I went back upstairs, sat with Owen, and asked whether he wanted to play the quiet card game we’d brought.

He nodded.

Halfway through the second round, he smiled when he caught me cheating by accident.

For eleven seconds, he was simply my son again.

PART 7: The Interview Room With the Blue Chairs

Two days after Owen was found, Detective Ellis arranged a child-focused interview at a center away from the police station.

A trained interviewer named Natalie Chen would talk with him while other professionals observed from another room.

I was not permitted to coach him or sit beside him for the interview, which frightened me at first.