Fletcher and I let ourselves in, and I shut the door quietly behind us. Ainslee and Finn sat on the weathered couch that had seen better days, steaming mugs on the table in front of them. Finn was wrapped in as many layers as Ainslee could conceivably fit on him, and he looked a little like he was sweating to death in all those clothes. Ainslee’s eyes were red from crying, but she had a huge smile on her face, and she wouldn’t stop glancing down at Finn just to make sure he was still there.
I smiled, seeing them reunited. My team and I had done that. We’d made a noticeable, positive difference in their lives. It was a good feeling.
Fletcher and I sat down across from them, and I found I wasn’t sure where to begin. “Finn, how are you?” I asked.
He wiped his nose with his hand. “Good.” He had a quiet, shy voice, and I wondered if that was natural or a product of his kidnapping.
“My name is Callum, and this is Tara. Do you remember us from the other night?”
Finn nodded. His nose was red, but there was no sign it’d been broken when he was abducted.
“I know this has been very scary, but I was hoping you could tell us what happened. Do you think you're up for it?”
“I guess so,” Finn said.
Dunnel passed me a handheld recorder before retreating back to his chair.
“Do you mind if I record this?” I asked, looking at Ainslee since Finn was a minor.
“That’s fine,” she said.
I pressed the red button on the side of the device and placed it on the table between us. “This is DCI Callum MacBain and DI Tara Fletcher speaking with Finn and Ainslee Wair,” I said for the record. “Finn, would you mind taking us through what happened on Tuesday?”
Finn looked up at his mother, and she nodded encouragingly for him to begin. He shifted in his seat and wrung his hands, and it took him thirty seconds to figure out how to start. “I said goodbye to my friends and left school to go to my music class with Ms Taggert. Did you meet her? She’s very nice.”
I nodded. She was very nice.
“I always cut through the alley behind school,” Finn continued. His voice trembled, and he gave Ainslee a hand to squeeze. “This van stopped at the end, and these three people jumped out. They had these dark masks on, and they--” He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
“Does he really need to do this?” Ainslee asked, despair plain in her voice.
“I’m afraid we do need his statement,” I said apologetically. “It’s better that he get it down now while it’s fresh so he can rest rather than dredge it up later.”
“Hey, buddy, you’re doing great,” Fletcher said to Finn. She sat forward in her chair and rested her elbows on her knees, so their faces were level. “I know this is hard, but you’re being so brave.” She glanced at Dunnel and me. “Do we have any toys or anything? Something to help comfort him?”
“The Rabbit comforts no one,” Dunnel said and shivered.
I’d seen the Rabbit once, and it had given me nightmares. It used to be a Peter Rabbit toy, but one eye was missing and the other replaced by a blood-red button. The thread of its mouth and whiskers had been picked out, leaving behind the shiny black nose, and its fur had been rubbed off in patches so that fabric the colour of dishwater showed through. Reilly and I had hidden it in the far reaches of evidence lockup to protect the station from the evil spirit no doubt lurking inside. Dunnel was correct when he said the Rabbit brought comfort to no one.
Fletcher gave Dunnel a confused and slightly frightened look. She had yet to see the Rabbit. It was an initiation all rookies had to go through at some point or another. “Ignoring that,” she said and turned her attention back to Finn. “As I was saying, if you’re brave a little while longer, maybe your mum will take you for ice cream? How does that sound?”
Finn cracked one eye open and looked at Fletcher seriously. “I like ice cream.”
“Who doesn’t?” Fletcher said.
Now that she’d mentioned food, I realized I was absolutely starving, and my stomach gave a growl that I was sure everyone in the room heard.
“You were saying that a van blocked the alley?” I prompted.
Finn nodded. “They came right at me. I didn’t know what to do. They grabbed me. I got so scared, and I tried to get away. One of them dropped me, and I hit my nose.” He touched the tip of his nose and winced as he remembered the struggle. “They threw me in a van, and put duct tape on my hands, and they wouldn’t tell me where we were going. We drove for a long time. I don’t know how long, and then we got on a boat.” A couple of tears slid free of his eyes and down his cheeks.
“Did you ever see this man, Thomas Holden?” I asked. Dunnel had the American’s mugshot in a folder, and I held it up for Finn to see.
“No. Not until last night.”
“Would you be able to identify any of the people you did see?”
“Maybe.”
Fletcher helped me lay pictures of everyone we had in custody as well as the picture of Elias that Lena had given us. Finn leaned forward and looked them all over with the kind of sombre intensity only children possess. He was able to identify eight of our twenty-four suspects, including Elias, Sarah, Harris, and the man with the squashed nose, also known as Jonas.
“This woman,” Finn pointed at Sarah, “put me on a video call with some guy. I didn’t understand what they wanted, and then they moved me up to this bedroom. They mostly just left me there
