Caribbean Rescue (Coastal Fury Book 16) - Matt Lincoln (reading tree .TXT) 📗

know how to remain calm and collected. She owed that much to the victims that relied on her.

The report that her boss had given her had been frustratingly vague.

“They don’t have a lot to go on yet,” her director had told her. “But since the victim is an unaccompanied minor who appears to have been abused, it falls under our jurisdiction.”

Now that she was here, she was really hoping that someone would be able to clue her in a little.

“Agent Hastings?” a nervous-looking man with wiry hair and thick glasses called out to her as soon as she stepped through the doors of the station.

“That’s me,” she replied with a nod.

“Hi.” The man smiled awkwardly. “I’m Detective Levi Brownstone. I spoke with your director on the phone earlier.”

“I see,” Olivia replied as she reached out to shake the man’s hand. “I don’t suppose you could fill me in a little about the case? The details you gave us over the phone were pretty scarce.”

“Ah, yes, sorry,” the detective mumbled. “That’s the thing. I don’t really have many more details to give.”

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked.

“Well, we can’t find anything.” Levi shrugged as he led Olivia further into the station. “And I mean anything. After getting him checked out at the hospital… he’s fine by the way, other than the sunburns… we took footprints, fingerprints, dental scans, and even a DNA sample, but everything came back negative so far.”

“Everything?” Olivia raised an eyebrow at him. It wasn’t all that unusual, she supposed, considering a kid would be less likely to have any kind of government record. Kids don’t have driver’s licenses, jobs, passports, or criminal records, so it wasn’t too unusual that nothing came up. Still, in today’s world of social media and digital technology, it was weird for there to be absolutely nothing.

“We even ran a facial scan.” Levi shrugged. “Though, to be honest, that kind of technology is still pretty experimental. We weren’t able to find any birth or school records either, and when we input his suspected age and physical description into the missing person’s database, we didn’t get a result there either.”

“That’s… strange.” Olivia frowned.

“Yeah, it really is.” Levi nodded. “It’s like he just popped out of nowhere. As for the kid’s medical condition, it’s all over the place.”

“How do you mean?” Olivia asked as they came to a stop in front of a door.

“Well, you know how I said ‘suspected’ age?” he replied. “Well, the doc that examined him says it’s difficult to tell, but that he thinks the kid is around five or six years old. They thought he was younger at first, though, because he’s barely three feet tall, and apparently, his bone growth is pretty stunted.”

“So it’s evident this is a case of long-term neglect,” Olivia muttered coldly.

“Seems that way.” Levi nodded. “What’s more, the kid barely talks. I thought he was a toddler the first time I spoke to him since he just talks in one-word sentences.”

“What about the people that called the police?” Olivia asked. “I heard it was a young couple.”

“Yeah, a couple of teenagers,” Levi confirmed. “I guess they were out on a date when the kid just walked right up to them.”

“Any reason to suspect them?” Olivia asked, though she doubted a pair of kids were involved.

“Nah,” Levi sighed. “I thought that too, til I saw the two of them. If the kid is really five, like the doctor thinks, then I seriously doubt he’s theirs. The girl seemed pretty shaken up too.”

“Alright.” Olivia nodded. “Let me talk to him.”

Levi opened the door and led her inside. She was relieved to see that it wasn’t an interrogation room, but rather something that looked like a small break room. The boys in blue could be a little dense when it came to handing special victims, and she’d been genuinely concerned that they might have stuffed the poor kid into a tiny interrogation chamber while they waited for her.

Instead, he was sitting on the floor, dragging a bright purple crayon across several sheets of paper at once.

“Wow, that looks beautiful!” the woman sitting on the floor beside him praised him.

The kid looked up and gave her a small, lopsided smile before returning to his drawing.

“Mrs. Abernathy,” Levi announced as he cleared his throat. “This is Agent Hastings. She’s from the FBI Special Victims unit.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Abernathy,” Olivia said as she leaned down to shake the woman’s hand.

“Likewise.” The woman smiled up at her.

“Mrs. Abernathy is the social worker assigned to the boy’s case,” Levi explained. “I’ll leave you guys to it. Don’t want to crowd the kid, make him feel nervous or anything.”

“I think that would be a good idea.” Mrs. Abernathy smiled warmly at him.

He nodded once before turning to take his leave.

“He’s a charming one,” she chuckled as soon as the detective was gone. “Reminds me a little of my oldest. Do you have children, Agent Hastings?”

“I’m afraid not,” Olivia replied. “I’m married to my work.”

“Aren’t we all?” Mrs. Abernathy smiled ruefully before looking down at the kid. “Eddy? This nice lady wants to talk to you. Do you think that would be okay?”

“Eddy?” Olivia whispered as the boy put his crayons down and turned his big blue eyes up at her.

“Just got it out of him a minute before you came in,” Mrs. Abernathy whispered back. “He seems to be responding to it.”

“Hello, Eddy.” Olivia smiled down at the child in front of her.

“Hi,” he replied quietly, though she noted that he wasn’t making eye contact with her.

“My name’s Olivia,” she replied as she eased herself down to sit on the floor next to him. “You can call me ‘Ollie’ if you want, though. That’s what my friends call me.”

“Okay,” Eddy replied. He still wasn’t looking at her, but the tensity in his small shoulders seemed to ease a little.

“Is there something special that your friends call you?” Olivia prodded gently. Asking about his friends and interests would be more likely to