said she was in a hurry and had merely parked along the curb in front of the house before running inside. The direction her car was facing would have given her son a clear view of the Parkers’ front yard.
“Where’s your son now?”
“He’s taking a nap. I just laid him down when the other detective left,” she said apprehensively, the frown lines deepening in her face.
“Please, bring him down here. I need to talk to him.”
Melissa initially looked like she wanted to argue, but apparently decided against it.
I was good at interviewing children. My years spent investigating juvenile sex crimes required me to interview hundreds of them. If Melissa’s son, Austin, saw anything today while he was waiting in the car, I would find out what. Hearing the cries of a small child, I sympathized with Melissa for a brief moment, knowing what a horror it is to wake a four-year-old in the middle of a nap, an act that would leave the child crying and whining for the rest of the day.
Coop was right. Austin Brewer was adorable, with brown hair and large brown eyes, which he was rubbing furiously. His round, chubby face was scrunched up, and his fists were clenched, not happy that his dreams of teddy bears, candy, and puppies were interrupted. Melissa set Austin down in front of me, and I bent over so I could be at his eye level.
“Hi, Austin. My name is CeeCee, and I’m a police officer. I’m sorry I had to wake you up from your nap. You were pretty tired, weren’t you?”
He nodded slightly, while grabbing on to Melissa’s pant leg. I took my badge off my waistband and offered it to him.
“Here’s my badge. Do you want to hold it?”
Austin stayed in the safety zone of his mother’s legs for a few minutes before reaching out and taking the badge. He broke out into a smile while he looked at it.
“Now, Austin, I have a very important job for you, and, if you’re okay with it, I’ll pin my badge on your shirt and make you an honorary police officer. What you’ll have to do is go into the other room with me and help us catch a bad guy. Would you like that?”
“What’s oniwary?” he asked.
“Hon-or-ary. It means you would be a very special little policeman.”
“Okay!” He nodded furiously.
He was thrilled. He threw my badge back at me, puffed out his chest, and pulled his shirt out, wanting his badge. After I pinned the badge on Austin’s shirt, I made him hold up his hand while I swore him in as the youngest police officer in history.
With Melissa’s permission, Austin and I headed into the family room and sat on the floor in front of his toy police cars and fire trucks. I began asking Austin all the familiar questions to make him comfortable with me: “What’s your favorite television show? What’s your favorite toy?” These were a few. I noticed a pack of crayons on a play picnic table near us, which I grabbed for my next series of questions. I held up each crayon and asked Austin to tell me the colors. Then I let him color on a blank piece of paper nearby. After that, I asked him to count to the highest number he could, which was twelve. Then I felt confident to start asking Austin about the disappearance of Hanna Parker.
“Austin, do you remember when Mommy forgot your book bag today before preschool?”
“Yup—she was drivin’ fast!”
“When Mommy went inside to get your book bag and left you in the car, do you remember seeing anyone outside?”
“Jus’ Hanna.”
My heart began to beat a little faster as I crawled closer to Austin and took his right hand.
“Austin, do you remember what Hanna was doing when you saw her?”
“She was playin’ with the mailman,” he said, pulling his hand from mine and picking up a red crayon to color a picture of a fire truck.
The mailman? At first I was shocked until I realized what Austin was saying.
“Austin, do you mean he had a uniform on?”
“Yup, the mailman.”
I grabbed the dark blue, light blue, and gray crayons from the pack and held them up.
“Do any of these crayons look like the color of the mailman’s uniform?”
He looked up from his impending masterpiece, irritated that I had interrupted his creative streak. He quickly grabbed the light blue crayon from my hand and shoved it forward.