Alice went to work groggy, with bags under her eyes. On the bright side, she’d been lucky enough to find an apartment within walking distance to the police station, making her commute simple. The walk helped wake her up, but that wouldn’t stop her from craving some coffee once she got there. Skyscrapers flanked her on either side as she walked on the sidewalk, weaving around the hustle and bustle of others going to work.

Alice lived and worked in Saint Vivia, a bustling American city with a rich history. In addition to the more modern skyscrapers, one could find plenty of older stone buildings with classical, almost gothic designs. As Alice walked, she could see a couple of those older buildings with arched windows, decorative spires, and even stained glass windows on a few. The closer she got to the police station, the more of these buildings appeared beside her.

Soon Alice saw it on her left, the Saint Vivia Police Department, or SVPD. It was one of the older buildings in the city, almost resembling a smaller Notre Dame Cathedral. It had huge arched windows, columns in front of the entrance, and stone gargoyles decorating the roof above. In hindsight it the gargoyles seemed rather ominous for a place meant to project safety, Alice thought as she looked up momentarily. Still, it had been built decades ago. Maybe monstrous forms seemed comforting back then.

Inside the building, she found the lobby, with more columns holding up the roof and the stone walls giving the place a medieval feeling, even as police officers went about their business. Alice said hi to the officer working at the receptionist desk, a plumb blonde woman named Carla. She said the obligatory hellos to other officers before finally reaching the common area where the officer’s desks were. Gary was at his computer already. He always got there early, and a familiar scent in the air told her that Gary had already prepared coffee for them.

“Hey, Alice,” he said. “Coffee’s on your desk.”

“Thanks,” she replied.

It was a simple routine, but it worked.

She sat down at her desk, took a moment to take the thermal cover off the coffee mug, took a sip, and so the day began. With their current case, they had already interviewed every person related over the past week. At the moment, Alice went over the witness testimonies while Gary reviewed footage from street cameras in the area. So far, they hadn’t turned up anything.

They worked for a while, and a few hours passed. For a moment, Alice mused that she used to think of police work as exciting and dangerous when she was younger. It wasn’t until she became one that she learned just how mundane it could be at times. The sheer amount of paperwork alone was staggering. Even the act of solving cases involved scanning documents, photos, and video footage for hours at a time. The job could be genuinely dangerous when they encountered a criminal who wouldn’t go quietly, but even so, a police detective’s job wasn’t without its share of monotony.

“Hey,” said Gary. “I got something.”

Alice stepped up from her desk to look over Gary’s shoulder.

“Remember that car we saw?” Said Gary, pointing at the screen.

She did. Street cam footage showed a car going into a back alley at the time of Kenny Halsen’s disappearance. The car had tinted windows in the back, so it was a likely vehicle for a kidnapping. The camera angle Gary had pulled up showed the driver, a man in a trench coat with a thick beard. They didn’t have a positive ID on him, nor did they have a clear view of the back seat, but then Gary let the footage play. He drove down the street for a moment, but then he pulled back what proved to be a fake beard, scratching his chin aggressively. His real face was only visible for a moment, but Alice thought she recognized it.

“Go back and freeze it.”

Gary complied, and she took a good look at the man’s clean shaven face. Despite the small window of time that he’d exposed himself, Alice recognized him.

“Ron Halsen, the Uncle,” she said, an incredulous look on her face. “I can’t believe you caught that. He only took the fake beard off for a second.”

“I almost missed it,” said Gary. “But it’s him. Clearly, he was lying about being on the other side of town, and he’s someone the boy might trust enough to get into a car with him.”

“So,” said Alice. “That’s obstruction of justice for lying to police and probable cause to suspect him of kidnapping. I’ll call the judge’s office to see if we can get a couple of warrants.”

Once they got an arrest warrant and a search warrant, Gary and Alice drove to Ron Halsen’s home with several other police officers. Alice and Gary drove an unmarked Sedan while the officers drove vehicles marked with SVPD. They also had a social worker who would wait in the car, a young blonde woman in a suit with a kind expression on her face who rode with Officer’s Johnson and Logan. It was standard procedure for kidnapping cases to have someone with proper training to take care of the child and give them any support they might need.

Of course, that depended on whether or not they found the child.

Ron Halsen lived in the forest area just outside the city, in a white, country style cottage with immaculate décor. It had possibly the longest driveway Alice had ever seen, just past a fence and gate of iron spokes topped with arrowheads. The land was decorated with lush trees, including a weeping willow to the left of the house. It was quite a lavish setup, Alice thought. The officers drove up, stepped out of their vehicles, and walked up to the gate.

“Oh yeah,” said Gary as they opened the gate. “This place just screams kidnapper.”

“Appearances can be deceiving,” said Alice.

