10
Sorrow and rage swirled deep within Karleen Vesper’s soul, each warring for dominance. She sat with her sister and her sister’s best friend. The friend relayed a story through halting gasps of words amid torso-wracking sobs. The friend’s six-year-old child—her sister’s goddaughter—was one of three children taken as part of the recent swell in abductions throughout the region, and the friend’s husband spoke with law enforcement across the street at the actual site of the abduction.
“I… I don’t know what the police are doing,” the friend said at last. “No one is telling the distraught little woman anything.”
That—more than anything else—tipped Karleen’s internal battle to favor rage. She spoke for the first time in over thirty minutes. “Do you want me to see what the problem is?”
The
