Missing Child (8 page)

‘I have to ask,’ said Sam. ‘Do you have an Eagles cap?’

‘Do I?’ Noah cried, his eyes widening.

Sam’s gaze did not waver.

‘Yes. Of course I have an Eagles cap,’ said Noah. ‘Don’t you?’

Sam did not reply. ‘We’ve asked the witness if she is willing to be hypnotized, to see if she can recall any more details. She said she would be.’

‘Does that work?’ Caitlin asked.

‘In some cases, it’s been helpful,’ said Sam.

‘And in others, it’s a complete waste of time,’ Noah said in a hopeless tone.

‘Testimony under hypnosis isn’t even admissible in court.’

‘We’re not in court,’ said Sam. ‘We’re trying to find your boy.’

Noah sighed. ‘I know, I know. I’m sorry. I’m just so frustrated.’

‘Someone took him,’ Caitlin whispered. The idea of her son being led off by a stranger to God knows where . . . Her heart felt like it was being crushed by fear. She glanced at Noah, her eyes wide. She saw the answering fear in his gaze.

‘We don’t know for sure that it was Geordie,’ Sam cautioned them. ‘I have my detectives checking to see if any kids were taken out of school that morning by a parent for any reason. Meanwhile,’ said Sam, ‘I was talking it over with the chief and we think it’s time to make a direct appeal.

‘One, or both of you, can prepare statements to read in front of the television camera. Basically, you’ll be asking for anyone who might know anything to come forward. All you want is your child back. No questions asked.’

‘Like hell they’ll be no questions asked,’ said Noah.

‘We’re trying to lure anyone who may know something out of the shadows,’ said Sam.

‘I know, I know,’ said Noah. ‘I understand.’

‘Also, you want to appeal to Geordie, in case there is a TV on wherever he is being held. Urge him to call you. The numbers will run constantly on the screen.’

‘He knows our numbers,’ said Caitlin.

‘Just in case,’ said Sam.

‘We’ll do it,’ said Noah grimly.

‘Caitlin?’ Sam asked.

‘Of course.’

‘When can we do this?’ Noah asked.

‘As soon as possible,’ said Sam. ‘The sooner the better.’

‘Make it happen,’ said Noah.

‘All right then,’ said Sam, getting up from the table. ‘I’m going to set it up. Excuse me.’ He pulled out his phone and began to tap in numbers.

Caitlin looked at her husband. He had not shaved, and he was wearing a sweatshirt over the dress shirt he had worn to court yesterday, before their world collapsed. His cheeks were sunken and his complexion had a yellowish cast.

He smelled stale, like sheets left too long on the bed.

She reached her hand out and put it over his. Their eyes met briefly, and then he shook his head and looked away.

At that moment, Sam Mathis came back into the room. ‘All right. It’s all set for . . .’ He glanced at his phone. ‘Two hours from now.’

‘Do these appeals ever work?’ Noah asked angrily.

‘Well, there’s no guarantee. But you never know what you’re going to shake out with one of these,’ said Sam.

‘We have to try,’ said Caitlin.

‘Anything,’ Noah agreed.

Sam Mathis had warned them that the TV studio would be crowded with police and reporters, but they were unprepared for the crush of people who had assembled to hear them plead for information. Sam instructed them not to speak to individual reporters, but to simply deliver their prepared statements.

Caitlin held Noah’s hand as they sat down behind the bank of microphones at the cloth-covered table. The lights all around them were blinding. Noah was asked to sit in the chair beside an easel bearing an enlargement of Geordie’s photo, and Caitlin was directed to the seat on his left. Sam Mathis stood at the microphone and called the noisy crowd to order.

‘As you all know,’ Sam said, surveying the room with his gaze, ‘George Eckhart, six years old, known as Geordie, disappeared from the Hartwell Elementary School yesterday morning. He was last seen entering the school that morning by his stepmother, Caitlin Eckhart.’ At this Sam nodded in Caitlin’s direction. She wasn’t sure how to respond. A wave? A smile? Nothing could seem less appropriate, she thought. She licked her lips and stared straight ahead.

‘We’ve asked his parents to address you all today, to ask the public for some help with this baffling disappearance. If you have seen George Eckhart, there is a number on your screen for you to call. Please don’t hesitate. Even if you’re not sure, we welcome any tips you might be able to provide for us. Anything at all. Call the number on your screen. Write it down. Geordie’s life may depend on it.’ He turned to Noah. ‘Mr Eckhart? Would you like to speak first?’

