Page 43 of Veil of Silence

Then he shoved the phone to his ear. “Hey.”

“Austin . . . I didn’t know if I should call you or not. But something happened.”

Austin straightened. “What?”

“Preston Dawson is missing. He’s six. His mother is one of my patients.”

Alarm rushed through him. “Missing how?”

“His mother put him to bed last night. This morning his room was empty, and the back door was unlocked. Everybody thinks his father took him.”

“That sounds like something the sheriff’s department needs to handle.” He tried not to jump to conclusions.

“I know. They’re here.”

Austin heard the hesitation. “But?”

“I don’t think his father did this.”

The air left his lungs. “Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know yet. Gut instinct maybe.”

He closed his eyes. Was this the reaction of someone who’d lived through their worst nightmare? Did Nora see abductions every time a child went missing?

He wouldn’t blame her if she did. But he needed to take those details into consideration.

He forced himself to be patient. “What do you know?”

She told him everything she’d learned before quietly asking, “Will you come?”

Austin looked at the notes on his phone.

Dad had been headed toward Fog Lake Wednesday. Now a boy was missing there. Was there a connection?

He needed to find out.

“I’m on my way.”

By the time another sheriff’s SUV pulled into the drive, Nora had been standing on Shelby’s porch for at least an hour.

Prine had questioned her first then gone inside to speak with Shelby. Nora had waited while deputies moved between the house, yard, and road, searching for something that might tell them where Preston had gone.

Sheriff Luke Wilder climbed out of the SUV, and some of the tension in her chest eased. Luke was a good man. They went to church together, and she trusted him.

He spoke briefly with one of the deputies near the driveway before heading toward her. His expression was serious, his usual easy manner nowhere in sight.

“Nora.” He nodded toward her as he joined her on the porch.

“Luke.”

His gaze shifted to the front window. “How’s Shelby holding up?”

“About like you’d expect.”

“We’re getting everything moving,” Luke said. “I’ve got people trying to locate Mikey now. He’s not at work or at his house.”

Nora didn’t like the sound of that.