“But before we get too concerned about the cartel,” Leary said, “my opinion is that if it was them, we would’ve heard by now—one way or another. They wouldn’t have taken the kid for money.”
That confirmed Shannon’s belief.
“To them, whatever Evans could pay would be a drop in the bucket. If they took the kid, it would’ve been for revenge. And in Thompson’s case, we’re going back nearly four years. I doubt the cartel bosses would’ve been this patient if they wanted retribution.
“Third on our list is Colin Jansen, serving life for killing a man in a barroom brawl when he hit him on the back of the head with a pool cue. Jansen reportedly has anger issues, and he has associates on the outside. Number four is Nadine Crosby. She was twenty-three at the time she was convicted of the attempted murder of her mother and her mother’s then-boyfriend. Diagnosed as a psychopath, she fits the profile, and the fact that she was released a few months ago moved her up our list to fourth position. However, she’s solidly alibied for the time of the abduction. Rounding out the top five, we have Norman Blackstone, a fifty-six-year-old father of four who defrauded his employer of nearly a million dollars. Evans sent him to prison for five years. That covers the probables.”
Leary nodded at Bigelow. “Anything you want to add?”
Bigelow shook his head. “No, other than to say that the DA’s office is continuing to go through all of Evans’s case files. Anything else?” he asked the room in general.
A hand shot up. “What are the chances that Evans might be behind it?”
Bigelow inclined his head. “That’s a good question. As usual, we’re taking an in-depth look at the family. We haven’t gotten a red flag in our discussions with Evans. We’ve interviewed the other campers in the area and got nothing from them, either.” He scanned the room. “A complexity in this case is that the boy is the second member of Evans’s immediate family to disappear. That’s too coincidental for my liking and warrants closer scrutiny. It would answer the question we’ve been grappling with of why the father didn’t wake up if the boy was abducted from the tent.”
“Is it worth looking at the missing wife again?” someone else asked.
“Yes. We’ll review Jeannette Evans’s file, although as I said, the investigation into her disappearance had ruled out the possibility that Evans played any role in it.” Bigelow frowned at his notes. “On the other hand, if it is Evans, if he was involved in her case, where’s the body? And if he’s responsible for his son’s disappearance, where would he have taken the boy?”
There was murmuring in the room, but Bigelow ignored it and continued.
“We brought in the air support unit with infrared capabilities,” he continued. “Their lack of results, combined with what our search-and-rescue dogs have indicated, leads us to conclude the boy was no longer in the park when Evans sounded the alert. But we know he didn’t leave the place until we escorted him home.”
Shannon realized it was standard procedure to look at family members in child-abduction cases, yet hearing that Sawyer was a possible suspect made her feel defensive. She couldn’t believe it. Yes, she was going on a gut feel, but a lot of good police work depended on well-honed instincts. She’d been the first cop on the scene, the first to speak to Sawyer. He couldn’t have faked the raw grief and distress she’d seen.
“Evans’s parents are retired, and we’ve found no reason to suspect them. The sister, Meghan Evans, is single and a marine biologist working for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in their Marine Biology Research Division. We don’t suspect her, either,” Bigelow said.
When the briefing was concluded and all the questions answered, Shannon left the conference room, along with everyone else. She didn’t know if the others felt as dejected as she did. Yeah, cops hoped they’d never get so callous that they didn’t feel for the victims, but Shannon had to wonder if she’d be able to deal with this sort of thing on a regular basis.
She focused on her work and got some satisfaction when she and Darwin were called out and located an Alzheimer’s patient who’d wandered away from Ocean Crest Hospital; they were able to return him unharmed to his family. They also helped apprehend a man who’d crashed a stolen vehicle, injuring an elderly woman, and had fled the scene. He blew well over the legal limit and, right now, was warming a bench in a holding cell.
But her thoughts kept drifting back to Sawyer Evans and his son, Dylan. How could she not be emotionally engaged when a child’s well-being was at stake? And it wasn’t only about the boy. It was the father, too.
There was something about Sawyer... He stirred up feelings in her that were unprecedented in her experience, and she couldn’t set them aside. Was it empathy she felt because of Charlie?
She tried to take comfort in the fact that the investigation was a top priority. The assistance from the FBI added much-appreciated resources.
But no new information had emerged. The time factor associated with when Sawyer had left the DA’s office made it less likely that one of the people he’d prosecuted was responsible for the abduction, but the investigative team could not ignore it, as they had no other leads.
Shannon knew the SDPD and FBI couldn’t discount a random, opportunistic abduction either, improbable as it seemed. In addition to tapping their combined manpower, they were appealing to the public for help.
Missing-child posters went up across San Diego County. She’d heard that Sawyer had used his own resources to broaden the distribution. It wasn’t just because Shannon was focused on the case that she saw Dylan’s smiling face everywhere she went.
Shannon knew that as more time passed, concerns about the boy’s safety intensified. The first twenty-four hours were crucial, and they’d pulled out all the stops in their search.
But those critical early hours had now passed.
Sawyer had come into the division midday. His eyes had been vacant until they met hers. He’d paused, and she’d felt a brief connection before he moved on to catch up with Bigelow.
Sawyer must’ve been going out of his mind. For Shannon and her parents, it had been a little over a day until they learned Charlie’s fate. She remembered vividly those excruciating hours of not knowing.
Long after Sawyer left, the raw pain she’d seen on his face haunted her. She knew it was contrary to department policy, but she had to contact him. Offer him whatever comfort she could.
She hoped that if this turned out to be a second transgression, it wouldn’t end her career with the K-9 Unit when it had barely begun.
She thought about going to Sawyer’s home at the end of her shift. She knew the address. She’d been there with Logan on the day of the abduction.
Even if she was to step over the line and contact Sawyer, going to his home uninvited was decidedly wrong. She’d stop by his office instead. She debated staying in uniform and decided to go in civilian clothes. After all, it wasn’t official police business. She didn’t want to create any false expectations.
She’d worked the seven-to-three shift. If she changed quickly, she could be at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law by four, a time she assumed was within the normal hours of a professor. She wouldn’t call first, since she couldn’t explain over the phone why she wanted to see him. She didn’t entirely understand it herself.
She’d take her chances. If he was giving a lecture, so be it. Then she’d leave a message.
At the school, she got Darwin settled in the climate-controlled comfort of her Explorer and followed the signs to the faculty offices.
Sitting behind the reception counter was a slim young woman with a pretty face and a mass of wavy auburn hair falling nearly to her waist. The name plaque on her