THE RUSH OF WIND cold on his face, Caleb pedaled hard on his bike. No way was he going to let TJ pass him or Diego pull too far ahead. So far, the three were staying in a line, all listening for any traffic coming up behind them. The curves and lack of a shoulder made 253rd a dangerous road for walking or bike riding. As if they had any choice; it was the only way to get anywhere, and none of them could drive.
Caleb hadn’t set foot off the grounds of the old resort in at least a month, so even though he was weirded out that TJ had come with them, Caleb felt exhilarated. Dad was back in Spokane. The relief he’d felt when Reid told him had been huge. At least now it was safe for him to go out, do something different.
Damon, who’d been out earlier, said the county park on Bear Creek had opened after having been closed all winter and that some girls’ sports team was having their end-of-season deal there. He’d shrugged when Diego asked what kind of sport. Ski team? Basketball? “Who cares?” was what he’d said. There were girls their own age.
They’d built a big fire and were roasting hot dogs, and Damon had seen boxes of graham crackers on the picnic tables along with a row of trophies, so he guessed there’d be s’mores, too. They’d let him have a hot dog, and he was mad because he’d had to come home because he was on the schedule for tutoring with Isaac—and Paula had zero tolerance for anyone being late for a special tutoring session. Sunday was a day of rest, but not Saturday. This late in the afternoon, though, Caleb, Diego and TJ were all done with their schoolwork. Dinner was still a couple of hours away.
Diego had grabbed Damon’s mountain bike and grinned at Caleb. “Man, let’s go!” His gaze fell on someone behind Caleb. “You want to come, too?”
Caleb was still surprised TJ had agreed. He wasn’t very friendly with any of the other guys. But he was older than Caleb, who still hadn’t made a serious move on any girl and hated the fact there weren’t any around to at least look at. TJ might have even had a girlfriend before he came here. He’d looked surprised to be asked, but said, “Yeah, sure.” They’d left word with Apollo and within minutes were on their way.
Visions of a roaring bonfire, a hot dog with the skin splitting open and a pretty girl smiling shyly at him were dancing in Caleb’s head like sugarplum fairies when he heard the deep-throated rumble of an SUV or a truck coming up behind them. They’d just gone around a curve, and when he looked over his shoulder, he couldn’t see the vehicle. He hesitated, not sure whether to pedal faster or stop or what. TJ was glancing back, too. Looking ahead again, Caleb saw Diego was still pedaling, so he did, too, trying to speed up. It would be better if they reached a straight stretch.
The sound of the engine grew louder, and then he heard TJ yell. Even though it probably wasn’t safe, Caleb looked back again. A big silver grille and a monster black vehicle coming fast were all he could see except TJ, who’d swerved off the road and whose bike was skidding in the gravel. Still holding the handlebars, TJ was diving toward the ditch.
Beyond a shocked awareness that the truck wasn’t even slowing down, Caleb didn’t have time to react. He saw the face through the windshield. There was more yelling—TJ and maybe Diego, too.
And then the bumper hit him and he thought I’m flying and It’s gonna hurt.
* * *
REID READ WITH dismay what he’d gleaned about Truong. That poor damn kid. No, it wasn’t any worse than his own history, or Caleb’s, for that matter, but that didn’t make it any better. He swore out loud. How could police and family-court judges be so blind? And if they saw—how did they live with themselves after making the decisions they did?
After all their foot-dragging about giving up the last names of the boys they sheltered, Roger and Paula had finally seen the necessity. In turn, Reid had asked permission to bring in someone else. His goal was to make sure that police inquiries didn’t lay a trail of crumbs straight to Angel Butte. Again, they agreed after he promised not to explain who the boys were or the reason for his investigation.
His closest friend in Southern California worked Computer Crimes for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Detective Phil Perez had listened in silence to Reid’s request a couple of days ago when he’d called. Accepting the fact he was to be kept in the dark, he had agreed to find out what he could about the nine boys. Telling himself trust had to go two ways, Reid left his brother’s name off the list. If anyone could confuse the issue of who was asking the questions, it would be Phil. Reid mentioned his interest in the parents and guardians, too, especially their current whereabouts.