“Yeah, that’s what worries me. That and the fact that I don’t see the car from the footage anywhere nearby.”

“One thing at a time, Gary.”

They reached the front door after a long walk, and one of the uniformed officers knocked on the door. The door was opened by a middle aged man in a golf shirt and jeans. Up close, it was easier to discern his sharp chin, receding hairline, and the timid expression on his face. He was completely distraught as he was arrested and vehemently denied kidnapping Kenny. Alice had to admit he didn’t look like the criminal type, but as she’d said, appearances could be deceiving. They’d arrested plenty of people who didn’t seem the criminal type only for evidence to prove it. Only time would tell if this was the case this time.

Soon Alice and Gary joined the other officers, and the search was underway. The inside of the house was as immaculate as the inside, with wood grain furniture and a full bar in the kitchen. A cursory examination of the house and all its rooms turned up no sign of Kenny or any child for that matter. They checked the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the laundry room, the basement, and even the attic, but still, they found nothing. Either he wasn’t there, or the Uncle had hidden him exceptionally well.

After a few minutes of searching, they still hadn’t turned anything up. The officers kept looking, attempting to find some hidden room or something that wouldn’t be obvious. Alice found herself at the threshold of the house, looking around. Ron Halsen didn’t own any other property, so her gut was telling her that Kenny had to be here. Standing there, she took a deep breath and made a mental image of the house in her mind. She tried to think of all the places someone could hide a child but couldn’t think of anywhere they hadn’t already checked. She was beginning to think that something else was going on.

And then something about the layout of the house struck her as odd.

She moved to the hallway in the back and took a look inside the bathroom, she got a sense of its size, and then she went back into the hallway and looked at the wall there. Considering the layout, she realized what was bothering her.

“Hey, Gary,” said Alice, and when he came up, she said, “Hey, am I right, or is there enough room between the bathroom wall and the living room for another room right here?”

Gary, surprised, went to take a quick look in the bathroom and came back quickly, looking at the same wall.

“Yeah,” said Gary. “I think you’re right.”

They took a closer look at the wall, one with white paint, matching the décor, with one exception. It was slightly whiter than the rest of the paint in the house.

"This wall,” said Gary.

“Yeah,” she replied. “The paint is brand new, and I don’t see any other wall with paint like this. That doesn’t prove the wall itself is new, but if I were going to hide a room, putting up a new wall would be how I’d do it.”

Alice then put her ear to it and knocked. Sure enough, the area beyond sounded hollow.

“Should we get the fire department to tear it down?” asked Gary.

“No, He’d need another way to get into the room, one that he could hide easily.”

They looked around, and then Gary looked up.

“Let’s take another look in the attic,” he said.

Moments later, they were stooped low and walking carefully through the attic. Various things were littered around like golf clubs, Christmas and Halloween decorations, old electronics that were probably broken, and other things. They went to stand right over where a secret room would be if Alice’s theory were correct. They examined the wood there carefully, and then Gary found something. There was a line where the wood was cut. Feeling around with his hands, he found a place to slip his fingers under the wood, hidden behind a vertical support beam and thus easy to miss if you didn’t know where to look. He was able to lift a section of the wood and toss it away, revealing a trapdoor.

“Just how long had he been planning this?” asked Gary.

“Don’t ask me,” Alice replied.

They opened the trapdoor and discovered stairs leading into a dark room, and it was then that they heard gagged breathing.

“There,” said Alice quickly, rushing down the stairs. They found a light switch and turned it on. In that light, they found a bare room with no furnishings and a single bed. Kenny Halsen lay on the bed, tied and gagged. When he saw them, he struggled, his face filled with fear. Alice noted a few bruises on his face.

“It’s okay,” said Alice, putting her hands up and approaching slowly. “We’re police.” She pulled her badge out to show him, keeping her movements slow. “We’re here to help. We’re going to untie you and reunite you with your mother real soon, okay?”

The boy stopped struggling. Though he was obviously still afraid, he let her get close and begin untying him. They soon had him untied and led him up the stairs, out of the attic, and then out of the house. As they took him to the police cars, Alice noticed that Kenny was shivering and took off her jacket, wrapping it around the boy’s shoulders. She also took a deep breath, grateful that they’d achieved the best possible outcome from this.

Soon they were back at the station, where Alice and Gary took turns interrogating Ron Halsen. When they mentioned that Kenny had been found, he got very quiet and wouldn’t answer many questions. They did figure out that the car he used was a rental. He simply removed the license plate during the kidnapping and returned it once the deed was done.

As they got out of the interrogation, they walked through the halls back to their desks.

“I just don’t understand it,” said Gary. “What makes a person do that to their own family?”

