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A couple of hours and a bag of sandwiches after filling up, Jim’s pickup was headed—southeast? Adam had lost track—on a state road, paralleling one of the many branches of the Potomac River. Adam found the sight of the water calming, stretching almost from the road’s shoulder to a steep bank on the other side. Sometimes deciduous trees, pale and naked silhouettes against the reddish-brown leaf litter, crowded the shore. Other times, a sheer rock face drew Adam’s attention, and once even a cave, low down near the water line.
As his mind calmed, questions floated to the surface. “Why would Danny take a child?” Adam asked. “It seems crazy that he’d grow up to take a child, after being kidnapped himself.”
“You may have hit the nail right on the head—crazy,” Teddy said. “Being raised by V
