Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
Gabe
Coffee shops were usually places I avoided as much as possible. So many different smells in the air, plus the noise of people talking and coffee beans grinding, made for an overwhelming mix of sensations.
However, the coffee shop I found myself in less than a day after talking with Lily was connected to a bookshop, so it wasn’t too bad. Most people were sitting around reading a book rather than talking, and those who did engage in conversation kept their voices at a minimum level. The coffee grinder was even isolated in a back room so it didn’t disturb the atmosphere.
It was a place I would have enjoyed spending some time if I wasn’t in a hurry. The drive here from the safe house had taken several hours, and I didn’t want to leave the others alone any longer than necessary.
If someone managed to find the safe house when I wasn’t there...
It wasn’t even worth thinking about. They would be fine. I’d done everything I could to cover our tracks and make sure no one had followed us or knew where we were.
Yet, the gruesome images wouldn’t leave my mind.
Sebastian gunned down in his sickbed.
Newt crumbled on the floor with his blood staining the carpet.
Frankie beaten to death as he tried to defend his friends, because there was no way the man would go down without a fight.
No, it wasn’t worth thinking about, because it wouldn’t happen. I would finish my business and return to a house filled with three perfectly safe and bored individuals.
“Agent Long?” a small voice asked from behind me.
I controlled the urge to flinch, uncomfortable with having anyone standing out of sight at my back. Setting down the book I’d been reading—it wasn’t as good as the cover had promised—I rose from the table and turned to meet the newcomer.
A woman stood just a few feet away, looking small and nervous.
“Miss Bell, I assume.”
“Yes, um, that’s me.”
She wrung her hands before tucking them into the front pockets of her overalls. They were stained and frayed in a few places, but obviously well loved and cared for. Along with the two thick braids that hung over her shoulders and her heart shaped face, she looked like a modern Dorothy Gale. I could easily picture her working on a Kansas farm and singing about rainbows.
When she didn’t move or say anything else, I gestured for her to take the seat across the table from me.
“Now, Miss Bell, I’ve looked over the information you gave the agency.”
“Oh, call me Tansie. Miss Bell sounds so formal.”
“Okay Miss... Tansie. I’ll get right to the point. You claim to have found your son.”
Her hands started fidgeting again, this time toying with something in her pocket. “Well, I didn’t exactly find him. That’s actually the problem. I can’t find him.”
Her words came out in a rush, tripping over each other so I could barely understand what she was saying.
“Take a deep breath and tell me everything from the beginning.”
She ended up taking several breaths before she could continue. I tapped my foot impatiently against the bag sitting on the floor beside my chair as I waited.
If anyone asked, I’d only bought the books in order to avoid looking suspicious as I hung around the bookstore, but that would be a lie. I’d bought them for myself. There was no telling how long I was going to be stuck playing bodyguard for Sebastian and the others. I would need something to keep my mind distracted, and books usually did the trick.
Eventually, the woman collected her nerves enough to speak straight.
“A few years ago I, um... I gave birth to a child. I was young. Barely out of high school. I couldn’t look after a kid, so I gave him up.”
She hesitated again, probably waiting for me to cast judgment on her for her life choices. It was none of my business, and I honestly didn’t care that she’d had a child so young out of wedlock. The only thing that mattered to me was getting the info I needed as soon as possible.
“All right.” I nodded and tried to hurry her along. “Since you claim you found your child, I assume you eventually went looking for him.”
“Well, no. I didn’t go looking. I ran into him by accident.”
She pulled out her phone and showed me a photo. It was blurry around the edges and sat at an awkward angle, but a young boy stood out prominently at the center of the image. He looked to be maybe eight years old and bore almost no resemblance to the woman sitting across from me.
“And you’re certain this child is yours because...” I trailed off, letting her fill in the rest of the question on her own.
“I knew the boy’s father practically since we were born. You know the old story. Grew up as neighbors. High school sweethearts. Broke up when we went to college. The whole thing. And this boy...” She tapped the picture, accidentally zooming in on the kid’s face. “This boy is the spitting image of my ex at that age. I passed him on the street one day and I just knew. For years, I’d wondered what happened to him, and seeing him in person, I got curious. It was a closed adoption, so I hired an investigator to look into it for me. But the investigator found nothing. There’s no record I even gave birth. I kept looking, but no matter what I did, I kept hitting a dead end. According to the law, my son doesn’t exist. But I know he exists. I gave birth to him. That’s not something you just forget about.”
The pocket of her overalls was deeper than expected, and she pulled out a folder containing several pages of notes.
“This is everything I’ve been able to find, and also everything I remember about my son. Please. I’m not looking to take him back, especially if he’s in a good home. But I just want to make sure he’s okay.”
Taking the pages from her, I quickly scanned over the information.
I found what I was looking for right on the first page. The hospital where she’d given birth was already on our watch list. Several other children had gone missing from there. Tansie Bell and her son were just more victims to add to the list.
One more piece of evidence added to an ever-growing pile.
“There have been several other instances of parents like you, who surrendered their children for adoption only for the records of the child to disappear. We’re already looking into it. But thank you for bringing this to us. Is there anything else you can remember about the boy you saw? Something that might help us locate him.”
She thought it over for a second as her hands nervously tugged at one of her braids.
“I’m not sure. I was in such shock at the time, I barely managed to snap that single picture. He was with an adult, but I don’t remember much about them. I wrote down the exact location where I saw him. Will that help?”
Flipping through the pages, I found the correct information. It was extremely precise, not only listing the exact location, but also the date and time down to the minute. If there were any security cameras in the area, I’d definitely be able to find the right footage.
This might all be a wild goose chase. The kid might not even be hers, but her story aligned too well with the other missing kids Sebastian had discovered. That wasn’t something I could just ignore.
“Thank you, miss. I’ll look into it and let you know what I find.”
I gave her a number where she could safely reach me before grabbing my bag of books and standing from the table to leave. It was perhaps rude to make my exit so quickly, but I was on a time crunch and couldn’t waste time catering to social obligations.
As I turned to go, the woman stopped me.
“Agent... um, Agent Long. What do you think happened with my son? Is he okay? He’s not in any sort of danger, is he?”
Once upon a time, years ago, lying had been difficult for me. As a child, I’d been honest to the point of being brutal and it lost me many friends.
Now, I barely flinched as the words left my mouth.
“I’m sure everything is fine. It’s probably just a bureaucratic error that needs to be fixed.”
She breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s good. When I realized there was no record of him, I thought something terrible must have happened. It shouldn’t be so easy for children to just disappear.”
“No,” I wholeheartedly agreed. “No, it shouldn’t be so easy for children to disappear.”