“It’s a reenactment,” Alex told them. “Andrew’s going family by family, following some agenda only he understands. Assuming he’s abducted Evan and Evan’s mother, he will look to staging next.”

“The boat?” D.D. wondered. “Very private.”

“Not the right feel. It needs to be domestic.”

“His house?” That didn’t sound right to her. Lightfoot’s house was an architectural marvel, not a suburban daydream.

“Why not the Olivers’ house?” Greg suggested. “Evan and his mom live in Cambridge, no more than ten, fifteen minutes from here. Andrew would know where it is; he worked for them.”

“Shit. You and me,” D.D. said to Alex, “to Evan’s house. I’ll call for backup along the way.”

She and Alex took a step forward. Greg caught her shoulder.

“I want to go,” he started, then waved to the screaming kids behind him. “Obviously, I can’t. But you’ll find Danielle, right? You’ll keep her safe. Return her to us. She’s … she’s special to me.”

“Give me an hour or two,” D.D. said with forced optimism, “and hopefully you can tell her that yourself.”

Chapter Forty-Five

CHAPTER
FORTY-FIVE

DANIELLE

“It’s dark.”

“The electricity’s out. Evan, my name’s Danielle, I met you earlier this evening. I’m a friend of Greg’s.”

I eased into Evan’s bedroom, mindful of shadowed corners and Andrew’s unknown location. Victoria thought he was downstairs, but neither of us was certain. She was going to try to free Michael, one more foot soldier to join the war. I was supposed to ask Evan to surf the mumbo-jumbo superhighway on our behalf. Find an angel, locate a gun. What the hell.

“It’s dark,” Evan said again, sounding more petulant than frightened. I made it to his bed, where I saw he was lying on his side, hands and ankles captured in zip ties.

“I can cut you loose,” I offered. “Do you have scissors anywhere?”

“Not allowed sharp objects,” Evan said.

On second thought, that made sense. Not sure how to proceed, I sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, trying to find Evan’s face in the early-morning gloom.

“It’s dark,” he said for the third time.

“The sun will be up soon.”

Somberly, he shook his head. “That won’t help you.”

I wondered if Andrew had told him something. Warned him, or tried to win him over to his side. Maybe it was just as well that Evan was tied up. Clearly, he was a kid capable of doing damage.

“Your mom says you’ve been working with Andrew,” I started. “She says he’s been teaching you how to control the energies around you.”

“The dark,” the kid insisted again. “You must learn to control the dark.”

“The dark? Is that how you refer to the negative energies?”

“They’re all around you.”

“Yes, the power is out.”

“No,” he said, “they’re all around you.”