Blood Red

“Disciplining puppies is so hard, Maggie.” He pouted and put on his best puppy dog face. Even he knew it wasn’t a pretty sight, but he did it anyway. “But he wanted me to tell you he’s really sorry and it won’t happen again.”

Maggie looked him up and down with an almost insolent stare that was going to cost her dearly if she didn’t satisfy Brewster’s needs. “Yeah, okay. I’ll stop by and see him.”

“Thanks, sweetheart. I know you just made his whole day better.” He looked over at Ben and winked. “You think she’s gonna make it tonight, Ben? Or are you keeping her busy?”

He looked surprised by the comment. “Oh, no. She was just helping me pick up some stuff for the forensics class I’m taking.” He gestured at the small mountain of white bags.

“Fake evidence folders, cute.”

“Professor Holmes likes his authentic touches.” Ben was looking at him now, too, with a funny expression on his face. Tom decided he’d have to check later to see if he had been insulted.

“Well, you guys have fun now.” He turned and headed back to his car. Brewster would be happy and he would pay top dollar. That made Tom happy. Maggie was off the hook, for now. She’d get bitchy sooner or later, and he’d put her back in her place again. He loved teaching Maggie lessons. He shot his best smile at Ben and then winked playfully at Maggie. “But not too much fun, you hear?”

Neither of them said anything as he left. That was good. He liked to get in the last word.

Chapter 6

I

Alan and Meghan Tripp were beside themselves when the sun rose on their son’s empty bedroom. He had been in bed by nine; they knew that, because they’d tucked him in together. He was a good kid and even though he was getting older, he still tolerated their doting on him.

Now he was gone.

By the time he should have been getting ready for school, they had torn through every room in the house. By the time he should have been finishing his breakfast, they had called everyone they could think of. No one had seen Avery after they put him into bed.

Meghan was a wreck, pacing and wringing her hands. Avery had been something of an unexpected miracle child, coming as he did after an early partial hysterectomy. There was no chance that they would ever have another child, and even if they did, he would never be able to replace Avery. He was her baby, and she was devastated by his disappearance.

Alan was holding it in better, but he wanted to scream. Instead, he did the only wise thing and called the police. They were there in less than five minutes; no one in Black Stone Bay took child abduction lightly. Not after what had happened with the Whittaker girl back in ’87. Carla Whittaker had been stolen from her bedroom in the middle of the night, and at first her parents thought she had run away to get attention. For the first three days, the Whittaker family simply made polite inquiries of her friends and school chums.

Then the phone calls came. An anonymous voice spoke urgently, demanding ransom and secrecy. An hour later, the caller rang them again and almost every hour after that the calls came fast and hard, some time after the fourth day of quiet, polite searching was done. The kidnappers wanted money, of course, and they would not let anyone speak to Carla.

The story did not play out well. After the money was delivered, the phone calls stopped. Pieces of Carla were found along the coast for several months. All of them were fresh when they were located. The last piece they found was her head, which the coroner determined had only been in the water for a few hours when fishermen found it. The case had never been solved.

So, yes, it was fair to say that no one in Black Stone Bay took missing children lightly.

The questions were endless, of course. Did they have a recent picture? Yes, and also video footage. Did they know what he was wearing? The clothes he had worn to school were not in the hamper, so yes, he was wearing a green flannel shirt, blue jeans, and red Reeboks. His jacket was also missing, a dark brown leather bomber jacket that he had requested for his birthday. Did he have any friends in the area? Damned near every child in the school and in the neighborhood; he was a well-liked young man. Did he have any enemies? No. Even Lucien Hawkings liked him, and the old bastard didn’t like anyone. Where were they when he disappeared? They didn’t know when he vanished, but they were likely in bed. When did they realize he was missing? Five minutes before they called the police. The list went on and on.

By noon there were almost four hundred people searching for Avery Tripp. By four in the afternoon, there were closer to eight hundred. By sunset, a lot of very disappointed people were ready to call it quits.

Alan Tripp was not among them. He wandered the streets until almost two in the morning before he came home and fell into a troubled sleep. In his dreams he heard Avery crying for help, and try though he did, he could not find his son.