I stirred and stirred. The milk turned brown from all the colors in the cereal. When I looked up Gloria’s head was shaking back and forth and tears started coming out of her eyes. “That horrible man must’ve been forcing Rowan. Making him go like that. Threatening him. He’s a good boy, Detective Aiken. He wouldn’t just…do that.”

“We’re exploring every avenue, ma’am. We’ve already started a second search. Covering everything. We’re going to find your son.” He reached down and tugged something out of the bag near his feet. “Mrs. Janes? One of my officers came across this. Nailed onto a tree about halfway between here and the bridge. Does it mean anything to you?” He put a piece of wood on the table. It looked like a sign with marked-up letters. Mostly washed off, but I could still read it. THEIF. It was Gloria’s sign because of the chocolate bars. Rowan showed it to me when we were walking back from the bridge that day.

Her head stopped.

“Rowan saw them.”

“Saw who?”

Her voice got wiggly. “Some children. I don’t know who owned them. Playing cops and robbers out back. Rowan wanted to play too, but those revolting youngsters wouldn’t let my son join in.” She pulled some more tissues out of the box. She crunched them in her fist. “That part I remember clear as day.”

I stirred my cereal again. It was mush now. I made a mistake and that wasn’t Rowan’s sign. I must’ve had a dream that got stuck in my head. Or I remembered it upside down. That happened a lot.

“Kids, hey? I figured as much. What with the spelling and all.”

Gloria bent her head sideways and looked at the sign. Then she wiped her eyes. “What’s going to happen now?”

“As I mentioned, ma’am, we’re going to expand the focus of our search. Shift our resources. This Carl, whoever he is, appears to be relocating. We’ll have an officer make frequent checks under the bridge, in case your son returns. But we’re also going to search roadways, have someone follow along the creek. Bus stations and the train station. There’s no guarantee Rowan went with this man, Carl. We’ll continue door to door. Canvas stores where they might have bought something. Get word out on the radio, monitor tips that come in. See if we can get a better description on the vagrant”—he looked at me—“and get that information out, along with the photo of Rowan, of course.”

“I just don’t know what to do. I just can’t keep sitting here. I’m—I’m losing my mind.”