Page 95 of Midnight Creed

He wished he had something, anything to offer, but right now, the only ones who could answer that question were the crime lab technicians. There were three of them, and despite wasting no time, it seemed to take forever.

“You found the bicycle.” Norwich said.

“It’s Will’s.” Jason explained how he knew for sure.

“A woman in this neighborhood said she saw a boy on a bicycle today. She doesn’t know what time but remembered thinking he should be in school.”

“The houses that Scout alerted to earlier,” Creed said. “He may have ridden by or even stopped. Jason said Scout took him up to the front door of one and wanted to go through the backyard of the other.”

Norwich nodded. “I heard about that. This is a working community. It sounds like not many folks are around during the day on a Monday.” She paused as she watched the techs unloading their equipment. “I also just got a message from Deputy Trevor. He showed those crumpled drawings we found in the bulldozer to Will’s mother. She thinks the boy might have been sketching what happened to him.”

“What was in the sketches?” Jason asked.

“A little boy with a red backpack running away from a blue pickup.” She paused for a moment. “We’re checking to see if any security camera footage caught anything like that, or even a blue pickup that doesn’t belong in that neighborhood.”

“You sound skeptical, Sheriff,” Creed said.

“It’s hard not to be. Will drew the pickup driver as a vampire.”

63

Tuesday, December 5

After midnight

No one had tried to stop Taylor. They didn’t even notice her. She walked in the direction she’d seen the CSU van drive. The streets were clogged with response vehicles and law enforcement officers. It had to be midnight and almost every house in the neighborhood still had lights on inside.

K9s alerted. Dumpster.

She wouldn’t let her mind go there. They had found something, but it was only evidence. Will was okay. He’d just gotten lost. Maybe he’d tried to ride his bike to...where? He had to know her house on the beach was an impossible ride from here. And yet, it was Taylor’s first thought when she heard he was missing.

He rode his bike. A man in a blue pickup scared him. He could be hiding. Yes, he was hiding somewhere.

She rubbed her arms. Even with the sweatshirt, she felt the chill, and she winced at the thought of Will huddled and cold, not wanting to go back to Dora’s house.

Regret tied knots in her stomach. All of this was her fault. For leaving him in the first place.

Buddy, just be safe.

She turned a corner and followed the beams from spotlights. A block away, there was a park area. In the far corner, she could see figures climbing over the top of a Dumpster. A wall of trees grew close behind it, the spotlights shooting high enough she could see the branches swaying. Back here, the sound of birds and insects drowned out the human voices calling to each other.

The dogs spotted her first. Of course, they did. Scout and Hank knew her. Grace, she’d met only once. But all three heads jerked in her direction, anxious and excited before their owners noticed and looked over.

She didn’t care that she might not be allowed. What could the sheriff do? Arrest her?

She was too far away to hear their exchanges. All the light was on the Dumpster, so it was too dark to see their expressions.

Jason left the group. He stopped to attach a leash to Scout, and the two of them started toward her. She hadn’t spoken to him since she rudely told him she didn’t need him. Watching his steady gait, an easy air of confidence and competence, she realized she’d have a slew of things to regret by the time all this was over.

Scout greeted her first. She offered her hand. He licked and nudged it. Jason tipped back his ball cap, a familiar gesture she recognized. She’d seen him do it many times when he greeted friends, a polite courtesy, a way of giving them his eyes and his attention.

She wanted to know what they had found. But at the same time, she didn’t want to know. She was suddenly standing on a fine line that separated hope from despair. Did she want to breech that? Was she strong enough?

“We don’t know yet,” Jason said as if he could read the anxiety vibrating off her body. “We found his bicycle back behind the Dumpster.”

“Someone tried to throw it away?”

He shook his head. “It was carefully tucked into a narrow gap.”