Edwin Senior held out his hand. “The sergeant here has told us about you. We really appreciate your help.”
Gunnar shook his hand then Bryn stepped forward. He did a double-handed shake that allowed him to grip Edwin’s wrist as well as his palm.
“We’re so sorry you’re going through this.” He followed suit with Rosalie. “This must be incredibly difficult for you, ma’am.” He stepped back.
“Sergeant, perhaps you could bring us up to speed with the search,” Gunnar said.
“Let me get this last group on the way. Mr. and Mrs. Jones, you should go wait by the phone.”
Rosalie burst into tears and her husband escorted her into the house, an arm around her shaking shoulders.
“Convincing, aren’t they?” Kaminski said.
“Yeah, how sure are you that they’re behind the kid’s disappearance?”
“Ninety-eight percent.”
“So why the search parties if the kid’s supposed to have been taken by his own parents?”
“The ransom call. The threat was that the child will be killed and left in the forest if the ransom isn’t paid by six tomorrow morning. We have to assume that he’s already in there somewhere. The forest is inaccessible. There are very few drivable tracks and wardens patrol the most frequented areas. It’s possible the child was taken somewhere days before we were called in and with the parents here, he might be alone.”
“Let’s go somewhere private and Bryn can tell you what he saw.”
Kaminski gave Bryn a curious look. “It’s true then, you’re an augur?”
Bryn nodded. “Lucky me.”
The three of them made their way to a storage shed that had a table set up in front of it with drinks and snacks for the searchers. There was nobody within hearing distance.
“Okay,” said Gunnar, “what did you see?”
“A bit of a disclaimer first, Sergeant. These were really fast reads compared to what I usually do. My default is to see a person’s strongest memory. Seeing their intent, or the future if you like, takes longer so I couldn’t do that. I’d need more contact time.”
“Fair enough.”
“So, Mr. Jones’ strongest memory is his wife telling him their son is missing. His emotions were intense. Desperate worry was the overriding feeling. I can say with certainty that he had no knowledge of his son’s disappearance prior to that moment.”
Sergeant Kaminski frowned. “Unexpected, but go on.”
“Mrs. Jones’ most powerful memory is of driving her unconscious child into the forest then trekking through the trees. She was with a man, who carried the child. She was annoyed, struggling with the terrain and impatient.”
“Fuck. Who would have put money on the mother?” The sergeant’s expression darkened. “At least our instinct to start searching was right. We could have wasted so much time already.”
“It’sherfather who has money, isn’t it?” Gunnar asked. “Maybe daddy objected to her marriage or there’s some other reason she thinks he owes her?”
“I couldn’t tell how long ago they took the child into the forest,” Bryn said. “We need to go find him.”
“There are coyotes and black bears out there,” Sergeant Kaminski said.
“Show me the maps,” Gunnar said. “We can direct the search teams to potential spots then Bryn and I will go out ourselves. A wolf’s nose might help. Bryn, is there anything you saw that could help pinpoint a location?”
Bryn closed his eyes. His recall of what he’d seen was always perfect, though most of the time he wished he could forget. “Trees. A lot of fucking trees. The path is very narrow, overgrown. It’s sloping downward.” He clenched a fist.
“Relax,” Gunnar murmured. “The smallest thing could help.”
“Bird box! Up a tree. Quite high. There’s a number painted on it but I can’t see it all. Three something.” Bryn opened his eyes, swayed and made a grab for Gunnar’s arm. “Sorry. Head rush.”
“Let me go grab one of the park wardens,” Kaminski said. “They might know about the boxes.” He ran across the yard and returned with an older woman. “Alice can tell us,” he said.
