13
Nick
The drive over to the small house the kids were staying at took about twenty minutes, and the sun had almost completely set by the time we got there. According to the information Stein had sent us, the kids were originally only supposed to stay at the emergency safehouse until it was determined that it was safe for them to go with their father, who was, at the time, under suspicion of having murdered their mother.
Now that both parents were dead, however, CPS was attempting to find the next closest relative willing to take them in. It was a sad situation that hit too close to home for me, but I swallowed my own anxiety and focused on the task at hand.
I could see as I pulled into the driveway that Jase was already here.
“You ready?” Jase asked me as I got out of the car.
“Yep,” I smiled confidently as I closed the car door behind me. “Why’s your hair all wet?”
“Oh,” Jase replied sheepishly. “I was playing paintball with Chloe. I didn’t have time to shower, so I just did my best to get cleaned up in the office bathroom.
“With Chloe?” I asked. She’d always struck me as the bookish, indoor type, so it was surprising to hear that she was into paintball, of all things. “Cool. Invite me next time, though.”
The house itself was a small bungalow with a little front yard. Bikes and toys of several sizes and in multiple stages of wear were scattered around the porch. They were most likely a mix of donations and hand-me-downs left here by other children throughout the years.
As we climbed the porch steps, Jase took the lead and knocked on the door. There was a shuffling sound inside before the porch light clicked on and the door opened just a few inches.
“Hello?” the woman who answered peered out at us. She had steely blue eyes, and her brown hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail.
“Hi,” Jase greeted her with a smile. “I’m Agent Park with the SDCT, and this is Costa PI. We wanted to speak to Josh Rothschild about what happened last night.”
The woman had a shrewd look in her eyes, as though she was trying to decide whether she could trust us. Her gaze drifted over to me, and for just a split second, something flashed across her expression. It was gone so fast that I couldn’t gauge what it was, but something about it had left me unnerved.
“All right.” She nodded as she pulled the door open further and stepped aside to let us in. “You can call me Linda. I got a call from Markus that you’d come.”
“Then why was she so suspicious of us?” Jase whispered so only I would hear him. I looked back at her as she locked the door securely behind us. I wasn’t upset that she’d analyzed us like that before letting us in. She was in charge of caring for children who might be in danger, after all. It was nice to see that she took her job seriously.
“Have a seat,” she commanded as she nodded toward the couch in the living room. “I’ll go get him.”
Her tone left no room for argument, so Jase and I both did as she asked. As I sat down, it occurred to me that she had referred to the director by his first name. That meant that they probably already knew each other before this case, and well enough to be on a first-name basis.
She returned a few moments later. There was a small boy trailing behind her, carrying a baby that was almost half his own size. He looked up at us with wide, frightened eyes as he walked into the living room.
“This is Josh,” Linda said softly as she looked at the boy. Her tone and facial expression were completely different from when she’d been speaking to just us earlier. “And his baby sister, Olivia. Josh is being a good older brother and taking care of her, aren’t you, Josh?”
He nodded before turning to shoot Jase and me what was probably meant to be a glare. Coming from a five-year-old, though, it looked more cute than threatening.
“These two nice men would like to have a talk with you,” Linda explained gently. “Would you be okay with me holding Olivia while the three of you talk?”
“No!” Josh exclaimed as he clutched the baby tighter. “I’m her big brother. It’s my job to take care of her.”
Linda smiled sadly at him before looking up at us.
“He’s barely let go of her since they got here,” she informed us. “He even insisted on changing her diaper himself.”
I looked back down at Josh, who was still shooting me a glare. The baby in his arms looked like she was over a year old, and I could see his arms shaking as he held her. She was certainly heavy enough that it must be a strain on his arms to hold her, but he still maintained his grip.
“Hey, Josh,” I smiled softly at him. I slipped off the couch and onto the floor in front of him. He tensed visibly and scowled at me. It was cute how protective he was of his baby sister, but it was sad to think of why he had to be that way in the first place.
I looked around for something I could use to break his guard down, and my eyes landed on a spiral notebook sitting on the coffee table next to us. I reached over to pluck the notebook from the table and swiftly tore a blank page out of it. Josh flinched at the sudden movement and noise, and I made a mental note not to move as quickly from now on.
“Have you ever seen a paper plane, Josh?” I asked as I began to fold the sheet of paper.
The look of apprehension melted off his face as he shook his
