“I don’t know. Something about the way he stood. That’s what I saw on the playground. It was him. I know it was.”
“So you did recognize him.”
“I’m sure now. I know I wasn’t quite sure at first.”
“You were scared.”
“Well…yeah.” He gulped.
“It’s okay to be scared, sweetie,” Jade soothed. “You’ve been through a lot.”
“No,” he said. “I don’t want to be scared. I don’t want to be scared anymore.”
“You don’t have to be,” Talon said. “The bad men who hurt you are gone, and I won’t let anyone else hurt you. I promise.”
That was a huge promise to make, but I had no doubt my brother meant every word he said to his son. If Cade Booker was indeed the person who had spooked Dale at the playground, he’d better not cross paths with Talon.
Or Joe, for that matter.
Or Ryan or Bryce.
Or me.
He’d put us all through enough.
“Is there anything else you want to tell us?” Ruby asked. “Remember, the more information we have, the more likely it is we can find this guy.”
“I can’t say how I recognized him,” Dale said. “I just know it was him. The guy who watched. He was the same. And he was watching.”
Ruby nodded. “Dale, there’s one other thing.”
“What?”
“You said you used to collect rocks.”
“Yeah.”
“Where is your rock collection? Your mom and dad said they couldn’t find it at your old house.”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t as interested after a while. It was kind of a little kid thing.”
“But you recognized the snowflake obsidian we found outside the playground.”
“Yeah. I had one like it. Most of my rocks were polished. I had a polisher of my own for a while, but when I stopped using it…” He paused a few seconds. “I think my mom sold it at a garage sale. She asked me if it was okay, and I said sure.”
“So you had stopped collecting rocks?” Ruby asked.
“Yeah. It was a little kid thing, you know?”
I smiled. Was it really this simple? “Did you sell your collection at the garage sale?” I asked.
He smiled. Smiled! For the second time since he’d been here. “Who would want to buy a bunch of dumb rocks?”
“Didn’t you say people carried rocks for good luck?”
“That’s what my mom used to tell me. I don’t really believe it. I don’t believe in good luck anymore.”
Silence for a few seconds. Not one of us knew how to respond to that.