Page 47 of Hide and Seek

“Not his admin file, his medical file.”

“I have that too,” Jace argues. “No article.”

“Not in the e-copy,” Xave says casually.

“You broke into the school hospital and looked through his physical file?” I ask.

Xave nods.

“When?” I ask.

“When I got back on campus, before I came over.”

“Damn,” Jace looks impressed. “I guess old-school tactics are still useful after all. Good job, Gramps.”

“Bite me,” Xave grumbles.

Xave is two years older than us, but because he took a year off before starting at Silvercrest, he’s only a year ahead of us in school, and he’s a tad sensitive about his age. So of course that’s something we exploit every chance we get.

Jace smiles angelically at him. “Did I strike a nerve there, old timer?”

“Someone just dropped to my sixth favorite cousin. And I only have five cousins.” He looks between us. “Do you want to know the story or not?”

“Yeah,” I say impatiently.

“Hit us with it,” Jace says.

“The article didn’t go into too much detail,” Xave says, his teasing demeanor gone and his tone serious. “But it happened right after his dad sold his company and the IP for that software he developed.”

“So he was fifteen when it happened?” Jace interjects.

Xave nods. “Like I said, the article doesn’t go into much detail, but it seems like he was snatched on his way home from school. There was a ransom demand, the whole shebang, but before they could pay it, Myles escaped and was found uninjured.”

“Where was he found?” Jace asks.

“How did he escape?” I ask at the same time.

“No idea, and no clue. The article just said that he told police he escaped, and that’s it.”

“What’s the name of the article, or the publication?” Jace asks as he spins around and starts clicking keys on his keyboard.

“I did you one better.” Xave pulls out his phone and taps on the screen a few times. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and Jace’s pings where it sits on his desk.

I pull my phone out and check the text. It’s a picture of the article. Using my fingers, I enlarge the photo and start reading.

“What the fuck,” Jace mutters.

“Can’t find it, can you?” Xave asks with a knowing look.

“No, and it’s not in the Wayback Machine or any other records.” He spins back around. “Did you see anything about this in your deep dives?”

I shake my head and look up from the article. Xave was right. There’s almost no information in it, and the only way I know it’s about Myles is because the dates match up to when his dad sold the business, and it’s from a paper in his hometown. Other than that, there’s nothing connecting him to the article.

“Are you checking for the police file?” I ask Jace as he starts typing again.

“Yup,” he says grimly.

“I looked for follow-up articles or even articles from other papers and sources, but there’s nothing,” Xave tells me. “There might be some hard copies out there, but nothing online.”