Edgewise by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page A

down here?”
    She bent down and picked the button up. It was new, plastic and pearly, and there was a tiny shred of torn cotton attached to it, blue and green.
    She felt breathless. “This is Sammy’s,” she said, holding it up in front of the flashlight. “This is a button from Sammy’s pajamas.”
    Special Agent Rylance came forward and peered at it. “You’re sure about that?”
    â€œHe was wearing blue-and-green checkered pajamas when he was kidnapped, wasn’t he? This is from the same pajama top—I’m sure of it. He
was
here. So it must have been Jeff who took him.”
    â€œToo bad you picked it up,” said Special Agent Rylance. “Might have had a partial on it. All the same . . .” He reached into his inside pocket and took out a crumpled brown envelope. “I’ll send it to the lab, see what they can make of it. And we’ll get some forensics people round here ASAP. Nathan—do you want to call Murray Halperin for me?”
    Lily bent over again and quickly started to flick away the straw, trying to find any more evidence that Sammy had been here. But Special Agent Rylance quickly took hold of her arm and said, “No, Mrs. Blake. If Sammy was here, then this is a crime scene, and you mustn’t disturb the evidence. It could make all the difference between finding your children or not finding them.”
    Lily stood up straight and stared at him. “What do you mean ‘not finding them?’ You promised me that you were going to find them. You
promised
.”
    â€œ
Quickly
, was what I meant, Mrs. Blake. Finding them
quickly.
”
    But Lily could see by the way he glanced across at Special Agent Kellogg that he hadn’t meant “quickly.” Tasha and Sammy had been missing now for forty-six days, and the FBI’s own statistics were increasingly pessimistic with every hour that passed.
    Special Agent Rylance escorted her back across the Brer Rabbit field. Their breath smoked in the mid-morning gloom.
    As they climbed into the car, Special Agent Rylance said, “There’s one consolation, Mrs. Blake. If you’re right about that button, and it
is
Sammy’s—”
    â€œIt is. I’m sure of it.”
    â€œWell, if it is, we have much less reason to be concerned for Tasha and Sammy’s safety. If they were brought here, then it’s almost certain that your ex-husband took them, and I very much doubt that he would injure them in any way.”
    Lily looked back toward the old barn. “What will they do—the forensics people? Will they be able to tell if Jeff was there?”
    â€œThey’ll look for footprints, fibers, cigarette butts—you name it. If anybody drove a vehicle across that field on the night that Tasha and Sammy were taken, they would have left very deep tire tracks, and since it started to freeze only a few days later, the chances are that those tire tracks are very well preserved. We’ll also start a house-by-house inquiry, to see if any of the residents in this development saw anything unusual.”
    Lily looked around. “If only snowmen could talk,” she said.

C HAPTER F OUR
    But the snowmen remained mute, and the people who lived in Sibley’s End had seen nothing, and the FBI’s forensic team found no tire tracks or distinctive footprints or any other material evidence. The single pajama button with the shred of blue-and-green cotton attached to it was the only indication that Jeff had taken Tasha and Sammy. Even then, Lily had bought Sammy’s pajamas on sale at Dayton’s, so there was no conclusive proof that the button was his.
    Christmas came, and the Twin Cities sparkled with lights and decorations, and it snowed for three days solid. Lily took Petra, Jamie, and William to the Holidazzle Parade at the Nicollet Mall, and then for pizza and frozen custard at Marco’s. She found it painful, taking them out, but to watch