Genesis (15 page)

Next, Will opened up a folder. There was an ornate crest on
the front, probably from Felix's private school. Official-looking
documents from the school were in one pocket. What looked like
Felix's homework was in the other. Will couldn't make out the
school memos, but he could tell from the double-lined paper on the
homework side that Felix was learning how to write on a straight
line.

He showed this to Sara. "His letters are pretty good."

"They are," Sara agreed. She was watching Will as carefully as
Felix was, and Will had to put her out of his mind so he didn't forget
how to do his job. She was too beautiful, and too smart, and too
much of everything Will was not.

He put the folder back in the book bag and pulled out three slim
books. Even Will could make out the first three letters of the alphabet
that adorned the jacket of the first book. The other two were a
mystery to him, and he held them up to Felix, saying, "I wonder
what these are about?" When Felix didn't answer, Will looked back
at the jackets, squinting at the images. "I guess this pig works at a
restaurant, because he's serving people pancakes." Will looked at the
next book. "And this mouse is sitting in a lunchbox. I guess somebody's
going to eat him for lunch."

"No." Felix spoke so quietly that Will wasn't sure the boy had
said anything at all.

"No?" Will asked, looking back at the mouse. The great thing
about being around kids was you could be absolutely honest and they
thought you were just teasing them. "I can't read very well. What
does this say?"

Felix shifted, and Sara helped him turn toward Will. The child
reached for the books. Instead of answering, Felix held the books
close to his chest. His lip started to tremble, and Will guessed, "Your
mom reads to you, doesn't she?"

He nodded, big, fat tears rolling down his cheeks.

Will leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "I want to find your
mommy."

Felix swallowed, as if he was trying to choke down his grief. "The
big man took her."

Will knew that to a kid, all adults were big. He sat up straight,
asking, "As big as me?"

Felix really looked at Will for the first time since he'd walked into
the room. He seemed to consider the question, then shook his head.

"What about the detective who was just in here—the stinky one?
Was the man as tall as him?"

Felix nodded.

Will tried to keep the pace slow, casual, so Felix would keep answering
the questions without feeling like he was being interrogated.
"Did he have hair like mine, or was it darker?"

"Darker."

Will nodded, scratching his chin as if he was deliberating possibilities.
Kids were notoriously unreliable witnesses. They either wanted
to please the adults who questioned them or they were so open to
suggestion that you could pretty much plant any idea in their head
and have them swear that it actually happened.

Will asked, "What about his face? Did he have hair on his face? Or
was it smooth like mine?"

"He had a mustache."

"Did he speak to you?"

"He told me that my mommy said to stay in the car."

Will treaded carefully. "Was he wearing a uniform like a janitor
or a fireman or a police officer?"

Felix shook his head. "Just normal clothes."

Will felt a rush of heat to his face. He knew Sara was staring at
him. Her husband had been a cop. She wouldn't like the implication.

Will asked, "What color were his clothes?"

Felix shrugged, and Will wondered if the boy was finished answering
questions or if he really didn't remember.

Felix picked at the edge of his book. "He wore a suit like
Morgan."

"Morgan is a friend of your mommy's?"

He nodded. "He's at her work, but she's mad at him because he's
lying and he's trying to get her into trouble, but she's not going to let
him get away with it because of the safe."

Will wondered if Felix had overheard some phone calls or if
Pauline McGhee was the type of woman to vent her problems to a
six-year-old boy. "Do you remember anything else about the man
who took your mommy?"

"He said he would hurt me if I told anybody about him."

Will kept his face blank, as did Felix. "You're not scared of the
man," he said, not a question but a statement.

"My mommy says that she'll never let anybody hurt me."

He seemed so sure of himself that Will couldn't help but feel a
great deal of respect for Pauline McGhee's parenting skills. Will had
interviewed a lot of children in his time, and while most of them
loved their parents, not many of them exhibited this kind of blind
trust.

Will said, "She's right. No one is going to hurt you."

