, Colorado, Arkansas, and California. Decker held them up. “Any idea why he was interested in these places?”
Purdy came forward and took the pages from him. “I don’t know. Maybe he was thinking about asking for a transfer there.”
“But they’re not all Air Force installations.”
Jamison said, “Or they could be from when he was thinking about enlisting years ago. He might not have settled on a service branch yet.”
“No,” said Decker, shaking his head. “There’s a time stamp at the bottom right of the page. It shows when it was printed out.”
Jamison looked at the dates. “About a year ago,” she said, giving him a confused look.
“You mind if we take these?” he asked Purdy.
“No, help yourself.”
They went back into the kitchen.
Purdy said, “Do you think I’ll see my son again?”
“I wish I could give you a straight answer on that, ma’am. I can tell you that we’ll do all in our power to find him.”
She put a hand on Decker’s arm. “Thank you for that.”
They took their leave and drove off, with Purdy in the doorway of the little house staring forlornly after them.
“I can’t imagine what she’s going through,” said Jamison. “Her only kid is missing and obviously involved in some dangerous things.”
Decker wasn’t listening. He was staring down at the pages he had taken, lost in thought.
Halfway through the trip it was well dark. They had just crossed back over into North Dakota when Jamison glanced in the rearview mirror. “Well, that’s the first pair of headlights I’ve seen in a long time.”
Decker looked in the side mirror and sat up straighter.
“Brace, Alex,” he called out, right as the front of the vehicle trailing them plowed into the rear of theirs.
