Free Fifth Son by Barbara Fradkin Page A

family, the villagers had called them. “What do you mean?”
    â€œKilled herself. Took years building to it, mind. Sinking deeper and deeper, with him not helping a bit, and poor little Robbie just raising himself. About ten, twelve years ago, I guess she figured he was raised enough, and so she called it quits.”
    * * *
    Green struggled to steer with one hand as he punched numbers into his cell phone with the other. Extreme rock pulsated through the car, and Hannah was bobbing her head with a secretive twinkle in her eyes.
    â€œDo you want me to drive?” she shouted.
    â€œIn your dreams, honey.” She pulled what he recognized as a classic Hannah pout. Pro forma, with no outrage behind it.
    â€œBack home I had my learner’s permit.”
    â€œAnd we’ll have this discussion when you’re back in regular school.”
    â€œI like Alternate Ed. The kids are way cooler, and I get to do this part-time work in the real world.”
    He flicked off the radio and turned his attention to Gibbs, who had finally answered his phone. It was nearly five o’clock, but Green had known the man would still be hard at work. Green filled him in on Edna’s revelation about Lawrence Pettigrew.
    â€œI’m ahead of you, sir,” Gibbs said. “One of the villagers told me, and I’ve already contacted the hospital personnel.”
    Which is why I love you, Green thought with admiration. “What’s the news?”
    â€œHe was in St. Lawrence Psychiatric Hospital from 1984 till 2000, but he’s been in a supervised group home since then until just a couple of months ago.”
    â€œWhat happened a couple of months ago?”
    â€œHe graduated to monitored independence, sir. Whatever that means. I’m trying to reach those people now.”
    â€œGood. Let me know as soon as you find him. We’re looking for an absolute positive sighting in the past forty-eight hours to rule him out.”
    Green rang off and found Hannah eyeing him with the faintest smile on her pixie face. She was so tiny and innocent looking, it was hard to believe she packed such a punch.
    â€œIf I hadn’t been in Alternate Ed, I wouldn’t have met Kyle. And if I hadn’t met Kyle, you’d never have found out the truth about that gold crucifix.”
    â€œOkay, I’ll bite. What did he tell you?”
    â€œWithout his mother breathing down his neck, he told me the truth about where he found it.”
    It was Green’s turn to smile. “I thought he might.”
    Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, and Green’s smile broadened. “He found it in the woods on the way to the village, didn’t he?”
    She nodded. “There’s a path running along the river, which starts at the next farm and runs past the McMartin farm into the village. He found it somewhere near the village.”
    â€œOn the ground?”
    â€œYes, just lying in the leaves.”
    Green considered the implications. If Derek had lost that chain twenty years ago, it would probably have been found by other travellers or buried under layers of leaves and debris during the intervening years. To be found so easily by a boy strolling along the path, it had to have been dropped there recently. Perhaps on the very day the mystery man was spotted at the farm by Isabelle Boisvert.
    Green winked at her. “I’ll make you a sleuth yet. Do you mind a little side trip?”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œTo talk to Kyle’s older half-brother. He was a friend of the Pettigrew brothers years ago.”
    â€œBut Dad!”
    It was the first time she’d called him Dad, and his jaw dropped before he could stop himself. Quickly, she scowled. “I’ve got homework to do and friends to call.”
    â€œFifteen minutes, tops. Promise.” And without giving her time to protest, he pulled into Sandy’s drive.
    The realtor was even more frazzled than he had been a day earlier.