"My mommy will protect me," Felix insisted, and Will started to
wonder about his certainty. You usually didn't reassure a kid of
something unless there was a real fear you were trying to combat.

Will asked, "Was your mom worried that someone might hurt
you?"

Felix picked at the book jacket again. He gave an almost imperceptible
nod.

Will waited, trying not to rush his next question. "Who was she
afraid of, Felix?"

He spoke quietly, his voice little more than a whisper. "Her
brother."

A brother. This could be some kind of family dispute after all.
Will asked, "Did she tell you his name?"

He shook his head. "I never met him, but he was bad."

Will stared at the boy, wondering how to phrase his next question.
"Bad how?"

"Mean," Felix said. "She said he was mean, and that she would
protect me from him because she loves me more than anybody in the
world." There was a finality to his tone, as if that was all he was willing
to say on the matter. "Can I go home now?"

Will would've preferred a knife to his chest rather than have to
answer this question. He glanced at Sara for support, and she took
over, saying, "Remember that lady you met earlier? Miss Nancy?"

Felix nodded.

"She's going to find someone to take care of you until your mom
comes to get you."

The boy's eyes filled with tears. Will couldn't blame him. Miss
Nancy was probably from social services. She would be a long way
from the women at Felix's private school and his mother's well-heeled
friends.

He said, "But I want to go home."

"I know, sweetheart," Sara soothed. "But if you go home, you'll
be all alone. We need to make sure that you're safe until your mom
comes to get you."

He didn't seem convinced.

Will got down on one knee so that he was face-to-face with the
boy. He wrapped his hand around Felix's shoulder, his fingers accidentally
brushing Sara's arm in the process. Will felt a lump rise in his
throat, and he had to swallow before he could speak. "Look at me,
Felix." He waited until the child complied. "I'm going to make sure
your mom comes back to you, but I need you to be brave for me
while I'm working to make that happen."

Felix's face was so open and trusting that it was painful to look at
him. "How long will it take?" There was a wobble in his voice as he
asked the question.

"Maybe a week at the most," Will said, fighting the urge to break
eye contact. If Pauline McGhee was gone longer than a week, she
would be dead, and Felix would be an orphan. "Can you give me a
week?"

The boy kept staring at Will as if to judge whether or not he was
being told the truth. Finally, he nodded.

"All right," Will said, feeling as if an anvil had been placed on his
chest. He saw that Faith was sitting in a chair by the door and wondered
when she had come into the room. She stood, nodding for him
to follow her outside. Will patted Felix on the leg before joining
Faith in the hallway.

"I'll tell Leo about the brother," Faith said. "Sounds like a family
dispute."

"Probably." Will glanced back at the closed door. He wanted to go
back in there, but not because of Felix. "What'd Jackie's sister say?"

"Joelyn," Faith provided. "She's not exactly torn up about her
sister being killed."

"What do you mean?"

"Bitch runs in the family."

Will felt his eyebrows go up.

"I'm just having a bad day," Faith said, but that was hardly an explanation.
"Joelyn lives in North Carolina. She said it'll take her
about five hours to drive down." Almost as an afterthought, Faith
added, "Oh, and she's going to sue the police and get us fired if we
don't find out who killed her sister."

"One of those," Will said. He didn't know which was worse—
family members who were so torn up with grief that you felt like
they were reaching into your chest and squeezing your heart or family
members who were so angry that you felt like they were squeezing
you a little farther down.

He said, "Maybe you should have another go at Felix."

"He seemed pretty tapped out to me," Faith replied. "I probably
couldn't get any more out of him than you did."

"Maybe talking to a woman—"

"You're good with kids," Faith interrupted, a hint of surprise in
her tone. "More patient than me right now, anyway."

