by Josh Karnes
Chapter 27
Isla de Vieques, Puerto Rico
Who does that guy think he is? James thought to himself, incredulously. He thinks he's the FBI agent in charge of finding your son, he heard his mind reply. James had to keep reminding himself of this fact all day yesterday since he and the rest of his family were summarily dismissed by Assistant Special Agent In Charge, Ray Ortiz.
It felt like they were being sent to the kid's table. Let the grown-ups take care of this problem. We are not idiots, James thought, uselessly. Of course they were not idiots, but they were not professional investigators either. They didn't have a badge that would compel just about anyone to talk to them and answer their questions. They didn't have the ability to summon help, or to commandeer resources from other departments. Who was he kidding? They didn't know whom they should be questioning. They didn't know what they should ask. They didn't know what resources they needed and even if they could muster them, they didn't know what to have them do.
Regardless of how much they wanted to help, how responsible James felt personally for this problem, how every fiber of his being was shouting for him to do something, the cold fact was that the FBI would do a much better job with the Grady family out of their way. And this realization hurt. On top of feeling guilty, he felt powerless. Helpless. Impotent.
At that moment, James decided to do something about it. “Melissa,” he said to his wife, who was in a state somewhere between fuming and shell-shocked. “We need to get the boys up.”
Melissa looked over at James, as snapping out of a daze. “What?”
“Mark and Eli. Let's get them up and going.”
“Why?”
“Because even though the FBI knows the most about how to find missing people, we know the most about Joseph. So we need to get in there and help find him. I'm going to get that agent Ortiz to give us something to work on. We can help find Joey, and we will.”
Melissa didn't look convinced, but she was not going to fight. “Okay. You wake them up. I'll get ready.”
Melissa had spent most of the previous afternoon vainly searching the marina for any clue of Joey's whereabouts, with her family in tow. James knew she wasn't going to find anything, and he was certain she also knew it. But they couldn't just do nothing, and they had been kicked out by the FBI. Then they just got dinner and came back to the hotel to go to bed. Melissa had considered calling her parents back in Texas to tell them what was going on, but decided they'd be better off to wait one more day. She still hoped they would find Joey and not have to break the news of his disappearance to his grandparents until he was back with them.
James knocked on the door between their rooms and Mark opened it up right away. Both he and Eli were already up and seemed to be itching to get out and get to work. James understood this. Each of them had their reasons for feeling responsible for this mess, and each wanted to slay these demons by putting all of their energy into finding Joey. James's own reasons were many. Mark had promised his mother not to take his eye off of Joseph and he had been watching over his brother like this for as long as he could remember. And Eli, well Eli felt the pressure to be the new man of the house. He didn't know if his mom and dad were going to make it past whatever rough spot they were in together, and he was already sizing up the burden that he would bear if his father was going to eventually be gone.
“Guys, let's go to the police station. Time to stop the pity party and get in the ball game,” James admonished. The guys' eyes lit up.
“Way ahead of you, dad,” Eli said as he rose, wound up like a clock spring.