Noah nodded and cleared his throat. He had showered, shaved and put on a clean shirt and a tweed jacket. He looked almost presentable, but for the circles under his eyes and the lack of color in his skin. Caitlin was glad he was speaking first. She was not normally shy, but today her stomach was in spasms, and she wasn’t sure that any sound would come out when she opened her mouth.

That would not be a problem for Noah, she thought. He was used to being in court, speaking to crowds. He never had a moment’s stage fright. He would speak calmly, persuasively. But when he opened his mouth, she felt almost alarmed by the halting way he began. It seemed to be torture for him to release each word of his statement. ‘My son, Geordie,’ he said, ‘is only six years old. He is a wonderful little boy who never hurt anyone in his life. I’m speaking now to the . . . person who took my son from me. From us. Please, I don’t know why you took him but, if you have any human decency, I beg you. Let my son go. Let him come home to me. To . . . us. To his . . . to Caitlin and me. We love Geordie more than we can say. I don’t care about punishing you for what you’ve done. Just . . . let Geordie go. Let him come home. Leave him somewhere. Anywhere. I’ll come and get him. Please don’t hurt him. He never hurt anyone. Please.’

Noah drew back from the microphone and covered his eyes with one hand.

Sam nodded to Caitlin.

She wrapped both hands around the microphone, as if it were going to jump up and try to escape. She put her mouth close to it, and she looked straight ahead into the camera, as Sam had told her to do. Her whole body was shaking.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘Geordie, if you are listening to this, if you can see me, I want to tell you something. You are a very brave boy, and a strong boy and I want you to stay brave, and try not to be afraid. We’re going to find you. I promise you. Daddy and I are going to . . . bring you home. You just keep remembering that. We love you more than anything, and don’t you forget that. If you can hear me.

‘As for the person who took Geordie . . .’ Her voice trailed off, and she averted her eyes. Sam bent down to her.

‘Are you OK?’ he whispered.

Caitlin nodded and continued: ‘I assume there is something terribly wrong with you, to take an innocent little boy like that from his family. To take him from his school. All I can ask of you, from the bottom of my heart, is that you don’t hurt Geordie, and that you let him go so he can come home. He’s only six years . . . old.’

Her last words came out in little more than a squeak, like in her dream, when she was trying, in vain, to call out to Geordie. She let go of the microphone and sat back, drained by the effort. Noah put his arm around her, and pulled her to him.

A voice from the crowd called out, ‘Caitlin, you were the last one to see the boy alive . . .’

The camera caught the startled look on her face.

Sam Mathis shook his head at Caitlin. Then he turned back to the audience of reporters. ‘No questions. We can’t take questions. But we do appreciate your efforts to get his parents’ plea out to the public, in the hope of finding this child, and possibly saving his life.’

Caitlin stared straight ahead into the glare of the lights, while she and Noah gripped one another’s hands. Was he hurt? Or hungry? Was he frightened? She tried to imagine Geordie looking into her eyes on the television screen.

Don’t be afraid, she thought. I love you. We’ll find you. Try not to be afraid.

SEVEN

E
xtra personnel were put on the police department phones, and three officers took turns manning the phones at the Eckhart home. For the first twenty-four hours, the results from the televised plea seemed promising. Many tips came in, and all were checked out. Some were soon discounted. One woman who called the hotline claimed that she had heard whimpering cries in her building coming from the super’s locked workroom in the basement. The police went to the building and ordered the super to unlock the door. The super, it seemed, was concealing a litter of newborn pups in a building which allowed no pets. Another caller was a woman who said that her son claimed to have talked to Geordie at school on Monday morning. When two officers arrived to question the boy, his story became vague and more disjointed, until the boy admitted that it must have been the week before. A male caller with a slurred voice suggested that Mr Needleman was to blame, and that everybody knew it at the school. Mr Needleman broke out in hives, but insisted that he would not be intimidated.

