Out of Reach: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

specialist in child interviews, was in high demand. No one was going to be eager to let him head up to Baltimore for a day on a case the locals believed was a runaway. “He owes me. So tell him I’m collecting.”
    Cathy grinned and made a note. “And if he’s still unavailable?”
    “Get over there yourself. You’re the closest thing to a trained specialist we have, and probably just as good.” Like most CAC coordinators, Cathy had a background in child-related work. She held a Ph.D. in child psychology and had practiced for five years before joining the FBI. “If Cody even ate something different for lunch, I want to know about it.”
    “I’ll make the call.”
    “Okay, let’s get back to the time line,” Alec said. “Cody left school around two thirty with Melinda Farmer, age ten, and a class ahead of him in school. They walked partway home together, split at the corner of Hull and Marriott, a ten-minute walk. Tops. Less than three blocks from Cody’s house. And, as far as we know, she’s the last person who saw him.”
    “You want Matheson to interview her as well?”
    “No, you take her. She’s more likely to talk to a woman. She walked with Cody almost every day. If anyone knows anything, it’s Melinda. If he ran, she’ll know. She may even know where. And if Roy used his fists, she’ll know that, too.”
    “I’ll make it a priority. And what do you want me to do with the locals?”
    “Get them walking the streets again. Expand the search. Get them over to the docks and Cross Street Market. I bet the kid spent some time there. Someone saw something, and I want to know who and what.”
    “You got it.”
    Alec tossed down the last of his now lukewarm coffee. Hot or not, he needed the caffeine. “So, assuming Cody got home, say anywhere between three and three-thirty, he was supposed to call his mother, who was working an afternoon shift. He didn’t, but she claims he often forgets. So when she didn’t hear from him by four, she called home. No answer. She assumed he went out, and though irritated with him, she wasn’t concerned. Again, she claims he’s been getting harder and harder to control lately.”
    “Which is backed up by the fact he’s run away three times in the last year.”
    “Yeah.” Alec sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. He didn’t like where this was headed. “Okay, Ellen arrives home at five thirty, and Cody’s still not home. Now she’s angry. She starts calling friends, neighbors, but no one’s seen him. Finally she calls the police at four minutes past ten, seven hours after Cody’s been missing.”
    She might already have been too late.
    Seventy-four percent of the children murdered during a kidnapping are dead within three hours of the abduction.
    But Alec didn’t believe Cody was dead. He had no good reason, except an odd feeling that there was something different about this case. Moving away from the storyboard, he dropped into his chair at the large conference-room table. Leaning back, he closed his eyes and this time dragged both hands through his hair.
    “So, what’s your gut telling you?” Cathy asked.
    He didn’t want to say it, but the facts were staring him in the face. “Stranger abduction.” The hardest type of case to break.
    “Yeah.” She sounded deflated. “Me, too.”
    “And it was high risk.” Alec leaned forward. “Cody’s a street-smart kid. He’s not getting into a stranger’s car. Hell, he’d probably be more likely to pop a tire with a switchblade.”
    Since his father had left, his mother had paraded one man after the another through their lives. Cody had spent a lot of time on the streets. He knew the score.
    “And look at him.” Alec picked up Cody’s picture and slid it across the table to her. “He’s beautiful.”
    “They’re all beautiful.”
    “Not like this kid.” He had an angel’s face, though he tried to hide it with a scowl, dark blue eyes ringed with sooty lashes, and hair that, even shaggy