Page 9 of Gabe

“And you’re certain this child is yours because...” I trailed off, letting her fill in the rest of the question on her own.

“I knew the boy’s father practically since we were born. You know the old story. Grew up as neighbors. High school sweethearts. Broke up when we went to college. The whole thing. And this boy...” She tapped the picture, accidentally zooming in on the kid’s face. “This boy is the spitting image of my ex at that age. I passed him on the street one day and I just knew. For years, I’d wondered what happened to him, and seeing him in person, I got curious. It was a closed adoption, so I hired an investigator to look into it for me. But the investigator found nothing. There’s no record I even gave birth. I kept looking, but no matter what I did, I kept hitting a dead end. According to the law, my son doesn’t exist. But I know he exists. I gave birth to him. That’s not something you just forget about.”

The pocket of her overalls was deeper than expected, and she pulled out a folder containing several pages of notes.

“This is everything I’ve been able to find, and also everything I remember about my son. Please. I’m not looking to take him back, especially if he’s in a good home. But I just want to make sure he’s okay.”

Taking the pages from her, I quickly scanned over the information.

I found what I was looking for right on the first page. The hospital where she’d given birth was already on our watch list. Several other children had gone missing from there. Tansie Bell and her son were just more victims to add to the list.

One more piece of evidence added to an ever-growing pile.

“There have been several other instances of parents like you, who surrendered their children for adoption only for the records of the child to disappear. We’re already looking into it. But thank you for bringing this to us. Is there anything else you can remember about the boy you saw? Something that might help us locate him.”

She thought it over for a second as her hands nervously tugged at one of her braids.

“I’m not sure. I was in such shock at the time, I barely managed to snap that single picture. He was with an adult, but I don’t remember much about them. I wrote down the exact location where I saw him. Will that help?”

Flipping through the pages, I found the correct information. It was extremely precise, not only listing the exact location, but also the date and time down to the minute. If there were any security cameras in the area, I’d definitely be able to find the right footage.

This might all be a wild goose chase. The kid might not even be hers, but her story aligned too well with the other missing kids Sebastian had discovered. That wasn’t something I could just ignore.

“Thank you, miss. I’ll look into it and let you know what I find.”

I gave her a number where she could safely reach me before grabbing my bag of books and standing from the table to leave. It was perhaps rude to make my exit so quickly, but I was on a time crunch and couldn’t waste time catering to social obligations.

As I turned to go, the woman stopped me.

“Agent... um, Agent Long. What do you think happened with my son? Is he okay? He’s not in any sort of danger, is he?”

Once upon a time, years ago, lying had been difficult for me. As a child, I’d been honest to the point of being brutal and it lost me many friends.

Now, I barely flinched as the words left my mouth.

“I’m sure everything is fine. It’s probably just a bureaucratic error that needs to be fixed.”

She breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s good. When I realized there was no record of him, I thought something terrible must have happened. It shouldn’t be so easy for children to just disappear.”

“No,” I wholeheartedly agreed. “No, it shouldn’t be so easy for children to disappear.”

CHAPTER 5

Gabe

After the meeting with Miss Tansie Bell, I wanted to immediately drive back to the safe house to check on everyone. However, I wasn’t done for the day.

Instead of returning to the safe house, I drove forty more minutes in the opposite direction, putting an even greater space between me and the people I needed to protect. It aggravated every nerve I had and tested my patience to its limit. I was left feeling more and more agitated with every mile that passed beneath the tires of my car, but it was necessary. Lily had given me two items of business to take care of, and I wanted to get them both out of the way before I met with the director tomorrow.

As I stood in the foyer of an empty apartment, listening for the sound of footsteps outside the door, I began to question that decision. Surely there were better things I could be doing with my time than standing around in the dark like an obsessive stalker.

What was taking the man so long?

According to his daily schedule, he usually arrived home about half an hour ago. Of all the days for this man to get delayed, it had to be the exact moment when I was waiting for him.

Nearly twenty more minutes of waiting finally paid off when the front door swung open on squeaky hinges.

I stood as still as possible.

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