Page 25 of Not Our Daughter

“Let’s wait to talk about it with your son.”

“Yeah, okay, please come on in. Let me go get him. He’s upstairs.”

Healey led Burns and Davis into a small, outdated living room and turned on the lights. Then he went upstairs while they both stood there and waited. Seconds later, the man returned with an athletic-looking teenage boy with bushy hair wearing boxers and a Colorado Rockies T-shirt. The boy didn’t look like he’d been sleeping, which was no surprise. From Burns’s experience, teenagers stayed up nearly all night on the weekends. When Izzy was with him, he’d sometimes find her still on her phone after three in the morning when he got up to go to the bathroom. Then she’d want to sleep all day and act annoyed if he tried to wake her.

“Son, these are FBI agents,” Healey said. “They have some questions.”

“I’m Agent Burns, this is Agent Davis.”

Tyler’s eyes went wide. He nodded but said nothing. Burns wanted to put him at ease. He didn’t need the kid clamming up on him when they desperately needed information.

“You like the Rockies?” he asked the boy, pointing at his shirt.

Another quick nod.

“I don’t,” said Burns, smiling. “Not after your boys swept my Nationals last week. We couldn’t touch your pitching staff. Especially Carlson. He’s red-hot right now.”

The boy gave a slight grin. “Yeah, we’re four games up on the Dodgers.”

“Might just be your year.”

“I hope so. My dad said we’ll get tickets if they make the playoffs.”

The tactic seemed to work. The kid was loosening up.

“Cool. Can you sit down with us for a second?”

“Yeah, all right, I guess.”

They all found spots on uncomfortable furniture around the living room. The father offered them something to drink, which they both declined.

“How long have you known Jade?” Burns began.

Tyler swallowed. “Is she okay? Has something happened?”

Burns and Davis glanced at each other.

“Why’re you asking us that, Tyler?” Davis said.

“She hasn’t been responding to any of my texts tonight. And now two FBI agents are sitting five feet away from me asking questions about her. So, yeah, seems pretty obvious.”

“Be respectful, Tyler,” the father said.

“Sorry,” the boy quickly apologized.

Burns leaned forward. “We’re looking for Jade and her parents right now.”

Tyler’s eyes narrowed. “They’re not at home?”

“No. And we were hoping you might know where we can find them.”

Tyler studied them a moment. “Why’re you looking for them?”

Burns didn’t want to divulge the truth just yet. It might cloud the conversation. So he tried a different route. “For their own protection. Especially for Jade.”

This didn’t seem to satisfy him. “Protection from who? What’s going on?”

Davis spoke up. “We’re not at liberty to say, Tyler. It’s a highly classified matter. But we can tell you that Jade is in real danger. We have to find her. Which is why we’re here. When was the last time you heard from her?”

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