Henry was fairly pleased with my progress so far and didn’t hold back on the praise, which was always nice.  I knew some teachers weren’t as fond of praising, but for me, I probably responded better to praise just because I hadn’t had it growing up and it felt extra special to me as a result.

“You have very good control,” he informed me as we finished practicing a mind-control technique – or protection from one.  As it turned out, somni could basically train themselves to pick up on when someone was attempting to use any sort of control on them and block it out, even if it was due to another type of magic or source than somni powers.  Henry was teaching me to recognize and deflect such attacks by trying his magic on me and having me respond accordingly.

“You’ve learned pretty much all the basics in just a few months.  There’s not a lot more I can teach you, to be honest.  You can probably figure out some more with just trial and error, because I know there’s more somni magic than what I use regularly, but there’s not too much that I use regularly that you don’t know how to do now.”  He seemed happy about this, though.  Thankfully, I knew it wasn’t just because he could get “rid” of me – Henry seemed genuinely invested in me after he knew my story and had come to like spending time with another somnus.  I figured that meant he was happy for me, even if he knew that meant we wouldn’t be spending as much time meeting up once training was complete.

“It helps a lot that you explain things so simply,” I admitted honestly.  “It’s really easy to understand.”

“Well, thank you, but I still think you have a knack for somni magic.”  He looked thoughtful.  “I kind of guessed as much when I heard you put yourself to sleep for 400 years – that kind of instinctual magic, when you didn’t even know you had that magic, and then maintaining it automatically?  That’s pretty impressive.  It speaks to a natural inclination for somni magic, maybe.  I’m not sure, exactly, but that’s what I’d go with.”

“I’d still rather not put myself to sleep again by accident if I get in danger,” I admitted wryly.  We were leaving his office now, and I stopped in my tracks, a thought occurring to me as I saw sheets of paper that reminded me of the birth certificate Dana had given me after I woke up.

“Question, unrelated to this, if it’s okay?”  When I received a nod – along with a raised eyebrow – in response, I continued with my question.  “If someone came in and said they had a kid and needed paperwork for it, would you, uh, look into whether the kid is theirs?  Or how would people even get fake paperwork for kids?”

His eyebrow remained raised.  “Planning on smuggling kids into town?”

I felt embarrassed and rushed to explain.  “No, it’s just – my friend’s neighbor’s kid got kidnapped.  A human kid.  We were trying to think of any way to help figure out what happened, and I just wondered if someone took them and it wasn’t a predator, they’d need proper paperwork at some point.  How would they get that?  Would anyone verify their claim that the kid was theirs?”

Henry’s face filled with understanding, but he took a moment to think before responding.  “Supernaturals, well, we’re used to having to deal with paperwork changes.  For supernatural kids, yes, we do try to confirm that the kids belong to the parents, but I’ll admit, if they have the proper paperwork from where they used to live, the kids look like the parents, and everyone is acting normal?”  He shrugged.  “We probably won’t really investigate.  We can’t investigate every single family that comes through, it’s just not practical.  But we know to keep an eye out for warning signs, like the kids being afraid of talking or the parents talking for them all the time.  That sort of stuff.  If we have even the slightest red flag, we do try to at least refer it to the supernatural patrol to let them investigate.  The point is, we do at least report it if we have any suspicions, and try to hold up the paperwork on our end to make sure they won’t leave before the investigation is complete.

“Now, for humans….”  He tapped his fingertips against the top of the receptionist’s counter.  “It’s different.  Most humans don’t live like us and don’t have firms out there that will deliberately help them get records in place when they need to.  For humans, they have to go to forgers, most likely – black market stuff.  If you’re talking about a sophisticated human trafficking ring, they probably have someone on their payroll who can handle stuff like that.

“But if you’re not talking about a sophisticated person, then probably their best bet is to claim they moved from another country, usually in some kind of refugee situation where they can’t get their records, or to claim to be from some place whose records were destroyed and they’re trying to get new records.  Sometimes it happens – a fire or flood or something in records and suddenly there’s a new opportunity for certain people to try to get fake records by claiming theirs were destroyed there.  It can be difficult to prove that they weren’t, and sometimes people just go with it if the claim sounds reasonable.  But also, most people may not even need records on their kids until they’re trying to enroll them in school or something.  So if the kid is young enough and the kidnapper doesn’t plan on enrolling them, it could be a few years before someone needs to look at records for the kids.  If they then claim their records were destroyed, they might have lived with the kid for a few years by then and the kid behaves normally, neighbors know who they are, and all that – if they did look into it, it probably wouldn’t look suspicious.”