One lead was promising. A caller said that he saw a man and a boy walking away from the school that morning. This seemed to confirm what the teacher’s aide had witnessed. According to this man, who worked for a cable TV company, he was sitting in his truck when he saw them walk by. The cable guy was pretty certain that the man whom he saw was not wearing an Eagles cap, or any other kind of hat. The boy was crying and protesting. The cable TV man assumed it was a father and son. This morning, Sam was questioning the man himself. He promised to let the Eckharts know if this lead seemed to offer a direction to the investigation.

The morning passed with agonizing slowness. Caitlin was alone in the house. Noah’s secretary, Lois, had called, apologizing for the fact that Noah was urgently needed in the office. An out-of-town client was only going to be in for a couple of hours and insisted on seeing his attorney. Noah was reluctant, but Caitlin told him to go, smiling bravely and telling him to take his time. But as she watched his car disappear down the driveway, Caitlin felt suddenly, unaccountably abandoned. She and Noah had not been apart since the moment at Geordie’s school when they learned that he was missing. They buoyed one another up through the day, each one offering hope when the other was low. Suddenly, without him, Caitlin felt the full weight of her loss.

It wasn’t, she thought, as if she were actually alone. There were two officers arriving in the driveway, even as she looked out on the dreary, interminable morning. They greeted her as they came up the walk and entered the house. ‘There’s coffee inside,’ she said.

‘Any more of those cinnamon rolls?’ asked the younger officer, named Jack.

Caitlin nodded. ‘They arrived this morning. Help yourself.’ Haley had left another sack of rolls on the front porch before they had even awakened. Caitlin felt overwhelmed by the kindness of people. Her kitchen counters were covered in plates of food but there was nothing which tempted her in the least. The desire to eat had left her, as had the ability to sleep. She could sleep for what seemed like minutes at a time, and then she would wake up, stricken, remembering. This morning, after Noah left, she had thought about taking a shower, but realized that she was too afraid. What if the phone rang while she was in the shower? She knew that her fear made no sense. She could always check to see if she had missed a call. But, still, she did not shower. She felt filthy and exhausted. Any task which flitted into her consciousness was immediately dismissed as impossible to even begin. She was paralyzed, and could not do the slightest thing.

Suddenly, as she stared out at the gray day, Caitlin saw Sam Mathis’s car pull into the driveway. Her heart leapt up. She ran out to meet him in the drizzle. Sam rolled down the window.

‘What happened?’ she cried. ‘The teacher’s aide. Was she hypnotized?’

‘Last night.’

‘And?’

Sam shook his head. ‘Nothing useful.’

‘Nothing?’ she asked. She could feel the frustration rising in her throat, choking off her breath as if she had eaten something she was allergic to. ‘How about the guy from the cable company?’

‘He wants to help,’ said Sam. ‘He really does, but the guy has no kids. I have found, over the years, that men with no kids barely even notice children, much less what they look like. I’m on my way to the school to get an array of photos of the kids in Geordie’s grade to try to jog his memory. I just stopped to give you a progress report. I’m afraid I can’t stay.’

‘No, wait,’ Caitlin said. She wanted to grab the sleeve of his jacket and cling onto it, to prevent him from leaving her there alone with her obsessive fears.

Sam looked at Caitlin. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘I can’t bear this,’ she said.

‘I know,’ said Sam. ‘We’re doing everything we can . . .’

‘I know. I know that,’ said Caitlin. ‘I just feel so useless.’

‘It’s a terrible situation,’ he said.

‘Let me come with you,’ Caitlin blurted out. ‘I can do something. I can join the search.’

Sam frowned at her. ‘I’m sorry. I know you’re frustrated,’ he said. ‘But it’s better if you just stay here at home.’

Caitlin shook her head. ‘You don’t understand. I can’t,’ she said. ‘I just can’t. I’ve done everything exactly as you’ve asked. But I can’t spend the day just waiting around here. I want to go and look for Geordie with the other searchers. Let me do that at least. What harm would there be in that?’

Yesterday, after their televised plea, she and Noah had been allowed to visit the church which served as the command center from which the teams of searchers started out or returned for a break. Sam had ordered one of the younger officers to bring along the blown-up display photo of Geordie to the church with them, probably to inspire the volunteers there. Concerned parents and senior citizens who had gathered there produced flyers and plates of cookies and urns of coffee for the search teams of ordinary citizens. Touched by the community support that they received, Caitlin and Noah had shaken hands with people and accepted their blessings and good wishes. Then the police had whisked them away.