It was disconcerting enough just to hear that rough whispery voice, but to have it emerge from the mouth of an archaically garbed child with an old man’s head was truly disturbing, and Kyle saw Nick moving reflexively back toward the doorway.

“There are three branches in town,” the sheriff said. He was treating the boy as an equal, and that seemed to be an effective approach, since it kept him talking.

“Where is the first bank?”

“Next to my bookstore,” Kyle offered.

The boy—Theo—looked directly at him for the first time. He saw no evidence of anything childlike in those eyes, only great age and the knowledge of something terrible. “Will you take me there?”

“Do you want to press charges?” Hank asked. “Kidnapping?”

The deputy was operating on a different, more prosaic wavelength, but his boss knew that what was happening here was so far out of the ordinary that the only way to get to the bottom of it was to follow this thread to the end. “We’ll take you there,” he said. His eyes met Kyle’s but he was speaking to all of them. “There’s no need for you to come. You can go home.”

“I’m coming,” Kyle said.

Anita and Jen were nodding. Only Nick seemed unsure, but before Kyle could ask what he wanted to do, his son said, “Let’s go.”

Theo was remarkably spry. Just as he had leapt from the crate, he now bounded down the hallway in front of the sheriff. The rest of them, more than a little uneasy, remained further behind. Outside, the boy blinked in the sunlight. He seemed surprised to find himself where he was.

“Over here,” the sheriff said.

He and Hank got into the patrol car with Theo, while the rest of them got into the Optima. The sheriff put on his siren, Kyle following through town in his wake. Both vehicles double parked in front of the bank.

Brad must have called for help on the way over, because, from the opposite end of the street, two more sheriff’s cars came speeding up, parking across the street and blocking Main to through traffic as Kyle, Anita, Nick and Jen stepped out of the car.

Kyle had no idea what, if anything, the child had said on the trip downtown, but Theo and the sheriff walked two abreast to the front door of the bank. The sheriff held the door open, letting the boy go in first. Hank followed, the rest of them close behind. The newly arrived deputies hurried to catch up.

With so many law enforcement officers coming through the door, it must have looked like a raid, and Kyle noticed the surprised and worried looks on the faces of several customers. The employees gave no indication that anything unusual was happening.

At first.