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We all turned to look at him, and I was praying, please God, let him know what he’s talking about. I lost my father too soon, don’t let me lose Landry.

“The hunting cabin,” he said, staring at his father. “I hate hunting, so does Scott, but you keep that damn thing and I always wondered why. Your friends don’t hunt. There’s no one for you to go with. But I bet your son who only wanted to please you, I bet he was down with the cabin, huh?”

“How far is it?” Baylor asked, standing and getting back on his cell phone at the same time.

“Up by Lee Canyon.”

“That’s probably why you can’t get a hold of him,” he told Neil. Then he spoke into his cell phone, directing people on the other end to call the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, getting as many people mobilized for the hunt as he could.

“But what if he’s not there?” Neil asked.

“It’s the best lead we have, and with you not being able to contact him and him needing someplace out of the way to stash Landry, I think it’s a safe bet.”

“Brilliant,” Scott told Chris, gently patting his face.

He nodded, and I could tell that he was not used to being on the receiving end of praise from his eldest brother.

“You all have to be ready for whatever we find,” Baylor cautioned us.

I had to grab for the wall because my heart stopped.

“Go get him,” Conrad barked at the detective.

“I wanna go,” I told them.

Everyone yelled “no” at the same time, even Conrad. “We’re gonna sit here with Landry’s family and wait.”

I flopped down onto the couch and watched Detective Baylor start to pace as he got back on the phone, and then saw him gesture at the plainclothes officers to take Mr. Carter into custody. They put handcuffs on him and led him from the house.

“I’m gonna go talk to Mom and Jo, bring them up here,” Scott told us. “I’ll be right back.”

But it took him longer than that. The entire house was like a resort. Even Neil and Cece’s bedroom was in another building attached to the huge area we were all sitting in. I couldn’t wait to leave it and never come back.

Scott returned with his sister but not his mother. The doctor had called and told Jocelyn to give Cece a sleeping pill and that he would be there soon to check on her.

“She’s resting,” she told us all before turning to Detective Baylor. “You’ll let the doctor in when he gets here, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

She nodded and sat down beside me.

Scott got on the phone to call a lawyer because he had to go to the police station and be there when his father was arraigned, and post whatever bail was needed. He was the man of the house now.

“Call me with news as soon as you have it,” he told Chris, who was still standing beside him.

He nodded, squeezed Scott’s arm, and then let him go. I was surprised when Scott took hold of my shoulder as he walked by. And I understood. He loved Landry, he did, but he also loved his family, and his father was still part of it. He needed to handle all the business, both legal and otherwise. I understood all of that and held no resentment toward Scott for doing his duty to his father. I just wanted Landry.

I trembled hard, but there was no sound and no tears.

“You’ll get him back,” Conrad promised me for the second time that day.

I prayed he was right.

I SAT still and silent, listening as things whirled around me. I heard the detective give exact directions to Mr. Carter’s hunting cabin as Chris gave them to him. He gave them longitude and latitude, and I sat. I heard the radio and hard-soled shoes slapping over marble and wood and saw people moving out of the corner of my eye. There was the blast of a siren, the calming voice of the lead detective, and Jocelyn squeezing my hand at different intervals. She sat shivering beside me until I took pity on her and put an arm around her shoulders. Another half hour passed, and Conrad sat down and put an arm around me, hand on the side of my head as I tried to breathe. His presence, the strength in the man, how solid he was—I would never be able to thank him enough.

No one said anything; what would we have said?

The detective walked in after what felt like days, and we were all on our feet.