They Still Have the Boy : A Samantha Leary short story

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By J.E. Nickerson 

The bathroom smelled of disinfectant and wet tile. Not clean. Not sterile. Just… clinical, as if someone had tried to scrub away what had happened, but the presence remained stubbornly.

Samantha and Greg were there, crouched near the entrance, taking in the scene. Samantha stepped inside first, letting her eyes sweep the room before moving closer to the handicap stall.

The man was slumped in the corner, head tipped, throat cut. Not messy. Not chaotic. Precise. Careful. He had been in their interview room hours earlier, the same day David, a small boy, had vanished during a camping trip. The way he had shifted under questioning—hesitation, small flickers of guilt, subtle omissions—came back to her now. Almost as if he had known David.

When Greg had pressed him at the station, he hadn’t said much. Only that children should be safe. Protected.

Samantha pulled her eyes from the wound. It would reveal nothing more than it already had. Her attention moved to the doorway. No forced entry. No signs of struggle. Whoever had done this had been allowed in—or Hamlin had underestimated the danger. Perhaps he had been placed here. Fully clothed. Not exposed.

Small footprints near the threshold suggested movement. Placement mattered. Every mark, a deliberate pause in the story.

Questions came in fragments. Had he done something to David? Had anyone seen him with the boy? Or had someone else acted first—ended the story before it could unfold? The father perhaps. Grief and rage made people do things they later regretted.

David had only been missing a few hours. His parents, Micah and Yvonne, had arrived earlier, frantic and exhausted. Miller’s Campground was vast. Boys wandered. Trails, rivers, bridges—places curiosity easily carried them.

She pressed her back to the cool tile, letting the room settle around her. The ventilation hummed faintly while cameras snapped. Hamlin’s left hand rested against the floor. Not clenched. Not defensive. Reaching—toward what, she could only guess.

Greg stayed near the entrance, quiet, his presence filling the small space without speaking.

“Think he knew the killer?” Greg asked, motioning toward the stall.

Samantha tilted her head slightly. “Maybe. Bathrooms offer privacy. It’s an easy place to eliminate someone who might talk.” She paused. “Hamlin was nervous. Didn’t want to say if he knew David.”

Greg waited.

“And he’s on the sex offender registry,” she added. “But his victims were girls. Not boys.”

Observation came first. Timing. Angles. Positioning. Movement unnoticed by anyone else.

Desperation left traces. So did calculation.

Samantha studied the stall again, letting the earlier interview replay in her mind. Hamlin’s careful answers. The way he avoided specifics. The faint tightening in his shoulders when David’s name came up.

What if he had been the contact point?

Not the planner. Just the man who approached a curious boy along a trail. A friendly stranger. A quick conversation. A suggestion to follow.

Children trusted easily. Especially in places that felt like adventures.

Micah had mentioned someone lingering near their campsite earlier that day. At the time it sounded like the kind of detail parents invent when panic sets in—someone to blame, someone to chase.

Now Hamlin was dead.

Greg shifted slightly as technicians worked around them.

“Elimination?” he asked.

“Possibly.”

Samantha’s gaze returned to the body.

If Hamlin had been involved in taking David, someone might have decided he was a liability. Someone who knew the investigation had reached him. Someone who understood that nervous men eventually talked.

Bathrooms offered quick exits. Few witnesses. A conversation that could end permanently in seconds.

Samantha studied the faint prints again.

If Hamlin had been the man who approached David, then this wasn’t random violence.

Someone had removed a liability.

Hamlin had known something.

Enough to make him dangerous.

Now he was silent.

Samantha pushed away from the stall and stood.

“And David?” Greg asked quietly.

She didn’t answer right away.

Because if Hamlin had been the contact point, the person who silenced him wasn’t finished.

They still had the boy.

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