Chapter 1 - The Man at the Door
The baby was crying so hard he couldn't catch his breath when the stranger in the white suit stepped through our door.
I was twelve years old. My name was June Calder. I hadn't eaten since yesterday, and my five-week-old brother, Milo, had just swallowed the last two ounces of formula in the house.
The man was enormous. Black tattoos climbed his neck and disappeared beneath an expensive cream-colored collar. In each hand he carried a grocery bag.
"June?" he asked.
I backed against the stove and held Milo tighter. "You're not supposed to know my name."
"You texted me."
Three hours earlier, I'd found a number written on the back of Mom's pharmacy receipt. Beneath it she'd scribbled: IF EVERYTHING GOES WRONG, CALL ELIAS. It was the only number I hadn't tried.
My message had said: Mom has been gone four days. The baby needs milk. If you know her, please help.
The man set the bags down carefully. Milk. Bread. Oranges. Formula in the blue cans Milo could keep down. He'd brought the right kind without asking.
"I'm Elias Kane," he said. "Your mother once helped somebody I love. Now it's my turn."
"Where is she?"
He hesitated half a second too long. I knew what adults looked like when they were deciding how much truth a kid could stand. I'd seen that face on teachers, doctors, and the police officer who'd told me my mother probably ran off.
"I don't know yet," Elias answered. "But I know she didn't leave you."
He knelt, keeping a careful distance, and pulled a sealed bottle from his bag. "May I?"
I checked the label twice before letting him hand it to me. Milo grabbed at the bottle with his tiny fists. His crying broke into desperate little gulps. Then Elias looked past me at the window. His face changed.
"June," he said softly, "did you tell anybody else where you were hiding?"
"No. Mom said not to."
May you like
A pair of headlights went out beyond the trees.
Elias slowly put his hand over the light switch. "Then somebody followed me."
