Page 88 of Shielding Instinct

Petra scowled. “Wait. Who’s we?”

“Finley and Prescott. We already had an iron on the stove. It just made sense for the three of us to come down to move our objectives along and get back faster.”

“This is important enough that you left an unattended iron heating?” Petra scuffed her foot on the shiny granite.

“Timing was good. Let’s leave it at that,’ Rowan said. “What’s this call about?”

“I talked with the front desk, and they said the Johnson family never checked in after yesterday’s event. I saw the family on the cliff, away from the waves. I saw them go up toward the vehicles. My driver and Jenny’s driver were helping me with Terry. I don’t know how they got to their next place.”

“What are your thoughts?” he asked.

“Three choices. Criminal. Innocent. Deadly.”

“Okay,” he said. “Take me through each.”

Petra put one hand on top of her head. “Criminal—this was planned, and it went very well. Timing was excellent because everyone was caught up in myriad emergencies. The family had rented a boat and said they’d be out overnight to see sunset and sunrise. They’re late, there’s some worry. At some point, the Coast Guard would find the boat, but the family is missing. They fear the worst. There’s a search. The family is possibly assumed to have drowned?”

“But in this scenario, what was playing out?”

“They met with a secondary boat and switched over.”

“Left their belongings?”

“In this scenario, they left some belongings in the hotel. Pocket litter kinds of stuff. Stuff that they put out to convince anyone looking that they had planned to be back. But they tookthe basics they needed, passports, a change of clothes, and the kids’ favorite toys—in a single bag. They climb from boat to boat, leaving the other adrift while their escape boat takes them to Colombia. Everyone believes there was an accident at sea. The family drowned and no one is looking for them after several days of failed Coast Guard efforts And that narrative makes perfect sense after the coincidence of the seismic events yesterday.”

“That’s a lot to arrange even without the coincidence,” Rowan suggested.

“Versus arranging to be gone from society for a decade plus and coming back to grown children and limited job possibilities.”

“Here’s some information I was able to gather. Ready?” Rowan asked.

“Maybe.”

“One of the notarized letters in their file that went to the judge is from Herb’s sister. She described her brother as someone whose whole personality changed in the last eighteen months. In her letter, she said it was like watching a bad actor on the screen who was trying to play the role of a saint in a movie. Herb talked about finding the light and living in the rays. The sister was worried enough that she went to the police before Herb’s arrest to see if there was anything she could do because she thought that he might be having a mental breakdown.”

“On the surface, that would make me think cult behaviors,” Petra said.

“I checked their home address,” Rowan said, “and it was recently sold. I checked with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Their cars were sold, as well. But all of that is what anyone would do knowing that they are going to prison. The only reason your antennae are up is that the mother didn’t look at the child with bittersweetness. She could be on the autism spectrum.” Rowansaid. “She may be feeling the feelings and not expressing them in a neurotypical manner.”

“Possible, sure,” Petra agreed. “I could be very wrong. But you asked me how I’d play it out if this was their criminal actions.”

“Okay move on to the next scenario, innocent.”

“Yes, back to a boat scenario because I don’t have one for them not signing in at the hotel if they’re on land. So boat—they could have been having trouble with their boat. They needed help for some innocent reason, and they’re dealing with the issue. That one doesn’t make much sense to me at all, and I’m not even able to invent a good scenario to make it work, sorry.”

Rowan sucked in a lungful of air. “That leaves deadly.”

“It was a traumatic day in the islands from Puerto Rico down. The Christmas Winds, the rogue waves—granted, not tsunamis by any stretch of the imagination, but people got in trouble all over the island. The water was treacherous. Sixteen known dead as of the last count I heard.”

“The deadly, then, is something like the kids got swept over the side, they weren’t wearing their life vests, the parents jumped in and were able to grab the kids, but the current pulled them too far from the boat, and they never made it back.”

“There were two seismic events and so two sets of giant waves. Why you’d go out on a day like yesterday, I have no idea. But, yes, that was exactly how I could see that working out.”

“Great minds,” Rowan said.

“You know, when people use that phrase, I can never tell if they’re complimenting the person their speaking with or themselves.”

“Both. But okay, how about birds of a feather flock together.”

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