The information was already pouring in. Reid hadn’t expected Phil to make his request a top priority, but clearly he had.
After he left Anna’s bed last night, Reid had driven to the resort. He’d alternated patrols with hour-long naps. Fortunately, nothing had happened.
And today, once he and Anna had escaped the reception following the funeral, they’d parted ways. Anna had planned to drive the Lunds home and stay long enough to make sure they were okay, which left him on his own. Tempted though he was to go home and hit the sack, he’d decided to go into the station to check his email. Worry was driving him. It was the weekend again.
He was still scrolling through the information Phil had unearthed on Truong when his cell phone rang. Preoccupied, he glanced to see that the number was the Hales’. Oh, damn. He’d started dreading their calls. And this was Saturday. They were due for the next incident. Picking up the phone, Reid told himself that so far, everything had happened during the night, and he knew nothing had occurred last night. This might be something trivial or even Caleb could be calling because he’d thought of something Reid should know.
“Reid here.”
“It’s bad news.” Roger sounded distraught.
Reid’s heart thudded.
“Three of the boys decided to ride their bikes down to the county park because Damon found out there were teenage girls there,” Roger continued. “TJ leaped on his bike and made it back. A pickup truck or SUV ran two of them down. TJ was at the back. He says he swerved and fell off the bike into the ditch or else he’d have been the first hit.” Roger hesitated. “The truck didn’t even slow down. It hit Caleb and Diego. Caleb is unconscious, Reid.” His voice got heavy. “I’m out here waiting for an aid car. It doesn’t look good. Diego’s got some broken bones. A leg and collarbone for sure. He yelled for TJ to go.”
“The driver didn’t stop?” Reid sounded eerily calm to his own ears.
“No. TJ swears it was deliberate. He didn’t get a look at the driver. From the way the bikes are mangled, there might be some minor damage to the vehicle. I don’t know. A car stopped, but he didn’t see the accident, just came on the boys lying on the road.”
“Jesus,” Reid breathed.
A faint wail of a siren came through the phone. “Listen, I’ve got to go—”
Reid was already on his feet. “I’ll meet the ambulance at the hospital.”
“How are you going to explain that?”
It took a few seconds for that to penetrate. “You’re not claiming the boys,” he said, momentarily shocked.
“If I have to, I will, but you know what I’d be jeopardizing.”
Reid understood even as he was suddenly, blazingly angry. All he could think of was Anna and what she’d say. No, that wasn’t all; he heard himself swearing to her that Caleb was safe.
The anger transmuted into something more violent than Reid had ever felt before. If his own father had run down his son, Reid wanted to kill him. Slowly, painfully.
“I’ll think of something,” he repeated and ended the call. Moving fast, he was grateful that it was Saturday and the assistant wasn’t at her desk, so he didn’t have to bother with an explanation. He was half running when he left the elevator on the ground floor.
* * *
“CAPTAIN SAWYER.” EVEN in the act of lowering a gurney from the back of the aid car, one of the EMTs threw Reid a wild look. “Somebody must’ve called you. Hit-and-run. I don’t know if this kid is going to make it.”
Caleb.
They were moving so fast, he didn’t get a look at his brother’s face before the gurney was whisked inside the emergency room entrance. Hospital workers were helping pull the second gurney from the back. Diego lay on it, his face contorted with pain. His dark eyes met Reid’s, desperation in them, but he didn’t say anything.
Reid laid a hand on his shoulder and walked in with them. “Did you get a license number? See the driver?” he asked.
Diego shook his head. “No.”
And then he, too, was hustled through another set of doors and Reid was left standing in the emergency room.
The woman behind the counter said, “May I help you, sir?”
He showed her his badge. “I’m told this was a hit-and-run.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know anything yet.”
He was barely keeping it together. “I need to go back, find out how the boys are and what they know.”
“Officer, you have to let the doctors work.” Her tone suggested she’d said this so many times, it came by rote. “I’ll call back and let them know you’re waiting.”
At the sound of the outside doors sliding open, Reid spun on his heel. Roger ran in, his hair disheveled, his expression frenzied. “Do you know anything?”
