Missing Child Read online

  ‘He’s a teacher for God’s sake,’ Caitlin exclaimed.

  Naomi looked at Caitlin with raised eyebrows. ‘I’m trying to think of every possibility,’ she said indignantly.

  Detective Mathis interrupted. ‘Geordie’s teacher had to be fingerprinted and cleared before he could be employed by the school,’ said Mathis evenly. ‘Every teacher is required to do that. If he is employed in this county as a teacher, he is not in the database. We know that for a fact.’

  ‘Just trying to help,’ Naomi insisted.

  Chief Burns continued: ‘Detective Mathis and these other officers will accompany you back to your home, Mr Eckhart. We want you to be there in the event that anyone tries to contact you. Or, in the happier event, that Geordie is simply lost and manages to find his way back to you. I know this is very difficult, but try to keep your hopes up. It’s early yet, and no reason to despair. We’ll find Geordie for you. We won’t rest until we do.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Noah weakly.

  Detective Mathis ordered two waiting officers to take them all to be fingerprinted and have their DNA taken.

  ‘I’ll go first,’ said Naomi, seemingly still stung by everyone’s reaction to her suggestion about Mr Needleman. ‘I have nothing to hide.’ She followed the officer down the hallway.

  Detective Mathis turned to Paula and Westy. ‘If your grandson has run away,’ said the detective, ‘is it possible he could find his way to your home? I assume he’s been there many times.’

  ‘Ever since he was born,’ said Paula. ‘Although I doubt he could find his way on his own.’

  ‘We’ll send an officer home with you, too.’

  ‘Whatever you need to do,’ said Westy. ‘Come on, darling,’ he said to Paula. ‘Let’s get swabbed or whatever, and then go home. Maybe our little boy will somehow find us.’

  Paula nodded and then looked anxiously at Noah. ‘We should be with you.’

  ‘No, he’s right,’ said Noah. ‘You go on. In case Geordie . . . Besides, once this goes out on the television, people are going to be calling. It would help if I could tell them to call you.’

  ‘We’ll take care of all that,’ said Westy. ‘Anything you need.’

  Noah hugged his in-laws again. Then Paula turned to Caitlin. Her eyes were filled with sorrow and concern. ‘I know how much you care for him. Try to be brave, dear. They’ll find him.’

  Caitlin felt as if she might fall apart in Paula’s embrace. It felt so good to have someone acknowledge her loss.

  ‘You’ll see,’ Paula crooned. ‘He’ll come back to us. He has to.’

  ‘Come on, now,’ Westy urged his wife gruffly. ‘Let’s get on with it.’

  Paula and Westy went first toward the room where the fingerprinting and testing would be done. They were in and out in a few minutes. They waved as they left the station, accompanied by an officer.

  Noah and Caitlin were next. They were swabbed, fingerprinted, and sent back out into the corridor to wait.

  As they sat back down, Noah’s phone rang, and he answered it.

  ‘Hey, Dan, hi,’ he said. ‘Yeah. How did you know? Really. Already? Man, that was fast. Yeah. We’re still in the police station. It’s a fucking nightmare. No. Caitlin took him to school and that was it. He vanished into thin air. The police are looking for him.’ Noah listened for a minute. ‘Well, if you want to come back up here, sure, but there’s nothing you can do. I’m sure your parents would appreciate it. No. Really. I’d tell you, but I don’t know anything. But thanks. Yeah. That might be a good idea. We’ll keep in touch. Thanks, buddy. Bye.’

  ‘Emily’s brother?’ asked Caitlin dully.

  Noah nodded. ‘He’s at work. He found out about it when they received the Amber Alert at the station where he works.’

  ‘Does Haley know?’ Caitlin asked.

  Noah sighed. ‘I imagine Dan will call her.’

  An officer leaned in and spoke to Caitlin and Noah. ‘Mr and Mrs Eckhart, Detective Mathis will be here shortly to accompany you.’

  ‘I feel like we’re wasting time,’ Noah said bitterly.

  ‘I promise you, sir, no effort is being spared.’

  ‘I know. I just keep going over this in my mind. What happened this morning?’ Noah turned to Caitlin. ‘What happened exactly?’

