Undercover Hunter(13)

                DeeJay spoke. “Tell us exactly what happened the other day. Were other kids or adults around? Did anybody see the boy before he disappeared?”

                “Nobody remembers seeing a thing,” Gage answered. “The buses had come and gone, the walkers had headed home, the teachers were back inside or gone for the day. One of them questioned him when he was standing out front, but he answered he was waiting for his dad. He refused her offer to wait inside. That’s it. Dad was a little late and by the time he arrived, no kid.”

                Cade and DeeJay exchanged looks. DeeJay spoke. “Our perp had to be somewhere he could see when the kid was alone. Completely alone. How big a time frame was that?”

                “Maybe ten minutes,” Gage answered. “The teacher remembers the approximate time she spoke to him. The dad came along about ten minutes later.”

                “Planned,” said Cade flatly. “Not a target of opportunity.”

                “That’s the way I’m figuring it,” Gage said. “Hardly anybody knew that boy was going to be waiting there instead of taking the bus. He had brought a note to school that morning asking that he be excused from taking the bus home. A couple of school officials knew, the teacher that talked to him knew, maybe some of his friends. We checked the whereabouts of the administrators and teachers for the entire time between dismissal and his disappearance and came up blank.”

                “Vehicles on the street or parking lot?”

                “Lots. Teachers. Administration. Plenty of cover for one vehicle. Nobody would notice it unless it didn’t fit at all.”

                DeeJay leaned forward, holding her mug in both hands. “How often do kids wait for a ride like that?”

                “At this time of year? Almost never. It’s too dang cold and we were having some thick snow that day.”

                “More cover,” she remarked. “Okay, our perp must have found out that kid would be out there. Question is, how? And why was the dad late?”

                Gage sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “When he came out of the feed store, he had a flat tire.”

                Cade looked at DeeJay. “Organized,” he said.

                “Highly organized,” she agreed. “Leaves nothing to chance, but likes riding the edge. We need to go over those files again.” She looked at the sheriff. “Is everything in the file you sent to the state?”

                “Pretty much. I didn’t include victim photos, but everything else is there.”

                Cade spoke. “We need anything else surrounding the other disappearances that you or someone else can remember. I know this goes back a long way, but it helps us focus on what we need to think about.”

                “You got it.”

                DeeJay gave him a smile that was nearly a grimace. “We’d like to be able to point you in a direction that’s more specific than late twenties, early thirties...”

                Gage surprised her by laughing, a raspy sound. “We’ve all heard the basics. Useless. So believe me, I’m going to be racking my brains and everyone else’s for every sliver I can come up with. In the meantime, I can establish your bona fides. Stop by the office in the morning, and it’ll be all over town that you two are on the side of the angels. There’s only one thing folks are talking about right now, and they might drop another splinter into this morass that’ll help you. As long as they know you’re okay.”