“I wish I could. That was one of the first things to go for me when things started to get bad. I’m feeling a lot stronger now, but I still can’t seem to tap into the things I used to.”

Jessica cupped her hands around her mouth. “Alice! Jason! Where are you? Meet us in front of the house so we can play!”

Eddie rubbed his ears. “And you’re a human dog whistle. I didn’t know your voice went that high.”

“You should hear me when I shout stranger danger. I was top of my class in second grade when they gave us that lesson.”

They walked back to the house, Jessica calling out for the kids every few steps.

“You still do that whole kickboxing thing?” Eddie asked.

“When I can. It’s hard to keep up with steady lessons when you’re on the road. A lot of towns I stayed in didn’t even have a place to do it. Why? You think I’m going to need to kick some living ass?”

“I hope not.”

When they got to the house and there was still no Alice or Jason, Jessica said, “Let’s split up. You take the west end of the island, I’ll take the east. Meet me back here in five minutes.”

“It shouldn’t even take that long,” he said. She saw the concerned look on his face.

“You can still feel them?”

“Yes. They’re here. Let’s go.”

Jessica’s heart thudded in her chest. This is what Eve must have felt all those times I wandered off in department stores, she thought. For some reason when she was a very little kid, she derived great joy out of hiding within the circular racks of clothes, sending Eve into a panic. Hearing her name on the intercom only made the game more fun. Her aunt never let her forget how awful it made her feel to make Jessica one of those leash kids. The little chest harness did wonders for her mental health, but it made her feel as if she’d failed as an adoptive parent.

She heard Eddie calling their names, answering his calls with her own. Daphne was standing on the front porch when they met back at the house. A look of expectant terror crippled her normally nonchalant features.

“Where are my children?” she asked, her hands balled into tight fists.

Jessica tried to settle her nerves, breathing in enough air to speak without the words fluttering from her lips. “I don’t know. Eddie and I have been looking everywhere. Can you check the house? Maybe they’ve been inside this whole time.”

“Yes, yes, they may be in their room. They like to do puzzles or read this time of the day. Will you please keep looking for them out here?” Daphne pleaded.

As much as Jessica wanted to remain angry with Daphne for duping her into coming to the island, her about-face over the misguided setup was winning her over. God help the person who came between a mother and her children. This whole farce was a wedge that had shaken Daphne into her senses. Before they could get to the business of sabotaging Tobe and Paul’s aspirations for television greatness, they had to find the kids.

Daphne slammed the door behind her. Eddie grabbed Jessica’s wrist.

He said, “Come on, there are a couple of places we still haven’t checked.”

Daphne scurried up the stairs, ignoring everyone as they tinkered with equipment in the hallway, crying out for Jason and Alice. She ran to their room, throwing the door open with so much force that it smacked into the wall, the knob putting a sizeable dent in the plaster. Their beds were still made, books and puzzles still in the cardboard boxes where they kept them.

She checked her bedroom and the bathroom. There was no sign of them.

Tobe intercepted her before she could head downstairs. He held her arms in a tight grip. He looked pale, paler than usual. Dark circles were beginning to bloom under his eyes. Neither of them had slept much last night.

“Why are you running around like a dog searching for a ball?” he asked.

“We can’t find Alice and Jason,” she said, her breath hitching as she said their names, the burn of burgeoning tears stinging her eyes.

He held her fast as she tried to walk around him. “I think you’re overreacting, Daphne. Just a bit. It’s a small island but there are plenty of places for them to hide. They have to be somewhere. I need you to calm down. We were just about to start filming. If you came barging in here two minutes later, you would have ruined the shot.”

She stared at him, into him, with utter disbelief. Their children were missing and all he cared about was having their filming interrupted.

“How dare you,” she hissed.

“Someone has to keep a cool head. If you just calm down, I guarantee you they’ll show up. We’re on an island. There’s no one here to harm them. You’re losing sight of why we’re here in the first place. You need to snap out of it.”

Daphne jerked back, releasing herself from his grasp. The others cast their eyes elsewhere when she turned to face them, embarrassed to be witness to the domestic dispute.

“Will you help me look for them, Paul?”

Her brother stroked his beard, looked to Nina and Mitch before answering. “Sure, sis. Just give me fifteen minutes. I’m sure they’ll come running back here, hungry, before then. I just need to finish up here.”

To hell with you both! she thought as she brushed past her husband.

Paul watched his sister storm down the stairs, ripples of anger left in her wake. And now he was worried too. A part of him felt that Tobe was right. The kids were safe and sound, probably hiding from one another and everyone else in the process.

But it wasn’t like Jason and Alice to disappear like that, not so long as to make the unflappable Daphne unraveled.

“Hey, maybe I should help Daphne look for the kids. It should only take a few minutes,” he said.

Mitch sighed, ducking his eyes behind his camera when Paul turned to face him.

“That’s a good idea,” Rusty said. “I remember all the times my boys happened to lose themselves, especially during soccer games, when they were young. I swear it’s the reason I lost my hair.”

“Thanks.”

Paul headed for the stairs. His chest collided with Tobe’s unyielding hand.

“You can look for them after,” his brother-in-law said.

Paul pulled him aside. “They’re your kids, man. You should be helping too. This can wait a few minutes.”

“Actually,” Mitch interjected, “we’re losing the natural light. We should get this in the can before it’s too dark.”

Nina leaned against a closed door, an odd smirk on her face. She said, “You’re worrying for nothing. I can feel them. They’re fine.”

Tobe spread his arms wide, his smile even wider. “See, even Nina says they’re all right. Now can we all please calm down?”

Paul didn’t necessarily have the same trust in Nina’s preternatural abilities as Tobe. But there was something in his eyes that warned him against delaying things any further.

“I hope you’re right,” Paul said. He noticed Rusty’s disgust as he shook his head and walked down the hall.

You better be right, he thought. What’s the sense of resurrecting the family’s finances if something were to happen to Alice and Jason? He stood on the X taped to the floor, waiting for Mitch to give him the thumbs up.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Eddie and Jessica ran down the path to the docks. Midway through, he pointed into the brush.

“They’re in the clearing,” he said. “I can practically see them in my mind.”

Jessica crouched down, pulling aside thick branches, searching for the way in. The little passageway they had all gone through just the day before was choked with inflexible flora. “Are you frigging kidding me?” she huffed, searching for a way in.

Staring at the intertwining branches, Eddie knew this was no accident of nature. The Last Kids, maybe all of the EB children, had done this. They wanted to keep the adults out.

Or Jason and Alice in.