Will shrugged. He had helped out with some of the younger kids
at the children's home, mostly to keep the new ones from crying all
night and keeping everyone awake. He asked, "Did you get Pauline's
work number from Leo?" Faith nodded. "We need to call and see if
there's a Morgan there. Felix says the abductor dressed like him—
maybe there's a kind of suit that Morgan favors. Also, our guy's
about five-six with dark hair and a mustache."

"The mustache could be fake."

Will admitted as much. "Felix is smart for his age, but I'm not
sure he can tell the difference between real and fake. Maybe Sara got
something out of him?"

"Let's give them a few more minutes alone," Faith suggested.
"You sound like you think Pauline's one of our victims."

"What do you think?"

"I asked you first."

Will sighed. "My gut is pointing that way. Pauline's well off, well
employed. She's got brown hair, brown eyes." He shrugged, contradicting
himself. "That's not much to hang your hat on."

"It's more than we had when we got up this morning," she
pointed out, though he couldn't tell if she was agreeing with his gut
or clutching at straws. "Let's be careful about this. I don't want to get
Leo in trouble by snooping around his case, then leaving him hanging
out to dry when nothing comes out of it."

"Agreed."

"I'll call Pauline McGhee's work and ask about Morgan's suits.
Maybe I can get some information out of them without stepping on
Leo's toes." Faith took out her phone and looked at the screen. "My
battery is dead."

"Here." Will offered his. She took it gently in both hands and
dialed a number from her notebook. Will wondered if he looked as
silly as Faith did holding the two pieces of the phone to his face and
figured he probably looked even more so. Faith was not really his
type, but she was an attractive woman, and attractive women could
get away with a lot. Sara Linton, for instance, could probably get
away with murder.

"Sorry," Faith said into the phone, her voice raised. "I'm having
trouble hearing you." She shot Will a look, as if this was his fault, before
heading down the hall where the reception was better.

Will leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb. Replacing the
phone represented a seemingly insurmountable problem—the sort
of problem that Angie usually handled for him. He'd tried to get the
device replaced by calling the cell phone company, but they had told
him he would have to go to the store and fill out paperwork.
Assuming that miracle occurred, Will would then have to figure out
the new features on the phone—how to set the ringtone to something
that wouldn't annoy him, how to program in the numbers he
needed for work. Will supposed he could ask Faith, but his pride
kept getting in the way. He knew that she would gladly help him, but
she would want to have a conversation about it.

For the first time in his adult life, Will found himself wishing that
Angie would come back to him.

He felt a hand on his arm, then heard an "Excuse me" as a thin
brunette opened the door to the doctors' lounge. He guessed she was
Miss Nancy from social services, come to collect Felix. The day was
early enough that the boy wouldn't immediately be taken to a shelter.
There might be a foster family who could look after him for a
while. Hopefully, Miss Nancy had been at this job long enough so
that she had some good families who owed her favors. It was hard to
place children who were in limbo. Will had been in limbo himself,
just long enough to get to that age where adoption was almost
impossible.

Faith was back. She had a disapproving frown on her face as she
handed Will back his phone. "You should get that replaced."

"Why?" he asked, pocketing the phone. "It works fine."

She ignored his obvious lie. "Morgan only wears Armani, and he
seemed pretty convinced that he's the only man in Atlanta with
enough style to pull it off."

"So, we're talking anywhere from twenty-five hundred to five
thousand dollars for a suit."

"I'd bet it's on the high end, judging by his haughty tone. He also
told me that Pauline McGhee is estranged from her family, going
back at least twenty years. He says she ran away at seventeen and
never looked back. He's never heard her mention a brother before."

"How old is Pauline now?"

"Thirty-seven."

"Did Morgan know how to get in touch with her family?"

"He doesn't even know what state she's from. She didn't talk
about her past much. I left a message on Leo's cell. I'm pretty sure
he'll track down the brother before the day is out. He's probably already
running all the fingerprints from her SUV."

"Maybe she's living under an alias? You don't run away from
home at seventeen without a reason. Pauline's obviously doing pretty
well for herself financially. Maybe she had to change her name to
make that happen."