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The boy’s face showed nothing, and he kept his mouth shut. “Is that for luck, too?”
“No.” Joh
“Joh
“Did you see in the news last week? When they found that girl that was abducted in Colorado? You know the one?”
“I know the one.”
“She’d been gone for a year and they found her three blocks from her own house. She was less than a mile away the whole time. A mile from her family, locked up in a dirt hole dug into the wall of the cellar. Walled up with a bucket and mattress.”
“Joh
“They showed pictures on the news. A bucket. A candle. A filthy mattress. The ceiling was only four feet high. But they found her.”
“That’s just one case, Joh
“They’re all like that.” Joh
“That’s not always true.”
“But sometimes. Sometimes it is.”
Hunt stood as well, and his voice came softly. “Sometimes.”
“Just because you quit doesn’t mean that I have to.”
Looking at the boy and at his desperate conviction, Hunt felt a great sadness. He was the department’s lead detective on major cases, and because of that, he’d taken point on Alyssa’s disappearance. Hunt had worked harder than any other cop to bring that poor child home. He’d spent months, lost touch with his own family until his wife, in despair and quiet rage, had finally left him. And for what? Alyssa was gone, so gone they’d be lucky to find her remains. It didn’t matter what happened in Colorado. Hunt knew the statistics: Most were dead by the end of the first day. But that made it no easier. He still wanted to bring her home. One way or another. “The file is still open, Joh
Joh
Detective Hunt’s hand settled on the handlebar. He felt specks of rust and heat from the sun. “I’ve cut you a lot of slack. I can’t do it anymore. This needs to stop.”
Joh
“But that’s just it, Joh
“You may think that’s true, but you don’t know anything.”
For a long second the detective held his eyes. He saw how they went from fierce to frightened, and understood how much the kid needed his hope. But the world was not a kind place to children, and Hunt had reached the limit with Joh
“I can take care of myself.”
The words sounded automatic and weak, so Hunt lowered his voice. “I can’t do anything if you won’t talk to me.”
Joh
“Joh
The kid kept walking.
“Joh
When he stopped, Hunt walked the bike over to him. The spokes clicked as the wheels turned. Joh
“Okay.”
“I don’t want to hear about you doing this again.”
Joh
“You’ll go straight to school?”
Silence.
Hunt looked at the clean, blue sky, then at the boy. His hair was black and wet, his jaw clenched. “Be careful, Joh
CHAPTER FOUR
People were not right. The cop had that part straight. Joh
He was careful.
He was smart.
Joh
The cop scared him, and Joh
Five.
The number popped into his head.
Five bruises.
He pedaled harder, pumped his legs until the shirt on his back clung like a second skin. He went north to the far edge of town, to the place where the river slid beneath the bridge and widened out until the current went flat. He rode his bike down the bank and dropped it. Blood pounded in his ears and he tasted salt. His eyes burned from it, so he wiped at them with a grubby sleeve. He used to fish here with his father. He knew where to find the bass and the giant cats that hugged the mud five feet down, but none of that mattered. He never fished anymore, but he still came here.
This was still his place.
He sat in the dust to untie his shoes. His fingers shook and he did not know why. The shoes came off, then he touched the feather to his cheek and wrapped it in his shirt. The sun put fierce heat on his skin, and he looked at the bruises, the largest of which was the size and shape of a large man’s knee. It wrapped around the ribs on his left side and he remembered how Ken held him down with that knee, shifted his weight whenever Joh
Joh
You’ll fucking do what I fucking say…
Open hand slaps to Joh
You little shit…
Another slap, harder.
Where’s your daddy now?
The bruise had yellowed out on the edges, gone green in the middle; and it hurt when he pushed it with a finger. The skin went white for a second-another perfect oval-then the color rushed in. Joh
Joh
Silence.
“I know it’s you, Jack.”
Joh