"You've been quiet? Everything okay?"
Erin embraced Jay who looked outside the window, watching his son sitting in front oft he lake, playing with his lego spaceship.
"Does it seem like it would be?"
He refused to be pulled in a hug.
"I made a horrible mistake. I feel really bad for it and all what your doing is to make it more worse by telling jokes and showing me what kind of irresponsible father I am. Did you just think for a second what it did to me, to see my son covered in blood sitting in the gras, crying in pain?"
Erin looked at Jay in shock. He had tears in his eys and she felt so bad for teasing him about the whole issue.
"This kid means the world to me and I wouldn't survive to loose him", he screamed at her. Erin was speechless, unable to say anything.
"How could you think that I didn't care about him?"
"Jay, I'm sorry….I."
The situation was disturbed by Terry coming in.
Alerted by the noises coming from the house, he looked at his parents in confusion.
"Are you mad at me?"
There was a long silence, while Erin wiped her tears away and Jay took a deep breath.
"No, buddy. Mom and Daddy are just having an argument. It's okay."
He denied, shaking his head and made some steps back to the door.
"No, it's not. It's all my fault."
"Nate!", Jay tried to talk to hiss on, but the grade schooler walked outside, running to the meadow, where him and Jay used to play with arrow and bow before.
"Great job", Halstead crotizised both of them, while putting the groceries into the refrigerator.
Quietly he put on his sweater, heading outside.
"I'll better look out for him", he told Erin, who just grabbed another tissue.
He already walked to the parking area, when he made a horrible discovery.
Nate wasn't there anymore...
CPDCPDCPDCPD
"Erin he's gone. I searched the whole are. All I found was this", Jay pointed at a map and foot steps in the mud , obviously coming from someone taller than their son. An empty bullet lying in the gras created horrible pictures in their minds.
Erins eyes met with the isolated part oft he lake, before she looked at the tracks again.
"What if he's drowned? Or someone abducted him? Those are new tracks. Jay, we have to do something."
Jay looked back at the cabin, before his concerned view met with the things, they found during their search.
Both adults were holding their breath, when they recognized crackles in the bushes.
Slowly Jay touched the back up gun in his pocket, one hand at the trigger before he finally pulled it out, aiming at a surprised men that held up his hands.
"Who are you?"
"I'm… Eric Myers. I'm just hunting in this area. Collecting some rare plants. I'm a hunter. Let me show you my licence", he stuttered, pulling out a small piece of paper.
Jay sighed. It was what he rode, he was allowed to work at this area.
"Excuse me sir, have you seen a little boy around here? 8 years old. Blue spiderman T-Shirt and green blue. We lost our son on the way. We're just hiking in that area", Erin lied, uncertain if she should really believe what she saw.
"Sure. But he ran away. It was like one mile from here. He seemed really angry. He was crying and I yelled at him to ask what he was doing here alone. But he ran away, said he isn't allowed to talk to strangers."
"I can show you where I've found him."
Jay faced the man with mixed feelings, but finally shook his head.
"No, we don't want to bother you. Just show me in the map", Jay requested and the man agreed.
He was looking at Erin. They only had one gun. If they would seperate, one had to stay unarmed. So, Jay made another plane.
"We've seen a lot of bears around this area. How about you keeping the gun while I'm searching for Terry", he gave Erin a meaningful glance, before he handled the weapon to her.
„Would it be possible if you could stay with my wife, until I get back?", Jay questioned, still having a really bad feeling. His feeling never fooled him. As a detective for years, he knew when a situation was dangerous.
Finally he had no choice. He didn't want to let Erin search unarmed, while he stayed with the creepy guy.
Even if he felt bad for leaving him with her.
Anxious and exhausted he walked closer into the wood.
The whole forest was around 9 hectars big and for a minute it felt like searching a needle in a haystack.
Then, a half mile later he recognoized crying. Noticing a small shadow near a wooden bothy, he started to feel reliefed.
"Terry!", he called hiss on who turned around, looking at him with crying eyes.
"Where have you been?"
"I don't know. I was lost. I felt so bad for causing you so much trouble. I thought mom and you would split up because of me. And before I could realize where I was… I walked deeper and deeper into the forest."
"Oh buddy!", Jay groaned, pulling his son into a bear hug, who was still crying on his shoulder.
"Mom and I thought someone abducted you. You know what we went through?", he kissed his forehead, before he took his hand.
"Did you meet this man too?"
"What do you mean buddy?"
Terry looked at him, scared in a way Jay had never seen him before.
"He is spooky. He was sitting on the ground, scooping."
"Scooping?"
"As he wanted burry something."
"Mom is with him."
Terry looked even more shocked at his father.
"I think he's not a nice guy. I don't know. He seemed really crazy."
"Come on, let's get back to mom. As fast as possible."