Five Days in Summer

entered the parking lot and Will instinctively pulled the boys back onto the walk.
    “Any news about your wife?”
    Will ground his teeth and waited for the car to pass. He was about to try crossing the parking lot again when it occurred to him that the first time he rebuffed Eric Smith, on the phone, he’d paid for it in print. And he understood that if he paid, his children paid; Emily paid.
    “No news,” Will said.
    “I understand there’s a special agent from the FBI on the case.”
    Will hesitated. “Not really,” he said. “He’s retired and I’ve hired him privately.” A small bit of misinformation, since Geary was now officially with the police, but Will wasn’t sure how much it was safe to tell.
    “Can you give me his name?”
    Could he? Will didn’t know. “That’s it for now. Sorry.”
    “I understand, Mr. Parker. Just one more question if you don’t mind.”
    Will did mind but clearly it didn’t matter. He nodded.
    “I understand that Dr. Roger Bell’s been brought onto the case. Why would a celebrated criminologist be talking to the Mashpee police if this were just a missing persons?”
    “It’s my wife. She’s not just some missing person —” Will stopped himself. “Listen, he’s a friend of the retired agent. He summers here, I think.”
    “Summer people?” Smith jotted something down before he got an answer.
    “I’m sorry?”
    “Dr. Bell and the agent, they come here for the summer?”
    “No,” Will said. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
    The front door of the police station swung open and out came Roger Bell, with a big smile on his face as if he’d just finished joking around with someone inside. When he saw Will and the boys and Eric Smith, Dr. Bell didn’t miss a beat in his step or lose an inch of his smile. He just kept walking in their direction. When he got close, his hand came out like an anchor.
    He greeted Smith with a laugh. “Based on your appearance, you would be the local news, I assume.”
    “And you are?”
    Dr. Bell stepped between Will and David and draped an arm over both their shoulders. “Cheese!”
    Smith didn’t wait to get a name before he snapped the picture. He was a creative reporter, Will guessed, the kind who filled in the blanks later and let the editors print corrections the next day if necessary.
    “Thank you.” Dr. Bell pumped Smith’s hand. “Now I’m afraid my friends have an appointment. If you don’t mind.” Bell turned around, and with an expansive gesture of both arms took David, Will and Sam with him. They crossed the parking lot together, leaving Eric Smith alone on the curb.
    “Which one’s your car?” Bell asked.
    Will lifted his chin toward the SUV. “It’s rented.”
    “Of course.”
    They came up next to the driver’s side, and Dr. Bell turned to the boys. He put his hands on his thighs and leaned slightly forward. “You must be Sam. First grade or second?”
    Sam grinned. “Pirates wear black eye patches, not green.”
    “Then perhaps I’m not a pirate.”
    “Take it off.”
    “Sammie!” Will said. “Please excuse him, Dr. Bell.”
    Dr. Bell eked out a smile that seemed distinctly practiced. Will assumed the man had probably endured endless comments about his eye patch, yet the bright color, that green, begged for attention.
    Dr. Bell shifted his good eye to David and winked. “And that makes you David, fifteen, no?”
    David tried to repress a smile.
    Dr. Bell squinted his good eye. “Twenty-three?”
    “Eleven,” David told him.
    “Ah, eleven, an interesting, transitional age.”
    Will found the man a little strange. He opened the back door to let Sam and David climb in, then slammed it shut.
    “They’re charming boys, your sons,” Dr. Bell said.
    “We think so.”
    Dr. Bell’s eye narrowed as he seemed to measure Will’s state of mind. “Do you trust the police to find your wife?”
    “I don’t have much choice, do I?”
    “No.” Dr. Bell shook his head. “I suppose you have not been given much choice in any of this.”
    “You think they’re wasting their time on Robertson, don’t you?”
    Dr. Bell cocked his head, pursed his lips. “My oldfriend Dr. Geary has a point, I’m afraid, when he says that Mr. Robertson doesn’t fit the profile perfectly.”
    “I take it you’ve worked with him before.”
    Dr. Bell nodded. “Many, many times.”
    “How often have you been right?”
    Will thought he heard someone crunching along the gravel and turned, expecting to see Eric