this case stand out?”
“Besides the fact that his father was a national hero who died serving his country, the kid has epilepsy. There’s an urgency here because the mother’s terrified he’s had a seizure somewhere.”
If anyone could find the boy, Gage was the man. His partner was known as The Bloodhound and he specialized in missing children cases. He had an uncanny knack for finding lost kids.
Cale had often wondered if his partner’s own history gave him some kind of sixth sense, some inner eye that guided his actions.
On the other hand, he had his own grim history and his past usually seemed more of a hindrance than a help.
“What do you see as our role here?”
“Purely advisory at this point, providing assistance to the local investigators as needed.”
Judging by the bright flash of emergency vehicles against the night sky, they were approaching the boy’s house. Gage climbed a slight grade and the whole chaotic scene stretched ahead of them.
In the strobing glow from a dozen cop cars and search and rescue vehicles, Cale saw the house was a two-story log structure with a steeply pitched gable on one end and a wide porch along the front.
A basketball standard hung from the detached garage, and two bikes were propped against the porch.
Most of the vehicles were parked some distance from the house. He saw this as a good sign that local authorities had been careful to protect the scene as much as possible.
Gage pulled in next to a van with the logo of one of the local TV stations emblazoned on the side. Then the two of them headed for the house.
They showed their badges to the uniform cop at the door. Once inside, Cale’s gaze was instinctively drawn to a woman on the couch. Though she was surrounded by a bevy of uniformed personnel, somehow she seemed alone in the room.
The mother. It had to be. She was small and red-haired, with a wispy haircut and delicate features that just now looked ravaged.
He could fill a chapel with the faces of all the grieving mothers he’d had to face in his career, but somehow each one managed to score his heart anyway.
He forced himself to turn away from her raw devastation, focusing instead on a dark-haired, muscular man who stood in the center of the action, towering above everyone else.
The Moose Springs sheriff was no stranger to him, and it looked as if Daniel Galvez had the situation well in hand.
Galvez made eye contact with him briefly, then broke off his conversation with the officer and headed in their direction, his big hand outstretched.
“Davis! Sorry I had to drag you boys from the FBI down here already, but we don’t want to miss anything on this one.”
“No problem,” Cale said. “This is my partner, Gage McKinnon.”
The two men shook hands. “I know you don’t have time to babysit us,” Gage began, “but can you just spare a minute to bring us up to speed on the search so far?”
Galvez shook his head. “We’re baffled. The kid seems to have vanished. At this point, we haven’t turned up any signs that anyone else was involved but we just don’t know.”
“What about friends? Could he have snuck out to meet up with someone?”
“He doesn’t have many. His cousins, mostly. Megan and the kids only moved to town a few months ago.”
“What about search dogs?”
“They’re on their way. They’ve been in Wyoming looking for a lost hiker but should be here by the time the sun comes up, when we can mount a full-scale search of the surrounding mountains.”
“What about closer to home?” Cale said with a meaningful look at the mother.
Galvez suddenly looked tired. “I just don’t know. My gut’s saying no. Like I said, the family has only been here a few months, but as far as I can tell there’s nothing in their background to point any fingers to the mother. From all accounts, Megan Vance is a devoted mother who’s had a rough road.”
She certainly looked devastated by her son’s disappearance, Cale thought with another glance at the woman on the couch. But he knew outward appearances could sometimes hide rotten insides.
“You said they’ve only been here a few months,” he said. “Where were they before they moved?”
“San Diego.”
“Why the move?”
“Mrs. Vance’s sister lives about a half mile down the road with her husband and four children,” he answered. “Molly and Scott Randall. I gather Mrs. Vance wanted to be closer to family. It would be tough raising two kids by yourself.”
Sometimes the strain of twenty-four-hour single parenting could make even the most seemingly devoted parent crack. Cale had seen it before and he wasn’t willing to rule anything out yet.
“I’m assuming you want to talk to Megan Vance,” Galvez said.
No. He wanted to stay as far as possible from that traumatized-looking woman on the couch. But he knew his job.
“Definitely.”
His partner gave him a careful look. His shoulder ached. Cale wondered how long it would be before everybody stopped looking at him as if he were a big bundle of unstable plastic explosives just waiting for an ignition source.
He returned Gage’s scrutiny with cool regard, and after a moment the other agent nodded.
“You run the mother. I’ll go talk to the crime scene unit and see if they’ve come up with anything,” McKinnon said.
He headed up the stairs and Cale turned toward the mother. Up close, Megan Vance looked even more fragile. Breakable, like an antique pitcher teetering on the edge of a shelf.
She clasped her hands tightly together on her lap, but he could see even that couldn’t still their trembling. Her whole body shook, he saw as he approached. Not constantly, but every few seconds, a shiver would rack her slight frame.
“Mrs. Vance, I’m Special Agent Caleb Davis with the Salt Lake office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I wonder if I could have a minute of your time.”
The woman next to her bristled. She was older and rounder than Megan Vance but shared the same brilliant green eyes. The sister, he guessed. “She’s told you all what happened a million times already. How many times do you people have to put her through this?”
“Molly, it’s all right,” Megan said, her voice quiet but determined. “Will you grab another cup of coffee for me? Agent Davis?”
He shook his head. The sister looked reluctant, but she rose and left them alone.
Megan Vance faced him, her hands tight together and her remarkable eyes filled with raw emotion. For one insane moment, he was stunned and appalled by his urge to gather her close and promise
