He clambered up on the chest, reached for the window, which was just above his head, and jumped. I grabbed his waist and pushed him up. With a few kicks of his legs, he shimmied through and was out.

Holding my breath, I yanked myself up, pulled myself through the small opening, and made it about halfway before getting stuck at my waist without leverage. Eli grabbed my hand and tugged.

And then I was out and rolling free of the window, dress flying over my head. Eli fell to his rump and laughed as I jumped to my feet.

“Shhh!” I hushed, finger to my mouth. “Quiet.”

I stood in a crouch, scanning the area. We’d emerged along the right side of the Pierce home. Anyone looking out the window of the house next door would see us. We had to move, and I already knew where we were going.

I grabbed Eli’s hand, dropped my shoulders, and ran.

ROSE HAD TAKEN THREE STEPS TOWARD THE HALL, soup bowl in hand, when the front screen door squeaked. The children were coming in.

She quickly returned the bowl to the counter. The patter of little feet sounded behind her, and she turned to see Levi and Stephen entering the kitchen.

“Call me when dinner is ready,” Harrison’s voice boomed from the living room.

Rose smiled at her children. “How would you two like to help Mommy with dinner?”

Levi pulled a stool over to the sink. “Should I peel the potatoes?”

“Too dangerous. But you can scrub them, and you can help, Stephen. Each of you scrub five potatoes, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to take this food downstairs, then I’ll return to cut them up for the soup,” she said.

“Okay.”

She ruffled Stephen’s hair. “Good boy.”

Careful not to spill, Rose hurried to her office, retrieved the key, made her way to the basement door, and opened it. She stepped in and locked the door behind her.

She tried to gather the full resolve she’d felt only minutes earlier, but uneasiness returned as she took the stairs down. Then again, no one said doing the right thing would be easy.

The moment she turned the corner into the main basement, she saw the desk and above it, the window. Open.

Still uncertain of what she was seeing, she looked to her right. The boy’s door was open. She lost her grip on the bowl and it fell to the ground, smashing into a dozen shards. Still not daring to believe, she ran to the room.

Empty. The boy was gone!

Just to be sure, she hurried around the room, heart pounding, searching every nook and cranny. There could be no doubt, the boy was gone.

She rushed up to the desk, on which sat a chest. He’d somehow picked the lock on his door, slid the desk over here, gotten the window open, and climbed out.