Chapter 52
Chapter
Fifty-Two
Fog Lake Elementary sat two blocks off the highway. Wren got as far as the corner and stopped.
Cars sat nose-to-tail the whole length of the street. She peered around them, trying to see what was going on. That was when she saw three fire trucks parked at angles in front of the school, lights still going.
Was this a fire drill? Most likely.
Still, concern pulsed through her.
Finally, the pickup line started to move, and she crept forward until she could turn into the lot.
The front of the school was full of children. It wasn’t the normal afternoon pickup line. It was organized chaos. Teachers moved through the crowd with clipboards in hand, calling names.
Wren found a free space, threw her car into Park, and climbed out.
The school’s fire alarm blared in the distance.
Don’t assume the worst. Mason is here. Find him.
She moved through the crowd looking for Mason’s yellow backpack.
A school aide stepped into her path. “Ma’am, I need you back behind—”
“I’m looking for my son.” Wren kept moving.
The aide called something after her. Wren was already past her, working through the crowd toward the fence where the younger grades gathered.
She found Mason’s teacher, Mrs. Kessler, in the middle of the second-grade line with a clipboard pressed to her chest and a worried look in her eyes. The woman was a first-year teacher and probably around Marlowe’s age.
“Where’s Mason?” she rushed.
Mrs. Kessler looked up. It took her a half-second to place Wren. Then she seemed to register her words and glanced around. “Mason? He’s right here . . .”
Mason wasn’t right here. Neither of them said anything.
“Okay.” Mrs. Kessler’s voice changed. “I’ll contact the office. He probably just wandered away, and in all of the chaos and confusion, he went to a different line. There’s no need to panic.”
As Mrs. Kessler found an aide to watch her class, Wren already had her phone out. She dialed Cody as she moved toward the building, pushing against the current of children coming the other way.
He picked up on the second ring. “Wren, I can’t talk right now—”
“Did you take Mason out of school?” Accusation stretched taut through her voice.
“What?”
“Did you pick Mason up early? Did you come to the school?”
“Wren, I’m on a scene. I’ve been here since one.” A beat passed. “Why are you asking me this?”
“Mason’s not here.” Her voice trembled as she explained everything going on around her. “They had a fire alarm. Now I can’t find him.”
“What? Is there a fire?”
“No, I don’t think so. There’s no smoke.”
“Are you sure?” Cody’s voice rose.
“I’m not sure about anything! But I can’t find him.”
“Go to the office and tell them about Mason. I’m on my way.”
“Okay.”
“Wren.” His voice cracked. “Go now.”
She turned toward the building and darted inside.
Agent Prine had been on the scene four minutes and already had the yard divided.
She was somewhere north of fifty, gray coming in at the temples of a short cut she clearly didn’t fuss over, and she moved through deputies twice her size without once raising her voice.
She didn’t ask people to move. She simply arrived where she intended to be, and they moved.
Not long after she arrived, a paramedic came off the back of the ambulance and darted toward the sheriff.
Nash had watched the man sit on the bumper, his phone in hand and his expression changing as his conversation continued. The man was probably in his mid-twenties with sandy blond hair and an easy-going manner. Something about him seemed familiar, but Nash couldn’t pinpoint what.
“Sheriff.” The man’s voice rose over the noise. “Sheriff Wilder.”
Luke glanced up from talking to a deputy. “Cody. What’s going on?”
Cody? Where had Nash heard that name before?
That’s when it hit him.
This was Mason’s father. That fact only made him watch the man even more.
“My boy’s gone.” Cody stopped and put both hands on top of his head. “Mason Loveless. He’s seven. He was at the elementary school, and there was a fire alarm, and now he’s not there.”
Nash froze. Mason? Mason was missing?
Nash tried to keep his thoughts under control and not rush into any worst-case scenarios. But Wren had to be so worried right now.
Luke narrowed his eyes. “What else do you know?”
“Not much. Not yet. I . . . I just know that Wren is worried. I’ve been worried also.
I don’t know what’s going on with her family, but I told her I wanted to keep Mason away from it.
” Cody let out a long, frustrated breath before pulling himself together.
“I’ve got to go. I told Wren I’d meet her at the school. ”
“You going to take the ambulance?” Nash nodded toward the vehicle he’d driven here.
He paused, then his shoulders slumped. “No, I’m not. I’m not thinking clearly right now.”
“I’ll drive you,” Nash offered.
Cody’s eyes lit. “That would be great. Thanks.”
“I’m on my way also,” Luke said.
Then they took off.