“Please, bring home our baby, he must be so scared right now.”
Brenden kissed him on his forehead, and he felt the trembling lips on his skin. Brenden was worried, he might not be showing it, but he was worried about their son. “I will.” He stepped aside leaving Stephen standing in the middle of the room.
“All right, people.” Stephen turned, and his uncle Tucker was standing in the center of the bullpen. “I need all hands on this, drop whatever you’re working on. This is top priority. This is personal to me,” he said looking at Stephen. “We need to find my nephew, and we need to find him now.”
No one argued, and got to work. No one asked him what Nicholas looked like. There were pictures of Nicholas littered all over his desk. He couldn’t sit down or think. He was beside himself with worry. There had to be something he could do.
“I know I can’t tell you not to worry.” He looked up, and his uncle was standing in front of him. “We’ll find him, I promise.” Stephen nodded and was pulled into a crushing hug. He was glad to have family around to lean on. But still, he felt like he had to do something. That was his son, and he needed to find him. He’d promised Brenden that he wouldn’t leave the office, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t help find out who took his son and God help them when he did, because it would be the last time they drew breath.
** ** ** ** **
Brenden got in the passenger side of the black SUV, Jaxson started the car, and they were off. His best friend didn’t ask questions, like how he was feeling or what he was thinking. Because he didn’t know what to think. Since the phone call with Mrs. Waters, Brenden had felt as if he was in a different world altogether. He wanted to punch the shit out of someone, but he didn’t know who to direct his anger to.
Brenden dragged his hands through his hair in frustration, looking at the speedometer, and wondered if the car could go any faster. He needed to find the person who took his son, he couldn’t think of who hated him so much they’d bring his child into it. The vehicle stopped, and Brenden hopped out of the truck. He had his FBI badge hanging around his neck as he walked through the building to the principal’s office, where she and a few other people were waiting on him. He noticed two detectives standing beside her.
“Mr. Smith,” she said walking over to meet Brenden halfway.
“Tell me what the hell happened to my son,” Brenden said harshly. He had no time to be nice, he needed to find his son as soon as possible. He could only keep a lid on Stephen for so long before the man went and did something stupid to add to his worry.
“Agent Smith, I’m Detective Walker, and this is my partner, Mitchell. Can you…”
“Look, Walker, I don’t want to be rude, but I’m not stepping aside. This case is very personal to me…”
“And that’s the precise reason why you should step aside. This is your son…”
“I wouldn’t finish that sentence if I were you,” Jaxson said standing beside him. “You’re asking him to do the impossible. Either you work with us or not at all.”
“We’ll work with you,” the other detective said before his partner could say another word.
“Good, we’ve spent enough time wagging our…” Jaxson didn’t finish his words noticing Mrs. Waters standing there. “Can you tell us what happened?” he asked, directing his question to the principal.
“As I told you over the phone, we had a fire drill…”
“Was it a scheduled one?” Brenden asked.
“Well, no,” she answered clutching the pearls around her neck.
“Then someone must have pulled it,” Jaxson said out loud. “Was there a fire? Did the fire department show up?”
“No, there wasn’t a fire and yes, they showed up, which I thought was odd,” she went on, looking away from him.
“What happened next?” Brenden inquired.
“After it was safe for the students to return to their classrooms, it was then Ms. Clark noticed that Nicholas wasn’t among the students. When she asked the rest of the class if they knew where he was, she was told that his mommy came and picked him up.”
“What the hell was she doing not to notice a strange woman walking away with my son?” Brenden yelled.
Mrs. Waters flinched, and Brenden couldn’t muster up the feeling to care.
“Is the student or the teacher still here?” one of the detectives asked.
“Yes,” Mrs. Waters said hurriedly. “The teacher is just beside herself that something like this happened. And the poor child is sick with worry he didn’t do enough to help his friend. His parents are with him.”
“Yeah, think how scared Nicholas must be feeling right now,” Brenden snapped.
“I want to speak with them, but first I want to see the video tapes,” Brenden said to Mrs. Waters.
“Um, about that,” she interjected.