“Honestly,” said Alice. “I don’t care. Let him give his excuses to a jury if he ever comes up with one. The kid’s safe now. That’s what matters.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

As they approached the desks, they saw Kenny and the social worker taking care of him sitting in a corner. The young woman spoke to Kenny in a calm, soothing voice. Alice and Gary sat down and began filling out their paperwork. She’d almost rather take care of the kid herself rather than fill out paperwork, but doubted she’d be able to keep it up that long. And so, fill out paperw ork she did.

It wasn’t long before their busywork was interrupted as Kenny’s Mother was escorted into the building. At the sight of the middle aged woman, Kenny shouted, “Mommy!” and ran into her arms. As she embraced her son, sobbing with joy, Alice looked on, and the barest hint of a smile showed at the corner of her mouth.

“Kind of makes the job worthwhile, doesn’t it?” said Gary.

As she saw Kenny leave with his mother, the pair of them still crying with happiness, Alice genuinely smiled.

“Yeah,” she said. “It kind of does. Nice job today, Officer Fraisier.”

“Not so bad yourself,” he replied with a grin. “Officer Hayes.”

As Alice got home that night, she entered her apartment, stretching to work out the knots in her arms. She was feeling pretty good tonight for obvious reasons. As Alice walked through her living room, she spotted the family pictures she had on the wall. She saw her father in his military uniform with a pleasant smile on his face. Her brother was there, with a big dopey grin on his face. Finally, her mother was there as well, with a kind look on her face. These pictures called forth both happy memories and sad ones.

Feeling a sudden urge, she took out her phone and scrolled through her contacts to her mother, listed simply as mom.

Putting the phone to her ear, she got voicemail, and it occurred to her that her mother went to her book club that night. She went ahead with the call anyway.

“Hey, mom,” said Alice after the beep. “It’s Alice. I know I don’t call much, but I thought we could meet up later. You know, have a mother daughter day when I have time off? I know you’ll probably have something to say about not calling and about how I haven’t been to church in a while. I know you worry about me. I just…wanted you to know that I’m doing alright. We found a missing child today. You should have seen when he was reunited with his mother. It was…it was something alright. Anyway, we can meet up later. Love you.”

She hung up.

The next day Alice got to the office and immediately had a new case. This time it was a homicide. As she and Gary drove to the crime scene, Alice noted that this was kind of odd. Saint Vivia City had a typically low crime rate. Having two extreme cases like a kidnapping and a homicide happen back to back was rare, though not unheard of.

In this case, a man was found dead in a cabin, once again in the woods outside town. Alice and Gary drove up to find patrol officers already at the scene. The cabin itself looked old, built from unpainted wood and lacking any decorations. This was the kind of place where one lived to just be in nature. It was charming in its own way, or so Alice thought.

“What have we got?” asked Gary.

One of the officers, officer Johnson to be specific, answered. He was a chubby man with a thick beard, and he had a serious look on his face as he spoke.

“Adult male, found alone in his house. Been there for at least a day. He’s been ID’ed as Frederick Benjamin. It’s a weird one, sir. Someone cut the power to the house.”

Alice caught that. There was something familiar about a crime scene with the power cut, but she quickly dismissed the comparison. There were plenty of reasons for someone to cut the power before attempting a murder. It was probably just a coincidence.

“Funny thing is,” the officer continued. “I can’t figure out why. I don’t see any signs of a struggle.”

That sounded even more similar. Alice frowned, waiting for him to continue.

“And the victim,” he continued. “He’s unnaturally pale, even for a dead body.”

And Alice could practically feel her heart in her throat.

“Show me,” she said.

The officer led them into the cabin. Inside, it was dark, as true to the officer’s word, the lights were out. Alice could just make out the stuffed animal heads decorating the walls. Hunting trophies, no doubt.

She also noticed that there were black curtains everywhere, and brushing next to one confirmed that they’d been installed recently. They were just a little too clean. The other officers probably hadn’t given them much thought. Why would they? To Alice, though, they were very significant.

“Alice?” asked Gary, noticing her studying the curtains.

“I’m coming,” said Alice.

Then she got into the kitchen where the body was located. It was an older man with greying hair wearing a hunting jacket and jeans. A camo baseball cap lay above his head, fallen off. He was eerily pale, a sight Alice found disturbingly familiar. Flies buzzed around the poor man’s head, and she could just see the first signs of decay beginning. Despite how pale his skin was, she couldn’t see a single blood vessel in his skin, which was another detail that stuck out. Alice got some rubber gloves from one of the other officers, knelt, and pulled back the collar of his hunting jacket.

And as expected, there were two bloodless puncture wounds right at the corner of his neck. There was no mistaking it. It was the same type of wound that the Baxter family had worn all those years ago.

It’s him, Alice thought. It’s the one who took my brother.

Her hand clenched into a fist.