Page 48 of Wait for Me

“There were only two exits, and somehow we missed both of them.”

“We made a mistake looking inside the store. One of us should’ve gone outside.”

“Maybe. Instead we both looked inside the store, so by the time we reached the doors, they had gone down the boardwalk.”

“They didn’t go too far. Only to where the bridge was.”

“To see the fish.” Logan rubbed his bare chin. “However, what made me upset the rest of it. When we went to get Jonas, what did they say?”

“Nothing.”

“Exactly. It was as though they saw nothing wrong for a child to walk with them out of the store.”

“They have three bodyguards, although only two seemed to have gone out with them.” Marie wondered what the third bodyguard was doing. It was none of her business—unless they made it her business.

“Those were bodyguards? How did you know?” Logan asked.

“You remember the second day when we were out at sea? Mrs. Ping and I took Jonas to the pool? I was sitting poolside when their whole group showed up. There were three men, two women, and one boy.”

“And the boy was about the same size and height as Jonas. If you put baseball caps on them, I bet you couldn’t tell them apart.”

“Not from a distance, no,” Marie agreed. “Up close, a stranger can probably tell that Jonas has a chubby face and blue eyes, and Abdul’s eyes are dark brown and his face is more tanned.”

“I need to get Jonas out in the sun more often. He prefers to play in his playroom at home. It took lot of effort to get him to the backyard to play soccer.”

“Even if he gets out in the sun, you can still tell the kids apart. However, I get your point.” Marie wondered where Logan was going with this.

He was a businessman, but a savvy one at that. He had an eye for details, yes, but did she want him to continue with this?

She could not tell him what she had found out from her office in France. It might be premature yet. She was waiting for them to contact FBI and MI5 to get more details. She had sent them enough photos and videos for them to squeeze through their facial recognition software.

If she told Logan all of that, he would begin to question her again. It was best if he didn’t know.

Or was it?

“I want to believe that it was a genuine error,” Logan said. “But what kind of a mother—or parent, for that matter—would take someone else’s child along with them without parental consent, and then not apologize for it?”

“Maybe their language barrier prevented them from apologizing.”

“You don’t think it’s cultural.”

Marie shook her head. “Every culture has moms and dads. It’s normal for us to protect our children. They know that.”

“Exactly.”

“What do you mean?”

“I suspect they took Jonas with them on purpose.”

“Now you’re speculating.”

“Am I?”

“Don’t go all paranoid on me, Logan.”

“It was so quick, though.” Logan crossed his feet on the coffee table and leaned back against the sofa.

Marie remembered how she used to cuddle next to him while he was relaxed like that. They’d watch TV or listen to music or the news. She didn’t care what they were listening to or watching as long as she was with him.

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