It was her mother who took a step forward. “What exactly is this all about, detectives?” She raised her voice, but the hand she held against her chest trembled. Her face was pinched, almost in a grimace, like she was bracing herself for impact. Like she already knew what they were going to tell her.

Detective James spoke in a rehearsed tone. “After the police officers you spoke to reported to the main department, they noted some connections between your daughter, the location of the incident, and the dates. They pulled some dead files, and we got called in.”

Dead files. Wendy shuddered. Mrs. Darling didn’t say anything.

“Mrs. Darling.” His tone was quieter now. “The material the boy was wearing matched the evidence collected from Wendy’s clothing five years ago.”

CHAPTER 4

Thunder

Wendy felt a stirring deep inside her bones. It had first started when they found her in the woods. An uncontrollable shaking. Not the kind she would get after swimming too hard for too long, or the shiver she got from playing in the icy water at the coast. It wasn’t even the sort of terrified quiver you got in your hands or knees. This was at the very core of her body, like a small creature living deep in her chest, shaking her ribs like the bars of a cage in a wild frenzy. It was an immobilizing tremor.

It was her fault. It was all her fault. Wendy was the eldest—she was supposed to look after John and Michael. She was supposed to take care of them, and she’d failed. She was the only one to return.

Her brothers were still missing, and it was her fault. Everyone knew it—Wendy, her parents, everyone in town.

There must’ve been some way she could have brought them back with her. Why hadn’t she? And why couldn’t she just remember?

Wendy’s fingers flexed against her sides. She couldn’t let the shaking start, because she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to make it stop.

“Do you understand, Mrs. Darling?” Detective James watched Wendy’s mother, but she just stood there, fingers pressed to the base of her throat, staring at him.

Detective Rowan watched Wendy. Wendy’s shoulders shuddered.

“We think that this boy, Peter, might somehow be involved with Wendy’s disappearance,” Detective James continued.

Wendy couldn’t look at them. She focused her eyes on the ghost of a water ring on the table.

“There’s a possibility he escaped from wherever your children were taken. There’s a possibility that if he knows Wendy, maybe he knew John and Michael as well.”

Knew.

She didn’t like the sound of her brothers’ names coming from this stranger’s mouth.

“We also believe he might somehow be related to the string of disappearances in town, since they all occurred near the woods.”