The Boy Who Appeared from the Rain

by Kevin David Jensen

The first hour was hopeful as Kara watched the police and the FBI scour Pike Place Market with extraordinary energy—every shop, every closet, even the roofs. But they found nothing except a couple dozen witnesses who claimed to have seen Zach run past the Fish Market that afternoon; most of them described him accurately, but they couldn't agree on which way he had gone from there. The second hour was discouraging; hope of finding Zach here faded with each passing minute.

  Her dwindling hope infuriated Kara as she stood across from the Fish Market with arms folded tightly, confronting Agent Nyler. "You're giving up?" she scolded him as the bustle of agents around them thinned. "Now? He was right here, in this spot!" How could they stop looking for Zach when he was so nearby? She knew she wasn't thinking clearly—how could she, not having slept a wink last night? Even so, continuing the search was obviously the right thing to do!

  Agent Nyler rubbed his neck. His eyes were beginning to sag; he hadn't had much sleep himself. "We've searched every building in the entire market, Mrs. Fleming, every room." He was being far more patient with her than Kara could have been in his position. "Nine acres, multiple floors, for two hours, without a trace of him."

  "You're doing the best you can—we understand that," Craig offered to Agent Nyler. He took Kara's hand.

  She pulled it away from him irritably, then rolled her eyes at herself and took his arm. She wanted to be close to Craig. But she was angry—this made no sense! They had been so close to finding Zach! How could they lose him now?

  "But we are absolutely not giving up," Agent Nyler told her firmly, keeping his voice down because of all the shoppers bustling about them, keeping a respectful distance. "We just have to change our strategy. We don't know which way he went. If he went out through the west side of the market, he could have gone down to the waterfront. If he headed north… Well, what it comes down to—"

  "He could be anywhere," Eddie concluded. "Or they may have caught him again." He stood off to the side a little, observing and thinking. He was good at watching things, Kara had noted; he caught every detail. Even Agent Nyler had begun to ask Eddie for his insights, for anything the FBI and the police might have missed.

  "I suspect he's still downtown," Nyler mused, pivoting to consider the buildings that made up the market, "if they didn't catch up to him. And you're right, we can't assume they didn't. But if he's still free…I'd guess he's holed up somewhere close by."

  Eddie nodded. "He's definitely a hider. He used to hide under the bed."

  "He still does," Craig told them.

  "I've seen him do it," a new voice spoke behind Kara. She turned to find Officer Garrenton stepping from the street to join them. The officer met Kara's eyes sympathetically. "I'm free for a little while," she said, "so I thought I'd come and help you folks a bit."

  Agent Nyler resumed his musing. "Hopefully, he's hiding someplace small and dark, watching…and when he feels safe, he'll come out. The only problem is, where is he hiding?" He looked to Eddie, but Eddie could only shake his head. "In any case, Mrs. Fleming, we can't assume anything. And we can't keep all of our agents and the SPD searching here all night. We only have so many eyes; we need to spread them out."

  "And if they caught him again?" Eddie asked.

  "We're watching Dr. Lerwick's car. We have law enforcement looking for him across the city and checking the ferries and shipping docks. Zach's escaped once already. They won't be able to hide him forever."

  Kara sighed. "Can we do something more than stand here?"

  Officer Garrenton put a hand on her shoulder. "I was just thinking the same thing. Why don't we go look around? Police don't search the way moms and dads do. Maybe we can put your intuition to good use."

  Agent Nyler nodded his approval. "Eddie and I will head back to my office and coordinate the search from there. We'll let you know if we hear anything." With that, he led Eddie to his car parked a short way down the street.

  Kara glanced at Craig; he was watching her, letting her make the first move. She scanned the area. Rain still hammered the ground beyond the covered, open-air walkway in which they stood. "They said he came up the stairs from the alley?" she asked Craig.

  "Everyone agreed on that."

  She weighed her options, trying to imagine the scene from the vantage point of a frightened ten-year-old. Her eyes tracked his movements as she imagined them, from the stairs to the Fish Market to… "I think he saw those stairs over there and went down," she decided, motioning toward the stairway that led into the Down Under building. On that tenuous basis, Kara led Craig and Officer Garrenton downstairs, where they walked through every corridor and peeked into every shop before moving into the adjacent La Salle building.

  *****