Chapter Two
After a frustrating delay caused by the Secret Service securing the area outside the Hogan home, Sam and Nick were escorted to Tracy and Mike’s front door. Her capable eldest sister dissolved into tears the second she saw Sam.
“Thank you for coming. Both of you. Thank you so much.”
Sam hugged her sister. “I hate to add to your stress, but we have to relocate you to Celia’s house.”
“What? Why?”
“Crime Scene needs access to your house. It’s standard procedure when someone goes missing.”
Tracy’s expression shifted to horror. “They think we had something to do with it?”
“No, Trace, but they have to cover every base, and that starts at home, where there may be clues we can use to find him.”
“Can we pack some things to take?”
“You have to leave everything behind, including your phones. They’ll be returned to you after they’re processed.”
Tracy’s eyes flooded with tears. “What if he calls? How will I know? I’ll go mad without my phone.”
“I’ll have mine, and I’ll make sure everyone knows to call me if there’re any updates.”
“I have to tell Brooke… She’ll be frantic if she can’t reach me.”
“You can call her on my phone. Before we go, write down phone numbers from your contacts for anyone who might be able to help us locate Ethan or his friends. Do that while I get Abby and Mike. We have to move you so the Crime Scene detectives can do their work. They may find something that’ll lead us to Ethan. ”
“This is too much on top of my son being missing.”
“I’m sorry. They thought it would be easier for you to hear this from me.”
“Nothing about this is easy. I’m going crazy coming up with worst-case scenarios.”
“Don’t do that. We don’t know anything yet. Let’s take this one minute at a time.”
Within twenty minutes, Tracy had made a list of phone numbers while Sam rounded up Mike and Abby, who was wide-eyed with fear as she hugged Sam. She wished she had some comforting words for her niece, but what could she say that would help?
Outside, Sam saw Agent Quigley standing outside one of the black SUVs in the motorcade. She led her family members to that SUV for the short ride to Celia’s. Nick would be conveyed in The Beast. “Ninth Street, please,” she said. “My stepmother’s house.”
“Got it.”
When they were on the way, Sam called Brooke.
“Did you find him?” Brooke asked.
“Not yet, but we’re moving your family to Celia’s so we can go through the house looking for anything that might help us find him. They had to leave their phones behind, so call me if you need us.”
“So there’s nothing new?” Brooke asked anxiously.
“Not yet, honey, but we’re on it. Here’s your mom.”
Tracy took the phone and seemed to answer the same questions Sam had fielded from Brooke.
“No, honey, there’s nothing new, but we’re moving to Celia’s house because the police need access to ours.
” After a pause, she said, “No, we’re not suspects.
They’re looking for anything that might tell us where he is. ”
Sam wanted to wail as she thought of the many things that could’ve happened to Ethan. She didn’t even know yet how long he’d been gone or where he was supposed to have been.
“Yes, I’ll call you if anything changes, but in the meantime, check in with Auntie Sam. Okay, I will. Love you, too.” Tracy closed the phone and handed it back to Sam. “Nate is with her. They might come home.”
“I’m glad he’s there for her.”
“Where’s my son, Sam? Where is he?”
“I don’t know yet, but we’re doing everything we can to find him.”
Across from her, Mike swiped at a tear as he stared out the window.
Sam’s heart broke for them, and for Abby, Brooke and everyone who loved Ethan. The not knowing was horrible.
The SUV came to a stop at the curb outside her stepmother’s home, which was dark other than a single light in the living room window that was on a timer.
Celia was away on an Alaskan cruise with her sisters and not due home for a few more days, which was a blessing of sorts.
Sam wouldn’t say anything to Celia until she had to as there was no sense in upsetting her when there was nothing Celia could do from afar.
Sam punched in the code to the front door, deactivated the alarm and turned on lights before sending a quick text to Celia. Borrowing your house for the night. Will explain later.
Ah, OK, she responded a few minutes later. Was wondering why I got the alert on the alarm. My house is your house. Love you. Miss you.
Same, Sam replied before taking a seat next to a tearful Tracy on the sofa.
“Every time I come here, I expect Dad to come wheeling around the corner, asking what’s up.”
“Me, too.” She took her sister’s cold hand as Nick arrived with Brant. “Tell me what you know. How long has he been gone? Where’s he supposed to be? Who’s he with?”
Tracy pressed a tissue to her swollen eyes. “He left around four with his friend Tomas. They said they were going to meet this other kid they know.”
“What’s his name?”
