“I have a live one here!”

An officer came running up the stairs. I signed to him to stay back; the boy might be even more scared when he saw a police officer. By the look of it this kid was just about three years old or something like that. I’m not really an expert on the topic.

“Can you tell me your name?” I asked the boy.

He was scared and still trying to get further back into the closet. I needed to gain his trust somehow.

“Ryan,” the officer told me, “At least that’s the name that is written down on some of the pictures on the refrigerator.” I nodded and turned back to the boy.

“Is your name Ryan? That’s a beautiful name.”

Ryan nodded his head and he wiped away some tears with his hands. I wanted to pick the boy up and hug him, but I knew that it could damage the evidence.

“Ryan, I’m going to ask you a really important question, ok?”

“I want my mummy, where’s mummy?” Ryan asked Sara with a hopeful look in his eyes, and the tears still streaming down his face.

“I know you want your mummy, but first I need to know something and then we’ll go outside and try finding your mummy ok, Ryan.” He nodded and looked up at me with his bright blue eyes.

“What are you doing in the closet?” He smiled at me through his tears; his eyes became bigger as if he wanted me to know a secret.

“Hide and seek, me hide Kayla seek.” he said, then he started crying again. “Kayla didn’t find me you did, don’t know you, not allowed to talk to you.” He pointed with his index finger and laid it down on his lips. “Ssss, don’t tell I told you.”

“What’s the girls name?” I asked the officer. “Mikayla or Kayla or something like that.”

“I guess so, I don’t know.” He answered shrugging his shoulders.

“Ryan, did you see anyone else except for your sister or me or the nice gentleman over there?” I asked while I pointed at the officer.

“No, did not, Kayla told me to hide in the closet.”

Despite everything I smiled, he didn’t understand the concept of hide and seek. Kayla told him to hide in the closet and he was sitting there waiting until she found him. Which will never happen.