Reid gripped his arm and drew him away from the receptionist’s curious gaze. They walked down a wide corridor that led to the rest of the hospital.
“Diego pretended not to recognize me, but he’s conscious. He said he didn’t see the driver. No license plate.” A lump formed in his throat. Forcing words past it, he said, “I didn’t get a look at Caleb. They were moving too fast.”
“God.” Roger sagged.
Reid put an arm out to hold him up. “You okay?”
“No.” He braced both hands on the wall and bent over, panting for breath. “I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry.”
Reid gritted his teeth, trying not to say, What the hell were you thinking to let them go? The only thing stopping him was his own memories of how many times he’d biked or jogged along that same road to get to town, or just away from the shelter and the claustrophobia he sometimes felt.
In the kind of foster home Anna supervised, the boys would have been riding a bus every day to school. Roger could be openly picking them up from after-school activities. He and Reid wouldn’t have to be standing here now, terrified and yet having to pretend they didn’t know either of those boys.
“Will Diego tell them?” The question was torn from him.
“The first thing he said was that he wouldn’t. That’s why he told TJ to go. He didn’t want him to get pulled in.”
Reid nodded. He’d seen enough already about Theodore James Haveman’s background to know he didn’t want the boy’s father to get his hands on him again.
But maybe there was another way. The words whispered to him. And he knew: he’d been wrong to send Caleb to the Hales. He should have stood up to their father. Stood up for his brother, given him a home. Found a way to keep him and his mother safe, if she could be located and Caleb preferred to live with her.
A man who hadn’t bargained with God since he was a boy and found out it didn’t do any good, he begged now for a deal as he paced the hall, waiting. I will do anything. Give him a chance. Please. God, please.
He ached to call Anna, but how could he? Anybody looking at him right now would wonder why he was so upset. For the sake of the other boys at the Hales’, he needed to hide his personal fear.
Cover. That was what Anna called it. When had it quit being automatic for him?
“Um...sir?” It was the woman’s voice.
He swung around to see her hovering at the head of the hall. “There’s another officer here.”
He nodded, took a couple of deep breaths, then started after her. He paused long enough to grip Roger’s shoulder and squeeze. “I’ll come back out once I know something.”
The responding officer had arrived. The sight of Reid startled the county deputy. “Captain Sawyer?”
Oh, hell. The accident had happened outside the city limits. It would have occurred to Reid if his head wasn’t clouded with fear.
“I know Roger Hale, the guy who called 911.” Reid nodded toward Roger, who had turned to stare. “Listen. Any chance you can get Sergeant Renner here?”
“Uh...I can try.” He made a phone call, and Reid could tell he’d reached the sergeant. He looked at Reid as he talked, telling him what had happened. Then he said, “Yeah, Captain Sawyer is here. He asked for you.” Pause. “Okay. Sure. I’ll tell him. Yes, sir.” He ended the call. “The sergeant says he’s on his way.”
“Thank you.” Reid heard how ragged he sounded. Would Renner be willing to keep the Hales’ secret once he knew who the boys were? Or should Reid even tell him?
Maybe, he thought, this was a secret that shouldn’t be kept anymore.
The deputy was talking. “No skid marks at all.” His voice was flat, but anger seeped through. “The boy who is conscious said he didn’t think the driver even braked, and I’d have to agree. One of the bikes flew off the road. It’s all twisted. The other one is flattened. The son of a bitch just kept going.”
“Did you get names?” Reid asked.
“First name only. Diego.”
“So we can’t call parents.”
The door opened and a nurse in pink scrubs stuck her head out. She was looking at the deputy when she said, “The doctor says you can ask some quick questions now.”
Reid cut him off. “I’ll do that if you wait for Renner out here.” He followed her, leaving the poor deputy flat-footed. He was lucky the nurse accepted his presence without realizing he had no jurisdiction.
The nurse led him to Diego, and Reid realized they must have given the boy some pain meds, because his gaze was bleary. A young woman doctor turned to Reid when he stopped at the foot of the bed.
“He has a mild concussion and a number of broken bones and abrasions.” She gave details. “He’s already had X-rays. Next step is casting his leg and arm, but I thought under the circumstances this might be a good moment for you to get some information. Right now we’re operating without parental permission, which we’re not crazy about.”
