Vanished(11)

The flicker again. “Not really. My primary role is to be what the family needs. Shoulder to cry on, chauffeur, hand holder, media interference.”

Her hands were about as tied as his.

“Dishwasher?”

“Maybe.”

“So you shouldn’t be in here, either.”

She gave a half smile, and he was charmed. She had a subtle, dry humor that he suspected he could banter with for hours.

“I can’t stay away completely, either,” Mason acknowledged. “I’ll push the envelope as far as they’ll let me, but I understand my role.”

“Sanford? You need to take a look at this,” stated one of the agents who’d recently entered the command center. Ava and Mason exchanged a glance and moved toward the gathering group of agents.

Mason looked over the shoulders of a few agents and saw the black-and-white view from a camera on a school bus. Children moved away from the camera as they filed onto the bus, bulky coats and backpacks hiding their identities. As they turned to sit in the rows of bus seats, glimpses of faces revealed their sex.

“What do you have?” Special Agent Sanford pushed through the group to the men directly in front of the screen.

“We just finished interviewing the last child from Henley’s bus stop,” said the older agent. “There’s a consensus that she wasn’t on the bus.”

Sanford nodded. “I’ve been making a lot of my decisions with the assumption that your interviews would back up what we heard from the two kids first thing this morning.”

“There were five altogether,” the agent continued. “Each kid stated that Henley wasn’t at the stop and didn’t get on the bus, but we also wanted to see for ourselves. The school district emailed this video a few minutes ago.”

The other agent pointed at each kid on the screen as they sat down, reciting their names. “These are the kids getting on at Henley’s stop. You have to wait until they turn around, but I recognize each child we talked to this morning. They’re all correct. Henley didn’t get on.”

The group of agents was silent as the video froze, highlighting an image of a dozen children seated on the bus. Mason squinted at the screen, studying each face. No blonde girls with delicate features looked back at him.

“No chance she got on at a different stop?” Ava asked.

“We asked the kids that, too. All of them say she didn’t get on.” The first agent put a finger on the face of a dark-haired girl. “This girl said that she usually sits with Henley when she rides that bus and swears her friend wasn’t on this morning. I’ve watched the whole video. When the kids get off at the school, I had a clear shot of each face. There wasn’t even a question.” The agent next to him nodded emphatically.

“I agree,” the second agent said. “She’s not there.”

Sanford blew out a breath. “Okay. Pull all but two agents from the school. I want everyone back at the area between the Fairbanks house and the bus stop. Our current target area just narrowed for now.”

Ava tipped her head at Mason, and they quietly moved away from the group a few feet.

“I don’t know whether to be pleased about this turn of events or not,” Ava whispered.

“I think it helps. It essentially eliminates investigating the entire school area. It really narrows down the time frame and location,” Mason stated. He made a mental plan to do some of his own footwork in the neighborhood. There could never be too many eyes on a scene.

Ava nodded, her forehead creased in concentration, and he suspected she was making the same plan.

Sanford answered a phone call, listened for fifteen seconds, and said, “We’ll be right there.” He touched his screen to end the call and addressed Ava and Mason. “One of the BAU agents is ready to give me a preliminary profile. You two want to stick around for that?”

Mason nodded in unison with Ava.

BAU. The Behavioral Analysis Unit. The “mind hunters.” They knew how to analyze information and come up with a profile of the kind of bastard who’d kidnap a kid. Mason admired the practice but didn’t quite understand how it worked. There seemed to be a lot of hocus-pocus and generalizations involved. But if one of them had insight into Henley’s kidnapper, he wanted to hear it. He’d take any help they could get.

They followed Sanford out of the command center and a short way down the hall to a small room with a circle of chairs and huge windows. An agent flipping through a file folder on a table in the corner turned as they entered. Sanford made introductions. Special Agent Bryan Euzent wore glasses, had a firm handshake, and looked young enough to be Mason’s son. Mason reserved judgment. This was one of the bigger brains in the BAU unit, Ava had whispered to him. No one knew more about the workings of a kidnapper’s mind.

Their group filled the circle of chairs and looked expectantly at Special Agent Euzent.

“I spent the flight analyzing the information that’s been collected on the case,” Euzent began. “I’ve been reviewing the interviews and the cast of people who interact with Henley. There’s still a lot of information I need to examine, but there are some specific messages we need to get out to the public as soon as possible to bring in some more good tips. First of all, we want the public to look for behavior changes. This person might have missed work today. They might have been a no-show or offered a plausible excuse. Or they might have missed a scheduled appointment. Perhaps they suddenly left town.”

“We can’t ask the public to report on something so common. We’ll be swamped with useless calls,” Sanford stated.

Mason silently agreed.

“I know it seems very general,” Euzent answered. “But it’s just part of a list of behaviors. Of course we don’t want reports of every guy who didn’t show up for work today. I’ll get to the rest.” He glanced down at the papers in his hands. “They may have changed the vehicle they always drive, or have altered their vehicle in some way.

“Typically, abductors are white males between thirty and forty. They tend to have a history of problems with relationships in general, but especially with women.”

Mason glanced at the circle of white men, wondering who in the room didn’t have some sort of female relationship issue. Ava was the only woman in the room, and she was intently focused on Euzent.

“They tend to be somewhat socially isolated, but not always.”

Mason felt like a spotlight was suddenly shining on his head.

“It’s possible there is a history of sexual assault or being sexually inappropriate with women.”

I’m in the clear on that one.

“How often is sex the motive for an abduction?” an agent asked. Out of the corner of his eye, Mason saw Ava flinch at the question.

Euzent cleared his throat. “Often. With a child, the motive may be a little different. But usually it boils down to domination and control. It’s about the power. They are in charge, and they are doing exactly what they want to do.”

“Bastards,” Ava whispered.

“Usually, children are taken by strangers for one of three reasons. The first is for profit, and usually they contact the parents quickly because they want to keep the child for as short a period of time as possible. The second was the one I already mentioned . . . the person wants the child for sexual gratification or domination. Usually, they don’t want any contact with the parent. The third reason is someone is truly sick and simply wants a child for their own. They don’t make contact, either.”

“Or it’s the parents,” Mason stated.

Special Agent Euzent met his gaze. “Exactly. That’s why we clear them first. There’s been no ransom requested yet, so right now the motivation seems domination oriented. Whether it was random or premeditated will be determined. I read the mothers’ interviews. When they were asked if anyone had been hanging around Henley, or if she’d mentioned any odd encounters with adults, they both said no.”

“We could still get a ransom note,” Ava interjected.

Euzent paused and smiled. “I pray that is the case here.” His smile vanished as he shifted back to business. “If it was premeditated, our guy has to have a place to keep her. Someplace that won’t draw attention. A basement, a barn, an abandoned outbuilding. Even bathroom facilities have to be considered by the kidnapper. Trust me, he’s thought about this. Henley may have simply been in the right place at the right time for him, or he picked her specifically.”

“He’s a predator is what you’re saying,” said Ava.

“I believe so,” answered Euzent. “I know I haven’t given you much to work with, but I’ll add more to my profile as the facts come in.” He nudged his glasses, suddenly looking ten years older as he lowered his gaze. “I’ll be here nonstop until we find her,” he said quietly as he closed the file.

The agents took that as a signal to leave. Mason followed Ava out of the room.

“I’m headed back to the house,” she said as they moved down the hall. “Are you?”

“Yes.”

She stopped midstride and turned to face him, her blue eyes serious. “If you know of any family dynamics I need to be aware of, I’d like to hear about them. So far I’ve seen a united front from all three parents, but my past experience tells me that appearances can be deceiving.”