I frowned.
“What necklace?”
Tobin looked at me.
“The little silver fish Dad gave him.”
My heart tightened.
I remembered.
Roscoe had given Ned a small silver fish pendant for his ninth birthday.
Ned wore it everywhere.
Tobin continued.
“The man who took him said he’d keep it safe.”
I stared at him.
“Who?”
Tobin closed his eyes.
Then whispered a name.
A name investigators had already encountered in the financial records.
The man was arrested several weeks later.
He initially denied knowing Ned.
But investigators found photographs and documents connecting him to the boy.
Eventually, he provided information about a family who had taken Ned in under a false identity.
The family had been told the child had no living relatives.
They believed he was an orphan.
They had no idea he had been abducted.
The authorities located the household.
And found a fifteen-year-old boy.
Quiet.
Thin.
With dark hair.
