Page 80 of Mountain Void

Rennie paused for an instant, as if troubled by whatever was showing on Charlie’s face. “It’s okay, though, right?”

No.

Not okay.

This can’t be happening.

Charlie’s pulse spiked. She wanted to scream, but that wouldn’t help anything. She knew Sean would have sent an email out this morning, informing staff—without giving too much detail—of the situation with Théo. If they’d been at school, all teachers would have read that email. But because they were out here, nobody knew. Except for her, and she hadn’t been careful enough.

“How did he look?” she asked.

“Monsieur Pelletier?” Rennie stuttered. “He looked fine. A bit nervous, but I figured it was because of the family emergency. What’s going on, Charlie? Did I do something wrong?”

Charlie’s pulse spiked. Rennie hadn’t done the wrong thing. She had. How could she have been so stupid? It hadn’t even occurred to her that something like this could happen.

Find him first, figure it out afterwards.

“It’s not your fault. You couldn’t know. But Théo’s not safe with his father,” she said, the words like glass in her mouth. “We need to find him.”

Carmen and Mathieu, the other teacher, were counting kids. All were accounted for except for Théo.

“Stay here,” she said to the others. “Keep the kids together.”

“What are you going to do?” Carmen asked, her face pale.

Lorenz.

He’ll know what to do.

“I’m calling Lorenz. We need the PGHM.”

“Shouldn’t we look for them, first? They might still be at the parking lot,” Mathieu said, his expression concerned.

Charlie considered his words for an instant. There was a chance her colleague was right. Perhaps there was a good reason Pelletier had come to pick his son up. Maybe his mother knew about it. But she didn’t believe it, and she was willing to bear the embarrassment if that turned out to be the case.

Something has happened to him.

“We make the call first, then we look for him.”

Her fingers shook as she dialed Lorenz’s number. It suddenly occurred to her that he might be busy on a rescue. Perhaps this wasn’t—

He picked up on the second ring.

“Charlie.” There was noise behind him, so he was out, but he sounded happy to hear from her.

“I need your help,” she said. “The PGHM’s help. Maybe the police.”

She could tell she had his full attention now. “Slow down, Charlie. Tell me what’s going on.”

“We’re on a field trip in the Parc de Merlet. We came to collect leaves … it doesn’t matter. One of the kids went missing. His father took him. Lorenz, the mother was at the gendarmerie last night. She asked for a restraining order against her husband—”

“Hell. Is this the same boy?”

“Yes. Théo.”

“How long has he been missing?”

“Not long.” She looked at Rennie, who made a sign with her hands. “Maybe twenty minutes.”