“The other boy? Do you know how he is?”
“I’ll go find out,” she promised and left the two of them alone.
When Reid moved to Diego’s side, the boy’s hand shot out to grab him. “They’ll call my dad, won’t they?”
“We’ll have to, but I’ll make damn sure he’s not allowed to take you.”
“But you don’t know anything.”
“I do. I’ve been looking into all your backgrounds.”
“Because of the fires.”
He nodded.
“You swear?” Diego begged.
Reid took his hand and held it, praying he could keep his word. “Yes.”
“Okay,” he whispered, his eyes drifting closed.
“Wait!” Reid got his attention again, but learned next to nothing. Diego thought the vehicle that hit them was a pickup with a canopy rather than an SUV, but he wasn’t positive. It all happened so fast, he said, sounding ashamed. Black. Yes, he was positive about that much. Maybe TJ saw more.
Reid shook his head. “TJ was rolling in the ditch when the two of you got hit. Roger says he’s scraped up pretty bad. TJ also said the vehicle was black, but that everything happened so fast. He saw Caleb in the air, and the way he landed—” Reid couldn’t finish. Couldn’t say the dreaded words. He thought Caleb was dead.
Diego did. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
“No!”
Reid didn’t realize he’d yelled until he saw the kid shrink away from him. He passed a shaking hand over his face. “I’m sorry.”
The glass door slid open and the doctor reappeared. “The other boy is hanging in there. Do you have a name for him?”
“Caleb. I think he might be my brother. Caleb Sawyer.” Christ. He wasn’t having to fake anything—not the tremors, not the ragged voice, not the expression that had the doctor staring. “They’re runaways. Diego—this boy—says Caleb was looking for his brother. That’s why they came to Angel Butte. I need to see him.”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head, not in refusal, but in shock. “Yes. All right, come this way.”
He barely recognized the figure surrounded by medical personnel. Caleb’s face was raw and grotesquely swollen. He’d been intubated and was being given oxygen. There was no life at all in him beyond the faint rise and fall of his chest.
Life support.
Despite having known what he would see, Reid staggered, barely righting himself. “It’s him,” he managed to get out. “Caleb.”
* * *
IF IT HADN’T been his number on her screen, Anna wasn’t sure she’d have recognized Reid’s voice.
“Your brother?” she said, stunned. “He’s here? In town? And injured?”
“They’re working on him right now. He’s unconscious. He doesn’t look good, Anna.”
“I’m on my way. I’ll find you, Reid.”
She’d been at the health club when her phone rang, getting dressed after a workout. It had been cleansing after the funeral and the strain of trying to comfort the Lunds when she felt such grief herself. Although she was dressed, she hadn’t yet dried her hair, but she didn’t care. She hastily stuffed workout gear into her duffel, slammed the locker and all but ran out. The drive to the hospital couldn’t have taken five minutes, but it seemed like forever. Every red light, every flicker of a brake light in front of her, made her want to scream.
She parked at the hospital and raced into the emergency room. “Captain Reid Sawyer,” she snapped to the receptionist. “He’s in back with his brother. Caleb Sawyer.”
The woman frowned and perused her computer. “I’m afraid I don’t have a Caleb—”
“It was a hit-and-run.”
“Oh. Yes. Why don’t you take a seat? It’ll be a minute.”
“He asked me to come.” That was a lie, she realized with sudden shock. She hadn’t even given him a chance to ask. What if he’d been about to say, I don’t need you, but I wanted to let you know what was happening? Oh, dear God. What was his brother doing in town?
Looking for Reid, of course. What else could it be?
What if he died?
Pacing in an agitated circle right in front of the double doors leading to the back, Anna tried to blank her mind to the possibility. She’d seen the pain he bore already. A loss like this— What would it do to him?
But she knew. Oh, God, she knew.
The door burst open and he was there. His expression was terrible. She’d wanted to see naked emotion on his face, but nothing like this.
“Reid.” Anna flew to him. His arms closed hard around her even as she held on to him with everything she had. “I’m so sorry. Oh, Reid. How is he?”