  Caitlin looked back at him. ‘What do you mean? I told you.’ She could tell that the officer was listening. ‘I drove him to school and he went running into the building. I saw him go in.’

  ‘You didn’t go in with him?’ Noah demanded.

  ‘I went in,’ said Caitlin. ‘Of course I went in. I wanted to see his project. But he was ahead of me. He was impatient to get inside.’

  ‘Because of the festival,’ said Noah.

  ‘That’s what I thought. But . . .’

  ‘But what?’ Noah stared at her.

  ‘Well, I went over to his class’s display. I saw Mr Needleman. And I looked at his project.’

  ‘Geordie was there,’ Noah prompted her.

  ‘No. The kids weren’t necessarily stationed by their projects. They were running around. They were all excited,’ said Caitlin.

  ‘Where was Geordie?’ Noah asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Caitlin quietly.

  ‘Did he show up? Did you see him before you left?’

  ‘Stop it,’ said Caitlin. ‘You sound like you’re cross-examining me. I waited for him. I looked for him . . .’

  ‘And then?’

  ‘He didn’t come by the class display. I was surprised he wasn’t there, too. You know how he loves to show you what he’s done. Get a compliment about it. I thought he’d be there any minute. I waited as long as I could . . .’

  ‘And then you left,’ said Noah. ‘Without seeing him.’

  ‘I assumed that maybe he ran into a friend and got distracted . . .’

  ‘So you just left,’ Noah said.

  Caitlin did not reply.

  ‘Why didn’t you go and find him?’ Noah cried. ‘He’s only a little boy. Why didn’t you make sure . . .?’

  ‘He was in his school. I assumed he was safe in his own school,’ Caitlin cried.

  ‘You assumed.’

  ‘I thought he was fine. I watched him go into the school,’ Caitlin protested. ‘I don’t know what happened.’

  ‘He could already have been taken. While you were standing around over there making small talk,’ Noah cried.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Caitlin beseeched him.

  ‘Sorry doesn’t do me any good. Sorry doesn’t bring him back,’ Noah snapped.

  Caitlin absorbed his anger like a punishment, and felt a wave of guilt wash over her like a filthy tide. And then, to her own surprise, she emerged, sputtering, from the wave, and was suddenly furious. He didn’t seem to realize, or care, that she was suffering just as he was. ‘How dare you say that to me, Noah? It could have happened to anybody. You would have done the same thing in my place, and you know it,’ Caitlin accused him.

  For a moment they glared at one another.

  Then Noah turned his eyes from her angry gaze. He frowned, and seemed to think over what she had said. Finally, he sighed. ‘You’re right. I know you’re right,’ he said. ‘I probably would have done the same thing.’

  All her anger melted away. ‘Noah,’ she pleaded, reaching for his hand.

  Noah shook his head.

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s my child,’ Noah moaned. ‘He’s my son.’

  Caitlin was shivering, although the station house was overheated. ‘I know that,’ she said. She thought about Geordie after the party, resting against his father’s shoulder, reaching out his hand to her. Saying, ‘Thanks, mom.’ He’s my son too, she thought.

  But she didn’t dare to say it.

  FIVE

  Caitlin stood in their front yard, her gaze focused on Geordie’s bike, training wheels attached, which was parked where Geordie had left it, at a crazy angle under a tree. Noah, accompanied by Detective Sam Mathis, opened the
front door of their house and stepped inside. ‘Geordie, are you here?’ She could hear her husband’s breaking voice echoing through the rooms. There was no answer. ‘Geordie. Answer Daddy. Where are you?’ Noah cried. Other police officers followed as Noah and Detective Mathis went inside.

  Caitlin turned her back on the house. Geordie was not inside. Of course he was not there. If someone drove him home, he probably wouldn’t even be able to recognize their driveway from the street. Their house, like all the others in this wooded area, sat on an acre lot, and had been built far back from the dangerous two-lane highway at the foot of their drive. The house was not visible through the wall of trees, not even in the dead of winter, and they never heard the sound of passing traffic.

  Along the treacherous curves of Route 47, their neighborhood appeared to be a forested area, interrupted only by the occasional barn or a series of large, placid lakes. The only sign of the homes along the route were the mailboxes on the side of the road, and the mouths of driveways that disappeared into the trees.