I sighed heavily.  “Well, it’s was a thought.  You said you have friends in records, right?  Any chance they can look into that for us?  Just in case?  It might be a long shot, but it could be a kid’s life at stake here.”

He thought about it, then shrugged.  “Sure, why not?  It’s not the normal thing we deal with, but you’re right, even if it’s a human kid, they don’t deserve to be kidnapped from their family.  They’re probably terrified.  If there’s anything at records that looks like a possibility, I’ll let you know,” he promised.  “I hope it works out, Nicolas.  I hope they’re able to find the kid.”

“Me too,” I said softly.  “Me too.”

~~~~

“I had a thought.”  Rhys took out a piece of paper, unfolded it, and set it on the table.  Bonnie looked at it with interest.

“I don’t have access to the police files,” he explained, “but I do have access to court records – family court and other courts in the city.  If we assume Nicky’s idea that the kidnapper isn’t a predator is correct and that the person just wanted the kid for some reason of their own, then maybe this isn’t their first offense.  They must have another kid helping them, right?  So maybe they kidnapped that kid, too.  So I looked for any cases like that, but I couldn’t find any that seemed like possibilities.  However,” he pointed to the piece of paper, “I found something else interesting.  Last month a woman in the same area of town had her kid removed by social services because, well, neglect is the kindest way to put it.  The kid was about four years old, the same age as the missing kid, and he did play at some of the parks in the area – that’s how people noticed the shape he was in and reported his mother to authorities.  He would have played at that park, from what I could tell.  And more to the point, he was about the same height and had the same hair color and length as the girl who’s missing.”

“Some people can have psychotic breaks when they lose their children, whether from death or having them removed,” Dana said thoughtfully.  “What if this lady is basically trying to find her kid?  She sees a kid who looks similar, thinks it’s hers, and manages to get it – presumably using another kid to help her.  I assume she doesn’t have any other kids or they would have been removed, too?”

Rhys shook his head.  “No other kids.  Apparently this kid was a bit of a miracle as it was – she’d tried to conceive for years and hadn’t been able to.  Then her husband died soon after his birth, which resulted in psychological issues and the neglect of the kid.  If it’s her, she’s not a bad person, she’s just…not right in her head.”

Lola frowned in thought.  “Would she be able to get some of the neighbor kids who knew her to help out?  Maybe the neighbors don’t know why her kid was taken so they don’t realize she’s potentially a risk to have around them?  She could have asked a random neighbor kid to help her and the kid might not even realize they’ve done anything wrong.”

“It’s a lot of speculation,” Bonnie said slowly, “but it sounds like a reasonable thought, right?  If we told the police, would they look into it?”

Rhys sighed.  “Most likely not.  They’re convinced it’s a human trafficking ring, from what I can tell, so they’re not even looking in the right direction.  If we come to them and tell them their entire theory is wrong, at best they might humor us, but they probably wouldn’t do a real investigation.”

Lola shrugged.  “Fine, then we will.  We’ll do our own investigation.  Okay, so we don’t have a shifter who can just walk into the house – Bonnie, why couldn’t you be a more useful shifter? – but we can still figure it out.  Find some way to distract the lady and break in.  I can guarantee you I can get into the house – banshee screams can break any locks, though don’t worry, I’ll try to keep it down.”

Bonnie looked mildly put out by Lola’s teasing comment, while Dana looked surprisingly unbothered by the fact that her daughter was suggesting breaking and entering.

“Do you think there’s a way we can take advantage of us not being police?”  Dana asked hesitantly.  “Not just not needing warrants, but, you know, police would arrest the woman if she turns out to be a kidnapper, butI’m assuming in prison she probably wouldn’t really get the psychological help she needs.  Not if this was all caused by losing her husband and then her child.  She needs help, not prison.”

Rhys seemed to agree with the idea that the woman wouldn’t get help in prison, but I looked over at Bonnie, concerned.

