Chapter 29

He sat up slowly, turning his head right, then left, twisting to look behind him. What kind of a parent didn’t have baby pictures?

Surely they were just not out, he told himself, rising from the couch. They were in the bedroom or tucked away in a drawer. A box. An album.

Trying to appear less frantic than he felt, Ian walked from room to room and studied surfaces. There, by the bed. No, that was Cole all right, but the snapshot couldn’t have been any more than a couple of months old.

He swiveled his head towards the open door, confirmed he was alone, and began to yank drawers open. There weren’t many places to hide things: the six-drawer dresser, four for Cole and two for Jordan; the one shelf in the closet, with the two shoe boxes that had several pics of Jordan as a teenager but not one of Cole; under either of the two beds.

One linen closet, almost empty. No album.