“Mr. DeVor, we got here as quickly as we could,” Will said, shaking the man’s hand as well. “What happened?”
“I didn’t want your help,” the man said bluntly, his voice deep and rough. “My family are all out looking for him, but my wife insisted we call you.”
Violet DeVor glared at her husband from her spot across the room. She couldn’t seem to keep still, her hands twisting in her cardigan in a way that reminded me of Alex. Unlike Jean, Violet genuinely looked worried.
“Well, I’m glad she did. With this much ground to cover, it’s a good idea to have as many people searching as possible,” Will said. To his credit, he kept it professional, no hint of judgment in his voice. It took an effort for me not to respond, though. What kind of parent didn’t want help when their child went missing?
“Landon knows how to handle himself in the woods. He’ll be fine.”
“Well, just to be safe, we’re happy to help look for him,” I said. “Can you tell us what happened? How long has he been gone?”
Jean muttered something under his breath. I didn’t catch it, but Violet must have, because she finally moved away from the wall and joined us. Where her husband was tall and barrel-chested, she was shorter and stocky, but carried herself with the grace of a dancer even in the middle of this chaos.
“Thank you both for coming,” she said. “The last time I saw Landon was shortly after school, so about four or five hours ago. He and Amelie were going to walk to the Perez house and see Rebecca. She’s still not allowed to go anywhere, so they were going to hang out.”
“Is Amelie alright? Did she see anything?” Will asked quickly.
Violet shook her head. “She didn’t go. Just before they left, she was out in the back pasture helping her uncle round up the horses before the storm hits. Something must have spooked them, because her horse threw her and she banged up her knee pretty badly. She’s in the kitchen.”
“So Landon decided to go alone?” I asked. Something she’d said sparked something in the back of my mind, but it was still too vague to make out at the moment.
“Yes, he did. He’s friends with Rebecca’s brother, too. I already called Eva Perez and she hasn’t seen him,” she added, anticipating our next question.
“He wouldn’t have met up with anyone and decided to go do something else?” Will asked and I noticed he said it carefully, likely trying to avoid implying anything about Landon.
“Landon is a good kid,” Jean growled, eyes narrowing. “If he said he was going straight there, he was going straight there.”
The details of Rebecca’s case filtered through my mind and I remembered one potentially important detail. “Would he have taken the path through the trees?”
“It wouldn’t make sense not to,” Violet nodded. “Landon prefers to be outside much more than he prefers to drive and has always seemed to enjoy the walk there. Our family is looking for him, like my husband said, and I told them to start there.”
“It’s pretty dark outside. Is it safe for them to be out there in this?” Will asked, glancing out the window. The temperature had already started to drop, and it was looking more and more likely that the promised snowstorm would hit us.
“They’ll be fine. We’ll find Landon on our own,” Jean grumbled. He hadn’t moved from the couch, still watching me and Will like we’d somehow offended him.
“Still, we’d like to help as much as we can.” I studied Jean DeVor as closely as I dared, which wasn’t easy, considering how often his eyes darted to me. What was this guy’s deal? “Does Landon have any location apps or anything on his phone we could try?”
“He does. We tried that and found his phone near the path, but there was no sign of him.”
Of course, because why would any of this be simple?
“Is there anything else we should know before we start searching?” Will asked the two of them.
“Landon is a good kid,” Violet replied, quiet, every word laced with worry. “I love Rebecca dearly and I mean no offense to her, but he’s not like her. He wouldn’t disappear like she did. The only way he wouldn’t come home is if he physically wasn’t able to.”
“I promise you, we’ll do everything in our power to find him,” Will said. “Call me if anything changes, okay? If he hasn’t turned up by morning, we’ll organize a larger search party.”
“Thank you. Thank you both.” She reached out and gripped both of our hands. “If we find him, I’ll call you.”
I gave her my number on our way out the door, and Will and I walked back to the car in silence. Neither of us spoke until we’d backed out of the drive and were back on the county road heading into town.
“That was weird, right? With Jean?” Will finally asked. He was driving, leaving me free to type up everything in the MDT in our car. The computer was just as ancient as the ones in our office, but it did the job.
“That was very weird,” I agreed. “I’ve never seen a parent so unconcerned about their kid’s safety.”
“Seriously, if I had a kid and they’d gone missing, I’d be burning the entire world down trying to find them. He didn’t seem to give a damn about Landon.”
“This whole situation is strange. What are the odds that two kids that are neighbors both go missing at separate times? And why wouldn’t Jean want our help?”