“You know this family the best and I feel like if we did figure out a way to send the woman somewhere she could get help rather than get her arrested, you’d be the one who would bear any potential risk in that, if your neighbors ever discovered you knew the identity of the kidnapper and didn’t report her.”

Bonnie tilted her head to one side in thought.  “You know,” she said after a pause, “my first instinct is that the woman should pay for her crimes, except I think Dana’s right – in this instance, if we’re right about what’s going on, she doesn’t even realize she’s doing anything wrong.  She thinks she’s just getting her own kid back.  Besides, I think we can arrange this so no one ever knows we were involved.”

She looked around the table, her organization hat clearly in place.  “I’ll shift and run around near her house.  That should cause a distraction – even if people don’t recognize what I am, they’ll see some medium-sized animal running around and hopefully that’ll be enough to draw most of the attention.  Meanwhile, Lola and Nicky can sneak into the lady’s apartment.  Nicky, if the girl’s there, you need to hypnotize her immediately so she won’t remember any of us.  You two can then smuggle her out of the apartment and Lola can get her back near her home and let her go.  She should remember being kidnapped but given her age and all, it’s doubtful that the police could track down the location where she was held.  She’d just remember a strange lady and the apartment.  At least, that’s what I’m hoping.  Meanwhile, Nicky comes back, and Dana and Nicky wait in the apartment for the lady.  Dana, you can, um, interview her?  Make sure we’re right in our assessment of why she kidnapped the kid and all, because if she did it for other reasons, then we just need to call the police.  If we are right, Nicky, you can convince people to engage in some activities, right?  Like you could plant an idea in her head that she really needs psych help and that she should go get some?”

I paused to think it through, but nodded.  “Yeah, we can implant ideas.  Henry did warn me that it’s harder with people whose brains aren’t functioning normally, and if she is suffering a psychotic break, my magic might not work as well on her, but I can at least try.”

“If nothing else,” Dana mused, “Nicky should be able to create a memory potion that would include the kid and us, so at least she wouldn’t remember the kid.  Potion magic should still work on her.”

I was kind of surprised when she called me by the nickname Lola generally called me, but then, I kind of liked it and maybe she realized that with Rhys and Bonnie calling me Nicky, too, it wasn’t just a Lola-and-me thing that she didn’t want to intrude upon.

“Is that too much pressure on you?”  Bonnie asked me nervously.  “That’s a lot we’re asking you to do.”

To be honest, I was kind of happy that they were counting on me for stuff – for more than just running errands, anyway.  “No, it’s fine.  I can’t guarantee I can help the lady, but the backup memory potion should at least do something.”

“I know a place you can recommend to her to go,” Rhys’s deep voice rumbled.  “There’s a women’s shelter that offers free counseling to its clients and low-cost services to other people in need.  She should be able to afford it, if she can afford her housing and all.”

He gave Bonnie a questioning look.  “What do you want me to do while all this is going on?”

“Help me,” she answered.  “Well, keep a lookout for me.  If you see animal control showing up to sedate me, I’d really rather avoid all that, so I just need you to come up with a different distraction if that happens.”

He thought about it, then nodded.  “I can do that.”

“I’m worried about the girl,” Bonnie murmured.  “She’s been gone three days by now and this woman’s own child was removed for neglect.  Putting aside how terrified the little girl must be, if she’s not getting food and water right now, she could be in serious danger.  At least Dana will be there to give her a quick once-over before we get her out of the apartment – assuming she’s there, I mean.”

Dana agreed to that idea readily.

“If we do this right,” Bonnie announced, “no one should know we were involved, the kid gets back to her parents, and the woman gets the help she needs.  The only unhappy ending is the police not knowing what’s going on,” she shrugged, “but I think I can live with that.  So we’re all on board with this?  Everyone’s willing to stick their neck out and engage in kind of illegal activities to help this little girl?”

We all glanced at each other, but no one seemed the slightest bit concerned.  Almost as one, we nodded and looked back at Bonnie.

“Let’s do this,” Lola answered, a gleam in her eye.