“He’s always been fascinated by those machines,” Taylor told Sheriff Norwich as she looked at the photos of the trash left inside the bulldozer’s cab. “Can I look at the drawings?”
“In a little bit. My deputy’s bagging them. Can you tell if any of this might have been Will’s?”
“Juice pouch, yes. I sent him back with some. He loves the Kool-Aid grape flavored, but his nana only gets him cherry Gatorade. And Sour Patch Kids,” she pointed out the wrapper, “they’re his favorite. He doesn’t usually throw away his drawings, though.”
Norwich raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips like she hadn’t realized that Will may have left them on purpose. “We better take a look at those.”
The sheriff’s phone interrupted. She held up a finger to Taylor as she fished it out of her pocket. “Excuse me just a minute. This is Norwich.” She listened, then turned her back and took a few steps away. “Yes, that’s exactly what I asked. No garbage collection, at least for the next two days.”
Taylor swallowed hard, trying to keep the acid in her stomach from coming up. She could not—would not—think about why the sheriff wanted to delay the garbage collection.
Norwich finished on the phone and stood in front of her again. “Why do you think Will skipped school today?”
Taylor felt the sheriff’s gray eyes pin her down. She blinked too soon and had to look away. She hated this. All she wanted to do was find Will, scoop him up, and never leave him here again. The sun was setting. As soon as it was dark, it would be chilly. Did he think to pack a jacket?
“Ms. Donahue, there’s something you’re not telling me,” Norwich said, bringing her back. “If you’re hiding this boy—”
“No,” Taylor said quickly. “I didn’t do that.” She looked away at the organized chaos. Dozens of law enforcement officers were searching the area. More on the highway were still arriving. She hadn’t been able to unclench the knot in her stomach since Dora’s phone call. When her eyes came back to Norwich, the sheriff was watching her. Waiting.
“I didn’t take him,” she told her. “But I wish I had. I think he ran away. And it’s my fault.” For the first time, she could hear the panic in her own voice.
“Okay. Help me understand that.”
Taylor glanced over her shoulder. Dora’s front door remained closed, though a shadow passed by the front windows.
“When I picked up Will on Friday, Dora and I argued. I told you that, right?”
Norwich nodded. “Care to tell me what that was about?”
“Custody stuff. She doesn’t like that I’m dating. I’ve been dating Jason Seaver.” She paused, checking to see if there was disapproval. He was younger than Taylor. That mattered to some people. It obviously mattered to Dora. She hoped the sheriff understood. She didn’t want to share the part that her mother-in-law had called her a slut.
“I think Will overheard some of it. He’s been anxious to come live with me full-time, and that’s supposed to happen after the first of the year. I keep telling him we just need to be patient.” She steeled herself. She would not cry. Maybe anger could get her through this.
“Dora told you she doesn’t want you dating Jason?” Norwich prodded.
“She didn’t say that exactly. But it was clear she didn’t like that I was dating. Period.”
“And she threatened that it could affect your custody terms?”
Taylor tried to remember Dora’s exact words. Everything else got clouded in her mind after she called her “a slut.”
“She reminded me that I left Will with her and gave her the right to decide what was best for him. She made it sound like she could delay the full custody if I wasn’t living up to that. I think Will heard the part about the delay. He asked me over the weekend...”
Oh god, did she really want to admit this? As soon as she did it would be the end of her ever getting custody. Dora would convince the courts that Taylor’s actions could cause her son to run away. And all the dangers.
“He asked what would happen if he just didn’t go back.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him we needed to be patient for a little longer. That he needed to finish the school year at his school over here.” She shook her head. Bit her lower lip. “I made it sound like there wasn’t another option.”
“Was there another option?”
Taylor shot another look over her shoulder. There was no way Dora could hear them this far away in the street. Still, Taylor lowered her voice. “Do you know my mother-in-law?”
Norwich looked like she was holding back a response. Then she shook her head. “By reputation only.”
“Then you know, she and her husband have a lot of influence in this community. If she wants something to happen, she can make it happen.”
As if on cue, a rumble in the distance grew louder.
“Son of a bitch,” Norwich hissed under her breath.
“What is that?” Taylor looked up, trying to find the sound in the sky. “What’s happening?”
“Your mother-in-law.”
The helicopter came into view, or rather, its searchlight did first. The bright beam cut over the houses like a laser, lighting up the shadows from the setting sun. It swooped low just over the trees and sending leaves, pine needles and pieces of trash airborne.
Over Norwich’s radio came a woman’s voice, urgent and angry, “Get that helicopter out of here! It’s scattering the scent.”
A tall woman waved at Norwich as she jogged toward them. It wasn’t until Taylor saw the big dog alongside her that she realized it was Brodie. She was fast even with a backpack, shirttails flying behind her, one hand holding down her ball cap.
Norwich had her cell phone to her ear, barking orders.
“The downwash,” Brodie was yelling to be heard over the heavy whomp of rotor blades. Now, as she stood in front of them, she still had to shout. “It’s lifting the scent. It’ll scattered it away from its original positions.”
Taylor realized it was Brodie’s voice that had come over the radio. Norwich was nodding at Brodie even as she and Hank continued jogging up the street. Norwich still had the phone to her ear. The noise was so loud, Taylor could barely make out the sheriff’s words as she yelled instructions.
This time, when she glanced over her shoulder, Dora stood in her open doorway, arms crossed over her chest. Despite being at the end of the circle drive, Taylor could see the woman smiling as her head pivoted, watching the sky. She seemed to pay no attention to the chaos and only cocked her head to get a better look up above.
The helicopter disappeared on the other side of the trees. But within minutes, the tops of the pine trees began waving wildly again. The rumble grew. It had looped around and was returning. Now, it came lower. A gust of downwash dismantled anything not anchored down.
Taylor could feel the pull, the swish of her hair and the flap of her scrubs. She put a hand over her eyes to avoid the blinding searchlight. She couldn’t help thinking that this would get Will’s attention, and her eyes scanned the edges of the woods back to where the bulldozer was.
Then suddenly, the helicopter banked to its side and took off across the highway to do the same thing to that neighborhood.
Taylor saw Norwich turn. The phone was still pressed to her ear, but now she noticed Dora standing at her front door. The sheriff glared at Dora like she wished her death-ray stare could make a difference. Taylor wanted to tell her it would take more than that to pierce an ice-cold heart.
But now she could clearly hear what Norwich was telling the person on the other end of the phone, “I don’t care what you have to do. Get me the governor on the line. And do it now!”