Rescue

downright outgoing.“

    The living room had a dining area and kitchen separated from it by a half-wall. The living room floor was covered by a thick rug, BarcaLounger-knockoff furniture, and a coffee table displaying magazines on which the word “Christian“ appeared as an adjective with some frequency. The walls were covered by needlework in cheap frames, homilies of home, hearth, and church stitched onto the fabric. There was no television set, no stereo, nothing beyond places to sit and things to read.
    The dinner table had ten or twelve loaves of bread cooling on little racks over spread newspapers. The chairs were the kind that became popular a few years ago: natural stained seats with backs and legs painted white. Everything gave the impression of being new and stark. Including Polly Haldon.
    She was about her husband’s age and short, with narrow hips. The hair was barely past her earlobes and nearly straight, a mousy brown that seemed just to hang from her scalp. The glasses were plain black, but with an almost oriental cast to the corners at the temples, as though she were trying to inject something exotic into her appearance that wouldn’t have been her fault. Mrs. Haldon already had asked us twice if we’d like tea and maybe some cookies when her husband, who had changed into a blue dress shirt, spoke to Pettengill.
    “Chief, what’s this about?“
    Pettengill nodded in my direction, and Haldon’s eyes followed his to me.
    I said, “Mr. Haldon, is your son, Eddie, around?“
    A stiffening. “My son. He can’t have anything to do with your case.“
    “Could I speak to him?“
    Haldon opened his mouth just enough to say, “No.“
    I looked toward Pettengill. No help from that quarter.
    To Haldon, I said, “I have reason to believe your son was riding into Boston with a young woman named Melinda last Thursday.“
    Mrs. Haldon seemed to catch her breath. Her husband just set his jaw a little more.
    I said, “Do either of you know anyone named Melinda?“
    Haldon said, “What’s her last name?“
    “I don’t know.“
    “Neither do we.“
    I looked to his wife. She was staring at me the way a rabbit does when it senses your presence and freezes, thinking and then just hoping you can’t see it.
    I said to her, “Mrs. Haldon—“
    “When you’re in this house, you will ask me your questions, not my wife.“
    I stared at Haldon. Just the stony look back.
    Despite what he’d told me, his wife said, “Eddie’s going to school.“
    Haldon turned and gave his wife the same look I’d been getting.
    She withered. “Thomas, there’s nothing wrong with telling them that.“ Polly Haldon engaged me. “Eddie wasn’t doing well in that mainlining thing.“
    I didn’t want to close her off. “Mainlining?“
    “You know, when they take the children who are slow-“
    “—our son is not slow, he’s—“
    “—and put him in with all the others. He just couldn’t keep up, is all.“
    I said, “You mean ‘mainstreaming,’ maybe?“
    “Whatever they call it, their system didn’t work for Eddie.“
    “He has a disability?“
    “Well...“ The woman glanced toward her husband and rebounded like he’d body-blocked her. “... his mark, you see.“
    “Mrs. Haldon, I’ve met your son. That mark doesn’t affect his brain.“
    “No, but it does affect his soul.“
    “Mrs.—“
    “It’s the Mark of Cain.“
    “Polly, that will do!“
    I looked at Haldon, who obviously wasn’t accustomed to having to raise his voice to be obeyed. “Where’s your son now?“
    Haldon said, “He’s safe in the Hands of the Lord.“
    “Then you do know where he is?“
    “That’s our business, and none of yours.“
    “Have you even heard from him?“
    Nothing.
    “Do you know if he’s with Lonnie Severn?“
    Eddie’s mother said, “There’s no—“
    “Woman, I won’t be saying this again. That... will... do.“
    I tried her. “You’re not worried about him?“
    At first it seemed my question had broken through the wail Polly Haldon’s husband was building around her. Then, “Why would I be worried?“ She glanced again toward Eddie’s father. “Our son’s with Jesus. And learning more about Him every day.“
    An ecstatic smile lit up her face.

    “Thanks for jumping in there, Chief.“
    “Couldn’t see that it was my place to.“
    I slowed down for a curve, then geared up to fourth. “You realize they have no idea what’s going on with their son.“
    “I realize nothing of