I remembered that two weeks earlier Owen had asked if he could leave his baseball glove at my apartment.

He said things at his mother’s house sometimes disappeared when Curtis got angry.

I had assumed he meant ordinary household clutter, not something deliberate.

I told Ellis that too.

Late that night a patrol officer brought me a sealed bag containing Owen’s school backpack and a pair of shoes recovered from the enclosure.

The items had been cleared for release after photographs were taken.

The shoes were damp and smelled of wet leaves.