“They...don’t know yet. He’s unconscious. There’s swelling in his brain. Some broken bones, too, maybe some internal bleeding. They aren’t sure yet. He looks really bad, Anna.”
She pulled back enough to look up at him. “He must have told them his name.”
Reid shook his head. “No. He’s with another boy. Diego Ramirez. They were traveling together. I haven’t figured out yet where they were staying or where they got the bikes they were riding, but he says Caleb wanted to see me.” A shudder ripped through him. “I let him down. He wasn’t safe.”
“No.” She tightened her arms again, laying her cheek against his shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Reid. You’d have done anything for him. I know you would. He wouldn’t have been looking for you if he hadn’t decided to trust you.”
This shudder was worse than the last. Or was it a sob? Shocked anew, she saw tears running down his hard cheeks. She held him while he cried, trying to protect him from curious stares as he’d done for her that day on the sidewalk in front of the café. Anna heard herself talking but didn’t even know what she was saying. Just a mishmash.
I’m so sorry. He may be fine. Just because he was knocked on the head doesn’t mean he won’t come out of it. It’s okay, Reid. Let it out. It’ll help. It will.
She didn’t know if any of it was true. Please don’t let this boy die. It would destroy Reid. She knew that much.
He pulled himself together fast, retreating from her physically and emotionally. He used the wool sleeve of the fine suit coat he’d worn to the funeral to wipe his face. She stared at the now-closed double doors, giving him the space he obviously wanted to resume his usual facade.
“Thank you for coming,” he said after a minute, his voice only a little gravelly.
“Of course I did.” She shot him a fierce look.
He gave a broken laugh. “Of course you did.” Then his gaze went past her and she turned to see that he was looking at an older man who looked upset, too. There was blood on his flannel shirt, she saw, and the knees of his canvas carpenter’s pants were dirty, with bits of grit clinging to the fabric. His gray-streaked dark hair looked as if he’d been wrenching at it, and maybe he’d been pulling at his beard, too.
Reid kept an arm around Anna and led her over to the other man. “Anna, I’ve told you about my friends here in Angel Butte. This is Roger Hale. The boys were hit on the road not far from his place. He was one of the first on scene.”
“You must have recognized Caleb,” she said.
“I—” His eyes met Reid’s. “No,” he said after a minute. “He was bloody, and...it didn’t occur to me. I called Reid because the driver who hit the boys didn’t even stop.”
“Unfortunately, the accident scene is out of my jurisdiction,” Reid put in.
She gaped at him. “But it’s your own brother. You wouldn’t have wanted to investigate anyway, would you?”
The ferocity of the look he turned on her made her quail. “Want to? Yeah, I want to.” The vulnerable man he had let her see earlier was gone. “In fact,” he continued in a hard voice, “I’m going to call my father right this minute.”
She pressed her fingers to her mouth. He couldn’t think— Could he? But obviously he did. He had his phone out and was scrolling for a number. He found it and pushed Send. She and Reid’s friend—Roger—both waited. Anna could hear the rings, but with the phone pressed to Reid’s ear, she couldn’t make out the voice that answered.
Like a knife, Reid’s voice sliced. “All right, you son of a bitch,” he said. “Where are you?”
* * *
“HERE’S THE OTHER kid’s story,” Reid told Anna. He called up Diego’s court records on his smartphone. After explaining what Diego had told him—you mean, lied to her, don’t you?—he handed her the phone and said, “Take a look.”
She read in silence for a minute, scrolling down. When she finally looked up, he would have been reassured by the fiery light in her eyes if his fear and his guilt hadn’t been so bottomless.
“First thing I’ll do is call in a Child Protective Services worker,” she announced. “I need to talk to Diego myself.”
After being told the boy was moving upstairs to a regular hospital room, Anna decided to accompany him. “I think I can block any immediate attempt to return him to his father. That’ll give us time to work.”
They both knew that by now Hector Ramirez, yet another winner in the parental stakes, had been called and might be on his way from the Portland area to Angel Butte. They were in a race.
Reid nodded. Being able to talk at all was getting harder for him.
Eyes soft again, Anna hugged him, rose on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his cheek. “I’ll be back,” she murmured. “Hang in there.”
