Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Sweet Polly had sobbed and sobbed in his arms while describing what seemed to have been on track to be a successful first date for all four teenagers. They’d already been discussing lunch ideas, with Malia and Polly having told the boys they’d have to call their parents for permission to extend the outing.
“The four were chatting while seated on that picnic blanket over there, getting up to play with a Frisbee, or just walking to the pond to skip stones.” All of which had been witnessed by others in the park. “Not a single person noticed anyone who set off alarm bells.”
Eleri stared at the tree line. “He blends in, doesn’t look dangerous—perhaps even looks harmless. There’s a reason he was able to get four smart young women close enough to abduct them.”
Adam’s gaze was falcon when it met hers. “Mali’s clever, but she’s still a fledgling. She wouldn’t have thought twice about helping someone who asked for it, especially if she recognized them.”
Eleri wished she could protect him, could’ve protected Malia, from this terrible realization, but there was no hiding from it. Malia was a raptor—for her to go without making a fuss that drew attention meant it was someone she knew. A rabid dog who had fooled the town and the clan into believing him sane.
Chapter 32
Suspect is in his mid- to late twenties, single, with a stable job and income. He is intelligent and likely to be charming and/or good-looking, the kind of man most women don’t distrust on sight.
While he’ll have superficial friendships and relationships, he’ll permit no one close enough to see through his mask. He is, at heart, a loner who can pretend to be social to fly under the radar. He will also prove emotionally immature—his letters reveal an almost juvenile obsession with his image, a kind of sneering petulance.
—Working profile on the Sandman, prepared for the joint California-Arizona Sandman Task Force (10 December 2083)
“Talk me through how she vanished.”
“The boys decided to jump into the pond. They’d dared each other in front of the girls and so of course juvenile testosterone meant they had to do it—pond’s fed by an underground spring; it’s freezing no matter what time of year.”
Just kids showing off, playing, doing what they should at that age. There should’ve been no worse outcome than freezing off their nuts and regretting their choices as they sat shivering in the sun. And maybe a sweet first kiss for their bravery. That’s what the boys would’ve been hoping for, dreaming about.
“Malia and Polly were cheering them on when Malia said she was feeling a chill because of the clouds and would run back to their picnic blanket to get her date’s sweatshirt to put over her clothes.” Another part of the ritual of teenage courtship, another sign to the date that he was on the right track.
“Polly said she’d keep cheering on the boys as they swam to the other side of the pond and back. When she turned, she was yelling for Malia to hurry up because they were getting to the end of the race, and that’s when she realized Malia had vanished.”
Confused, the fledgling had run over at once to look for her friend, thinking that maybe she’d decided to duck into the public facilities—even though Malia was notoriously fastidious about never using those.
“I knew something was wrong. Because we’re best friends,” Polly had said through her tears. “We’re going to grow up and find our mates at the same time and be each other’s maids of honor because maybe we’ll have human mates and they’ll want the wedding ceremony, and then have babies at the same time and we planned it all but she wasn’t there and I knew she wouldn’t just shift and fly off and leave me alone!”
After he shared that with Eleri, she said, “An intense and immediate response, given that it was broad daylight in a public place.”
“Girl friendships at that age? They bond on a level where they become each other’s shadows.” He’d seen it with countless other young clanmates. “Polly knew without a single doubt that Malia wouldn’t ditch her, and that she’d never miss seeing the end of the boys’ race.”
Oddly enough, Eleri understood what he meant when it came to such deep friendships. The Quatro Cartel would have all reacted as fast. “Who found the bracelet?”
“One of the boys. I talked to the kid myself—he was afraid but only for Malia. I’ve talked to enough fledglings who’ve been up to mischief to know he had nothing to do with it.” He shoved both hands through his hair. “It’s the speed and the silence of the abduction that gets me—Malia was loud even when she was Ollie’s size.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Eleri said, her tone stripped bare of anything but pure concentration—but her hand came to his, her fingers weaving through his own in a promise before she let go and walked to the tree line.