Page 139 of Cold, Cold Bones
“I am.” Over-annunciating to sound fully awake.
“We found the kid’s backpack.”
Slidell’s words sent adrenaline fluttering through me.
“Where?” I asked.
“Patch of woods off Rea Road.”
The pesky neurons went apeshit.
Feeling me tense, Ryan took my free hand.
“How did you find it at night?” I asked.
“The freakin’ thing glows in the dark. Some local spotted it while looking for her cat. Thinking a kid had lost it and would catch shit at home, the good Samaritan called it in. Henry went to collect it.”
I said nothing.
“It looks bad,” Slidell said.
More nothing.
“It ain’t just the daytime snatching and chucking the kid’s backpack at a place some distance from her school. Byrd had Henry check the contents for anything that could clue us to the sub’s location.”
“And?” Impatient.
“Besides the usual school crap, the pack held a black leotard and tights, pink cotton underwear, and a pair of those wonky rubber shoes.”
“Blue Crocs.” I felt nauseous.
“Yeah. The mother says they don’t belong to her kid.”
A nuance in Slidell’s tone told me he’d recognized the same horrific connection I was now seeing. The link my subconscious had suspected before Slidell’s dreadful news.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now some of us keep busting ass on the streets while others squeeze the usual charm parade.”
I knew what Slidell meant. Teams would continue searching alleys, garages, ponds, fields, properties, and places kids were known to hang out. Meanwhile, others would question parents and relatives, friends, friends’ families, neighbors, babysitters, doctors, dentists, coaches, those at Olivia’s school, church, community center. And, his favorite, registered sex offenders. Beginning at the center and working outward, they’d interview anyone who’d had the slightest contact with the little girl.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” I could barely speak.
“Yeah.”
Ryan looked at me with raised brows.
I shook my head.
He squeezed my hand.
“Do you really think he’d go that far?” I asked.
“I’m going to get this son of a bitch.” Slidell sounded murderous.
“Keep me—”
“Yeah, yeah.”
