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on Frank, call me. I’d like to know that situation is dealt with tonight too.”
    â€œI will.”
    Luke heard Caroline move from the study to look in the kitchen drawers by the phone. “Let me call you at the bottom of the hour from the interstate.” Luke hung up and then used Caroline’s list and dialed one more number.
    â€œBenton sheriff’s office. May I help you?”
    â€œThis is FBI Special Agent Luke Falcon. I need to speak with the sheriff. It’s urgent.”

Chapter Six
    L uke kept the car air conditioner on to make it easier to stay alert. Caroline leaned forward in the passenger seat, the shoulder seat belt pulled tight, scanning the opposite lanes of traffic going back into Atlanta. “If they are off the road, it’s hard to see across the lanes.”
    â€œWe’ll go as far as Sandy Hill, turn around and drive back toward Atlanta in those lanes as they would have done,” Luke replied. The speeds were picking up and the hour was growing late. It would only take one driver with a bit too much to drink to cause a horrific accident. “If we don’t find something between Sandy Hill and Atlanta, we’ll search the stretch from Sandy Hill to Benton.”
    â€œI should have called you hours before. In the dark, this is impossible.”
    â€œWe’ll stop at pull offs and show the photos around. Benjamin is not going to make an hour-plus journey at the start of his vacation without one stop for a soda, a restroom break, and an ice cream cone.”
    He didn’t add that staff at rest stops had probably changed shifts, that a mom with a young boy was the norm, that Benjamin had likely changed from the clothes Caroline remembered from school before leaving home. Finding them on this road was a long shot; it was just better odds than the next option on his mental list.
    â€œWhat do you think happened?”
    Luke glanced at the dashboard clock. 10:05. Caroline had waited longer than he expected before asking the question. He didn’t plan to tell her what he thought. She was definitely in the civilian side of the world, and the law enforcement answers would just turn her pallor a deeper gray. “I don’t know, Caroline. Right now we have too few precious facts.”
    She went quiet for too long for his comfort. He glanced her way. “Tell me about this month,” he asked.
    â€œWhat do you want to know?”
    He just wanted her talking rather than brooding. “Start somewhere and catch me up on what’s been going on with everyone this last month. Has anything unusual happened?”
    â€œNot like last fall, if that’s what you’re really asking.”
    Her fast reaction told him a lot about how last fall still stung in her memories. “As I said at the time—the only reputation you’ve got with me is that you notice things. And frankly, right now I’m hoping you’ve got a really good memory as well.”
    She shifted in the seat. “Sharon had her first patient who gave birth to triplets. She’s carrying photos around like she was the one to deliver them. I think Mark was in Atlanta a couple times to meet with his partners, but otherwise he was working out of the Benton office. Benjamin has been talking about the tree house Mark is helping him design and anticipating seeing the Braves game this weekend.”
    â€œAnyone new around their place? A handyman, a landscaper?”
    â€œNo. Mark and Sharon have been talking about starting work on the pool they want to add to the house, but they haven’t done more than Mark developing the blueprint for it. Mark hired a couple new people at his office, and I think Sharon hired another nurse.”
    Luke glanced over at Caroline. She’d about circled the top of her Styrofoam cup with fingernail marks, and the cup was going back around for a second circle of impressions. “You’ve got a good memory for details; it