Chapter 3 - The First Test
Police asked Claire not to call Ethan Thomas yet.
She ignored them emotionally, if not verbally.
She bought him clothes.
Shoes.
A toothbrush.
He chose navy blue.
Thomas’s favorite color.
He hated tomatoes.
Thomas had hated tomatoes.
He slept with closet light on.
Thomas had been afraid of dark closets.
Coincidence accumulated until coincidence began looking like memory.
Then Detective Rebecca Sloan arrived with first problem.
Ethan’s age.
Dental examination estimated between nine and ten.
Thomas would be nine years, seven months.
Perfectly possible.
But Ethan had an old healed fracture in right wrist.
Thomas had never broken wrist before disappearance.
That proved nothing about six missing years.
More interesting was vaccination history.
Ethan had received medical care somewhere.
Someone had raised him.
Not continuously homeless.
Claire asked:
“Can you remember a doctor?”
Ethan shook head.
“Anything?”
“A green bird on wall.”
Detective searched databases.
Hundreds of pediatric offices used bird imagery.
Then Ethan looked at Claire.
“You had green birds too.”
Claire frowned.
“Where?”
“In bathroom.”
Claire went still.
Thomas’s nursery bathroom had wallpaper with tiny green birds.
Renovated after disappearance.
No public photographs existed.
Lily watched her mother become convinced.
That night Lily entered Ethan’s room.
“Show me map.”
“What map?”
“The one under pillow.”
Gone.
Ethan smiled.
“You dream a lot.”
“I didn't dream it.”
“You probably saw something else.”
Lily disliked way he said it.
Not angry.
Patient.
As though teaching her to doubt herself.
Then Ethan reached beneath mattress and produced blue ribbon.
Lily’s ribbon.
She touched ponytail.
One ribbon missing.
“Why do you have that?”
“You dropped it.”
“Where?”
“Alley.”
She had not.
She was sure.
Ethan handed it back.
“You should be more careful.”
Later Claire found Lily crying.
“He's lying.”
“About what?”
“The map.”
Claire knelt.
“Lily, he's been through things we don't understand.”
“He knew I'd go there.”
Claire’s face tightened.
“Don't say that.”
“Why?”
“Because your brother may finally be home.”
May.
Lily noticed word.
Claire still knew uncertainty existed.
Then DNA laboratory called.
Preliminary kinship result was unusual.
Ethan was definitely biologically related to someone in Claire’s submitted family reference set.
Claire nearly collapsed with relief.
But technician stopped her.
They could not yet establish mother-son relationship.
There was contamination or mixed historical reference issue.
A full direct comparison with Claire was underway.
Claire whispered:
“So he could be Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“Could he be unrelated?”
A pause.
“Not entirely unrelated.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
Ethan looked frightened.
May you like
But Lily noticed his right hand inside pocket.
His fingers were crossed.
