The Birdman's Daughter

Casey hopped up. “Thanks!”

“Yeah, yeah.” The man waved him away. “Broom’s over there.”

Casey found the broom and began sweeping around the front counter and the tables beyond. As he worked, he hummed to himself. He didn’t feel like a loser anymore. He felt like someone who’d found a way to look after himself. He wasn’t even that mad at Denton. Maybe the state really had cut him loose without a cent. The guy probably did need that money more than Casey did. After all, Casey had talents. A man with talent would always get by.

CHAPTER 4

When one thinks of a bird, one fancies a soft,

swift, aimless, joyous thing, full of nervous energy

and arrowy motions—a song with wings.

—T. W. Higginson, The Life of Birds

Karen didn’t know if her father woke up in a rotten mood, or if her own anxiety over Casey made her impatient with him, but for whatever reason, getting Martin up and dressed was a battle. He rejected the first two shirts she chose for him before grudgingly relenting to the third, then refused to allow her to wheel him to the breakfast table, insisting on going to his study instead.

Anger burned like acid in her throat as she watched him switch on the computer, his gaze fixed on the screen as he waited for it to boot up. He apparently hadn’t noticed how upset she was, or if he had, he didn’t care enough to ask what was wrong. A person didn’t need the power of speech to show someone he cared.

“You don’t care about anyone but yourself, do you?” she snapped. “Yourself and birds you can add to your list.”

He looked up and blinked, confusion in his eyes.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.” She moved closer and bent over to look him in the eye. “You would rather sit in front of that computer all day, playing with your charts and numbers, than have a conversation with your own daughter.”

He frowned, then tapped something out on the keyboard. She looked at the screen.

Can’t talk.

“You can type, though. We can communicate that way. And you could listen, if you wanted to.”

Still frowning, he typed again.

What do you want to talk about?

“We could talk about anything. The topic doesn’t matter. We could talk about…” She looked around the room, searching for some likely topic, then decided on the one that had been utmost in her mind all morning. “We could talk about your grandsons.”

Casey and Matthew.

“I’m glad to see you still remember their names.”

How are they?

“Matthew is fine. Helping Tom with the business. He’s planning on going to college part-time next semester.”

What about Casey?

“Casey…” She looked away, unnerved by the knot of tears clogging her throat. “Casey…” She tried again, but could only shake her head.

What?

She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “Tom called this morning. Casey’s…disappeared. I mean, we don’t know where he is right now.”

Martin’s right eyebrow rose and he leaned toward her, his expression demanding to know more.

“I don’t know.” She held out her hands, a gesture of helplessness. Exactly how she felt. “Tom says he didn’t come home last night. He’s not with his friends….”

Her father stabbed at the keyboard again.

He’s run away?

“Maybe. I don’t know. It’s so unlike him.” Casey wasn’t one of those moody, belligerent teenagers who made life so difficult for some of her friends. He was always easygoing, uncomplaining—happy, even.

He’s upset because you’re here.

“No, he isn’t. He was fine when I talked to him yesterday morning.” Why did he automatically assume this was her fault? “He’s probably staying with a friend and forgot to mention it to Tom.” She refused to believe Casey had deliberately run away—or worse, that someone had harmed him.

Police?

“Tom says he notified them. I’m sure they’ll locate him soon.” She hugged her arms across her chest. “Are you ready for breakfast?”

Coffee.

“I could use some coffee, too.” She went around to the back of his wheelchair and started to roll him toward the kitchen, but he put his right hand out to stop her.

I’ll eat here.

She frowned at him, but he matched the expression and shook his head, then turned his attention once more to the computer screen.

She turned toward the kitchen to make coffee. So much for thinking he might want to stay with her, to keep her company in her distress, or to share his own concern over his grandson. Her father dealt with this trouble as he had with every crisis in his life, by retreating to his charts and birdcalls, to the logic and order of tables and numbers.

And Karen had nowhere to retreat, nothing that offered escape from worry and frustration.

Martin had once spent the better part of two days sitting in a blind on the edge of a Scottish lake, waiting for the arrival of a pair of rare King Eider ducks which had reportedly been recently spotted in the area. His patience had been rewarded near dusk on the second day. The sight of the stocky black-and-white male and his dark brown mate gliding over the shrubby willows at the edge of the lake to land on the wet pewter surface had erased the aching from his cramped limbs and made the long wait of little consequence.

He had not been born with that kind of patience, but he had learned it as a necessary skill for success as a serious birder. And he had found the same stoicism practical in everyday life.

He knew his daughter thought him cold and callous. He didn’t have the energy to explain to her that he saw no point in becoming overly emotional and fretting. Wringing his hands or storming about wouldn’t help her locate her boy.

He was sorry to hear Casey was missing. Though he hadn’t seen the boy in a few years, he remembered his youngest grandson as a thoughtful, intelligent boy who’d shown an interest in birds and the ability to sit still for long periods of time, contemplating the world around him. Martin thought he had the potential to be a big lister, if he applied himself.

He moved the mouse to click on the desktop icon to open his e-mail account. The stroke had temporarily incapacitated him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t stay abreast of news in the birding world. Besides, focusing on birds was calming. There was order and logic in the neatly aligned spreadsheets of birds he had seen and birds he had yet to see, deep satisfaction in the number of sightings on each continent, in each country, and within each genus. Reading through these familiar lists would be a welcome distraction from worries about one boy who was currently unaccounted for.

But first, the e-mail.

ABA recognizes Cackling Goose.

His interest sharpened when he spotted this header, and he clicked on the message. He’d been waiting for this one after hearing rumors for the past six months. Birds that were previously considered subspecies were sometimes awarded full species status, thus adding to the total of species in existence. His hand shook as he scrolled through the press release a birding acquaintance had pasted into the e-mail. The Canada Goose, Branta canadensis, had been split into large and small species, the smaller birds now being designated B. Hutchinsii, Cackling Goose.