  Even if, by some miracle, Geordie found his way to a place nearby, Caitlin could hardly bear to imagine him walking along the side of that deserted highway where cars whizzed past the deer peeking out of the woods and there was no path or sidewalk to follow on foot. It was on this road, at the end of their driveway, that Geordie’s mother, Emily, had died. Caitlin could not prevent herself from picturing that terrible scene – Emily’s lifeless body lying in the road, the bills and flyers she had just collected from her mailbox strewn around her, while the panicked, reckless driver sped away.

  Caitlin closed her eyes, trying to force the grisly scene from her mind. But it was no use. She had to live with it. Every single day. She started up the lawn to the front steps, pushed the door opened, and walked into the house.

  Noah was seated on the sofa in the living room to the left of the entrance hall.

  He was clasping his head with both his hands. Caitlin turned on a lamp in the corner and then went over to the sofa where he sat. She could hear the voices of the police officers in another part of the house.

  Caitlin sat down beside Noah. Noah wiped his eyes. ‘How could this have happened?’ he asked.

  Sam Mathis came back into the living room. He pulled a chair up close to where Noah sat beside Caitlin on the sofa.

  ‘All right, Mr Eckhart,’ said Sam.

  ‘Noah. Call me Noah.’

  ‘Now, Noah,’ said Sam. ‘I need to be very blunt with you. Even though we are prepared here for ransom demands, the least likely thing that could have happened to Geordie is that he was taken by a stranger. In most of these cases, a child is taken by someone he knows.’

  Noah shook his head. ‘Who would take him?’

  Sam frowned. ‘Well, our first thought is always a parent in a custody dispute, but obviously in this case . . .’

  ‘Geordie’s mother is dead,’ Noah said.

  ‘I know. What about her family? You seem to have a good relationship with them. Are they allowed to see your son when they wish to? These days there are issues with grandparents sometimes . . .’

  Noah waved the question away. ‘They see him whenever they want.’

  Sam waited for him to elaborate.

  Caitlin hesitated. Then she said, ‘Noah makes sure that Geordie knows his grandparents. He spends lots of time with them. Yesterday was Geordie’s birthday party. We invited the whole family. Grandparents. Aunts and uncles. Friends. Girlfriends . . .’

  ‘One big happy family,’ said Sam skeptically.

  Noah looked at him indignantly. ‘Yes, actually. A kid needs an extended family. When my wife died . . .’ Noah’s voice cracked.

  Caitlin took his hand and kneaded it in her own.

  ‘My wife’s family. My family. They helped us to get through it. We helped each other,’ said Noah.

  Sam turned to Caitlin. ‘What about you, Mrs Eckhart? Was your family invited to this party?’

  Caitlin looked up at him, startled. She had been thinking about the fact that in moments of stress, Noah still referred to Emily as ‘his wife.’ As if she were still here, still living in this house with him. ‘Excuse me?’ Caitlin asked.

  Sam Mathis looked at her steadily. ‘I asked you if your family was at the party.’

  ‘I don’t really have any family anymore,’ she said. ‘Other than Noah. And . . . Geordie. My parents died a few years ago. I had one brother but . . . he died, too.’

  Noah had recovered himself. ‘I just want to be clear, Detective. My wife’s parents have been a godsend. When Emily died, I promised her parents that I would never move away from this area until Geordie grew up. I want him to have that consistency in his life. A sense that he belongs somewhere.’

  Sam turned to Caitlin. ‘How long have you two been married?’

  ‘Two years,’ said Caitlin.

  ‘So you have no . . . family ties here.’

  ‘No. I work here. I’m the director of the diversity office at Brunswick University.’

  ‘Have any ambitions to move to a bigger school?’

  Caitlin started to answer, and then realized that it was a loaded question. ‘I came from a bigger school. I’m very happy with my position here,’ she said.

  ‘But even if you had a better offer, you wouldn’t be able to move away from here,’ said Sam. ‘Because of Geordie.’

  ‘I don’t want to move away from here,’ said Caitlin. ‘And I agree with my husband. Geordie needs to have his family nearby.’

  Sam turned back to Noah. ‘As I recall, this is the very same house that you lived in with your first wife. Am I right about that?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Noah.