He couldn’t even nod this time. He’d never been so scared in his life. He expected to be summoned any minute and told the worst.
Instead, the outside doors glided open and a man entered. Reid knew a cop when he saw one, even if he wore a suit and tie. The guy walking toward him was powerfully built with an angular, rough-cast face. It was the walk that gave him away—had to be cop or ex-military. The way he scanned everyone in the waiting area and then zeroed in on Reid was familiar, too.
When he got close, Reid saw the badge on his belt. He held out his hand. “Sergeant Renner?”
“You’re Captain Sawyer. Jane has described you.”
“I won’t ask what she said.”
The grin was quick and then gone. “You want to tell me what this is about?”
Reid hadn’t been sure until now how much he wanted to say. Before agreeing to go home, Roger had said the decision would be Reid’s. “We’re at a crossroads,” he said bleakly. “Too many people know we’re here now. Maybe it’s time to give it up.”
Reid felt the same, yet couldn’t forget his own desperation when he came to the Hales. He thought of all the kids since, the ones who’d stayed safe, earned their GEDs, gone on to good lives thanks to Roger and Paula.
But his conscience wouldn’t let him forget the others, too. The ones he never let himself think about. The girls murdered by a serial killer given access to them by the Hales. The ones who’d run away even from this sanctuary, any safety net lost to them.
He drew a deep breath and said, “Yeah. I asked for you because the Hales tell me you’re aware of their operation.”
Comprehension was immediate. “The hit-and-run was on 253rd, wasn’t it? Well, shit.” Renner looked around. “Let’s find someplace private. The cafeteria?”
“I need to stay here.”
Clay Renner nodded. They ended up choosing a couple of chairs in a corner. Reid braced his elbows on his knees and let his head hang for a minute. “It’s a mess,” he warned.
“It almost has to be.”
He straightened, unwilling to evade those sharp blue eyes, and started talking. Talked until he was hoarse. “I owe them my life,” he said finally. “We can still leave them out of this, if you’re willing. Right now, I don’t know what’s right or wrong. I will tell you, I think this was deliberate. A murder attempt.”
“Aimed at your brother.”
“Maybe, maybe not. The boy who was riding behind Caleb is a possibility. It sounds like he’d have been hit first if he hadn’t dived for the ditch. It’s also possible whoever this is didn’t care which boys he killed. He hates the Hales and this was just part of his campaign of terror.”
Furrows had long since formed on Sergeant Renner’s forehead. “I wish you’d come to me sooner.”
“I did talk to your boss.”
“My boss?”
“The sheriff. Until today, nobody had gotten hurt. The incidents were no more than taunts. Nasty, but there was no attempt to harm anyone.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Renner sighed. “Forward me everything you’ve got on these kids and their parents or guardians. The first thing we need to do is pin down where everyone is.”
“I’m pretty damn sure my father—Caleb’s father—is here in Angel Butte.” Reid’s voice had thickened.
“Ah. Have you tried to get in touch?”
“I called. He claimed he’d just crossed the Oregon border, that he didn’t leave Spokane until midmorning. I don’t believe him. No matter what, he’s on his way here. Like I told you, he was here last week when the tires were slashed. He has weekends off and could have been here when the fires were set, too.”
“Would he do this? Try to kill his own boy?”
“He killed my mother. It was in the middle of a fight. He hit her, she fell against the corner of a kitchen cabinet. But he was cold-blooded enough to set it up as an accident. I saw him pour some water on the floor to make it look like she slipped.”
Renner’s harsh features hardened. “Then he’s at the top of my list.”
“The Hales?” Reid had to ask.
Renner let out a huff of air. “I don’t know. I’ll talk to them and the other boy. Let me think about this, okay?”
Reid only nodded. He’d been doing a lot of that. It occurred to him then that his career was over if this all came out. He’d been breaking the law. He probably hadn’t done anything he’d be charged for, although Roger and Paula would be, however fine their intentions and however much good they’d done. Reid would hate to see that. At the moment, he couldn’t seem to make himself care about the fallout for himself personally.
Renner left then, and Reid stood watching until he went through the door and was out of sight. He not only had never been so scared before, he’d never felt so helpless.