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“That’s a big word, isn’t it? I’ll bet you took care of things when the man was gone. Did he ever call and check on you when he wasaway?”
Logan nodded, but the question drained the bit of animation from his face. “He’d call and see if everything was all right with thedragonflies.”
“I’ll bet you took good care of them. Did you ever have problems while he was away? Any reason to callhim?”
“I never wanted to talk to him. But a few days ago, I ran out of food. I had to call and ask him what I couldeat.”
Ethan clenched his jaw to keep from cursing. Logan’s mother looked like she was on the verge of tears as she tenderly pushed the hair back from the boy’sface.
“See,” Alexa said encouragingly. “That’s another way you were smart. You had to remember that telephone number, didn’tyou?”
He nodded. “And he gave me the code to open the door into the garage so I could get food from the freezer. I remembered that,too.”
“Can you tell me what the phone numberwas?”
The boy rattled it off, and Ethan scribbled it in a notebook he’d taken from his suit jacket, a feeling of triumph filling him. The ERT team had reported an extensive computer layout in the man’s home. Hopefully, Tillman’s love of technology extended to cell phones. With the most recent ones, a cell phone ping resulted in an exactlocation.
“Thank you for talking with me, Logan.” Alexa smiled at the boy. “I’ll bet you can’t wait to get back to your house with your mom anddad.”
“And my dog, Dexter,” he added. “Mom and Dad say he’s really missedme.”
“He’s going to be pretty excited to seeyou.”
He was quiet for a moment, and his expression screwed up again, as if he were about to cry. “Alexa? Are you afraid of scarymovies?”