They stopped looking for Annie's abductor when you were jailed for another crime.
Our second choice is fingering the abductor.
While his teenage action was untrustworthy, it was venial compared to abandoning the child to an abductor if that was what the cowering, younger Howie had done!
The odd tension was between them again, and she wondered what it was about her abductor that made her blood burn, especially when he was so unapproachable.