“Brecken something. I don’t know him. They said they were going to get pizza and then play video games at the Wharf. Our calls to Ethan and Tomas are going to voice mail.”
“How were they getting to where they were going?”
“On the Metro.”
“By themselves?” Sam asked, surprised to hear Tracy and Mike had allowed that.
“They’ve been doing it for a while now.” Tracy glanced at Mike, who looked at the floor. “I wasn’t in favor, but I was overruled.”
“All his friends are doing it,” Mike said with a defensive edge to his voice.
Palpable—and unusual—tension beat between them. “What do we know about the friends?” Sam asked.
“Tomas is a great kid,” Mike said. “Ethan knows him from school, and they play youth football together.”
“Do you know his parents?”
“To say hello to,” Tracy said. “That’s about it.”
“So you don’t have their numbers or know where they live?”
“No, Tomas is on a different team than Ethan, so we don’t have that info,” Mike said.
“Last name?”
Tracy and Mike exchanged glances before shaking their heads.
“I can’t recall his last name, but I have his phone number if that helps,” Tracy said. “It’s on my phone.”
“What does Ethan have for money?”
“Some cash,” Mike said, “and a debit card that we keep a small balance on so he can grab food when he’s out.”
Sam took notes. “Can I get the info on that? The number on the card or the account number?”
“I’m not sure how to get that for you without my phone or computer. All my passwords are preprogrammed.”
“We’ll come back to that,” Sam said. “When was the last time you had contact with him?”
“I checked his location around four fifteen,” Mike said. “He was on the Green Line heading to Waterfront Station.”
“What’s there?”
“The arcade they like. They go there all the time.”
Freddie came in and looked to Sam. “What can I do?”
“Ethan is with a kid he goes to school with at Hardy Middle School. His name is Tomas. We don’t have his last name but need to talk to his parents.
They were meeting another kid named Brecken at the arcade at the Wharf.
Not sure where he goes to school.” She looked up at Freddie.
“Where have I heard the name Brecken before?”
“Wes Hambly’s brother in the Audrey Olsen case,” Freddie said.
“Yes! That’s it. Thank you. Let me know what you find out about Tomas’s parents.”
“On it.” Freddie turned and left the room as quickly as he’d arrived.
“What else do you know that might be relevant?” Sam asked. “And keep in mind we need to know everything, even things that you might normally be tempted to keep private. This isn’t the time to be concerned about that. All cards on the table.”
“We’ve gone over everything before we called you,” Mike said. “We can’t think of anything out of the ordinary that might’ve led to this. You knew we’ve been butting heads with him, but things had been better since we’d agreed to give him a little freedom.”
In Sam’s opinion, that was the worst thing they could’ve done when he’d been acting defiant, but she kept that thought to herself. As someone whose kids were surrounded at all times by Secret Service agents, she was in no position to judge the choices other parents made.
“I need a recent photo of him.”
“We just got his spring school pictures back.” Tracy sounded relieved that there was at least one thing she could do to help.
“I have one in my wallet,” Mike said, reaching for his back pocket.
He handed her the wallet-size photo, and Sam took a close look at it.
Ethan had light brown hair that became blonder in the summer, golden-brown eyes and an impish grin that produced a dimple on the left side.
He’d grown up a lot in recent months and was starting to look more like a young man than a boy.
Sam loved him fiercely, and the sight of his adorable face nearly brought her to tears. She fought back the surge of emotion because it would only upset Tracy even more and handed the photo to Gonzo when he arrived. “Can you put out a BOLO for Ethan Hogan, age eleven, please?”
Gonzo took Ethan’s photo from her. “Yep, it’ll go out to everyone currently on duty, and we’ll post it to the NCIC.”
“What’s a BOLO and the NCIC?” Mike asked.
“A BOLO is a be-on-the-lookout alert,” Gonzo said. “And NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, which puts the notice that Ethan is missing out to law enforcement around the country.”
Tracy gasped. “You think he’s somewhere else?”
“We have no way to know, Trace,” Sam said. “We’re covering all the bases.”
“Will it be all over the news when he puts out the alert?” Tracy asked.
“Yes, but we want people looking for him.”
“Will he get in trouble if you find him doing something he shouldn’t be doing?” Mike asked.
“Like what?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know. The shit kids do.”
“I guess that depends on what he’s doing.”
“Sam, come on…” Mike’s voice had a pleading edge to it. “We don’t want to ruin his life. We just want him to come home.”
“Why in the world would you think he was doing something that could ruin his life when he checked out to get food and play video games?”