  ‘Does that bother you?’ he said to Caitlin.

  ‘No, it doesn’t bother me,’ Caitlin snapped. ‘Why are you asking us all these questions? Why aren’t you out looking for Geordie?’

  ‘What about you and Geordie?’ Sam persisted, ignoring her outburst.

  ‘What about us?’ Caitlin asked.

  ‘How do you get along with Geordie?’

  It was not a question you would ask a child’s mother, Caitlin thought bitterly. The truth for her was that she loved him so much, sometimes she actually forgot that she was not his biological mother. But the world did not forget. We get along like any mother and her son, she wanted to say. But she felt as if she couldn’t.

  ‘Geordie is . . . a wonderful little boy.’

  ‘No arguments?’

  ‘No. Well . . .’ Caitlin glanced at Noah. ‘I mean, yes, of course, the usual things,’ she said uncertainly.

  Sam Mathis detected her hesitation. ‘Like?’

  Caitlin threw up her hands. ‘Nothing. I don’t know. Bedtime, food preferences, manners. The day-to-day things.’

  ‘Detective,’ Noah interrupted. ‘You’re barking up the wrong tree. Caitlin loves Geordie as if he were her own.’

  As if he were mine, Caitlin thought. Even Noah says, as if . . .

  ‘The reason I ask is,’ said Sam, ‘that sometimes a disagreement, even when an adult doesn’t think it’s important, it can cause a child to run away. They tend to exaggerate everything in their minds.’

  Caitlin looked at him levelly. ‘I know that. There was nothing.’

  ‘Do you ever strike your son, Mr Eckhart?’

  ‘Spank him, you mean?’ Noah asked.

  Sam nodded.

  ‘No,’ said Noah wearily. ‘I don’t believe in spanking.’

  ‘What about you, Mrs Eckhart?’

  ‘No, I don’t hit Geordie.’

  ‘Even when he’s acting up? He’s not your child, after all. Sometimes it’s hard not to get angry.’

  ‘I didn’t say I never got angry,’ said Caitlin. ‘I said I never hit him.’

  ‘You can corroborate that?’ Sam Mathis asked Noah.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ said Noah. ‘You’re wasting your time here, Detective. My wife and I love Geordie more than anything. No parents ever loved their child more.’

  ‘That
’s really true,’ said Caitlin fiercely, her voice choked with tears. She and Noah had their hands locked together.

  Sam Mathis was moving on. ‘What about friends – anybody whom Geordie sees on a regular basis. Is there anyone he sees regularly who has been in trouble with the law? That you know of.’

  ‘No, of course not. That I know of,’ said Noah.

  ‘What about in your work?’ Sam asked. ‘You’re an attorney. Do you have any enemies as a result of cases you’ve been involved in?’

  Noah shook his head. ‘I do mostly contracts, business law. I rarely do criminal and almost no family law. The odd divorce.’

  Sam Mathis sighed. ‘If a stranger tried to take Geordie out of the building, would Geordie know enough to resist? To try to fight back?’

  Noah nodded. ‘Oh yes, definitely. He knows about strangers. I can’t imagine he would ever go willingly with a stranger.’

  ‘You’d be surprised. Tell a kid you need help finding your puppy and watch everything they’ve ever learned about strangers go right out the window.’

  ‘That’s really comforting,’ said Noah.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Sam. ‘But it’s true. We are scrutinizing the background of every teacher in the school, everyone who lives or works near the school, including the crossing guards and the janitors.’

  ‘You already said these people have to go through clearance before they can work in a school,’ Noah said.

  ‘Yes,’ said Sam. ‘But things get overlooked. It happens all the time.’

  ‘Great,’ said Noah. He leaned forward and put his head back in between his hands.

  ‘Our problem is that the general public was invited to this Fall Festival today, so there could be any number of people who came and went and we have no idea who they are.’

  ‘Don’t they have security cameras?’ Noah asked.

  ‘At the front door,’ said Mathis. ‘They have a camera there, but not on the other doors. Those doors only open from the inside, and they are normally kept locked. They don’t usually leave the door by the auditorium open.’

  Caitlin understood what he was saying. The camera would be no help. ‘It’s almost as if someone chose this day on purpose, knowing the security would be lax. Or non-existent,’ she said.