Her Silent Cry

Ten

At home, Josie showered and tried to clean up her face as best she could, but she already had two black eyes forming. So much for Chitwood’s idea for her to be the face of Denton PD. She fell into her bed, so exhausted that her entire body felt achy. She wished Noah had come home with her. Thoughts of Lucy Ross swirled in her head. God, she hoped she was wrong about the girl being kidnapped, but she just couldn’t shake the bad feeling sitting on her shoulders like a weighted cloak.

As she put her phone on to charge, she noticed several missed text messages. She swiped to bring them up, hoping they were filled with good news about Lucy. A sigh escaped her lips when she saw they were from her sister, Trinity. She sank onto her bed and read them.

Just heard you have a missing girl in Denton? What’s going on?

You there? Everything okay? What’s the scoop?

Please tell me what’s going on. I hope you find her soon.

Call me as soon as you get this message. Hope you find the girl soon. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.

Josie had no doubt her twin sister was genuinely concerned about Lucy, but she also knew that Trinity’s compulsion to chase a good story overcame almost everything else in her life. Trinity had started out in Denton as a roving reporter for the local station, WYEP, before rising to stardom on the national stage. Then a source fed her bad information, her career fell apart and, disgraced, she was banished back to Central Pennsylvania. She had clawed her way back to the national network stage, and was now a news anchor for a famous morning show. It helped that her hometown of Denton was a seemingly never-ending source of scandalous stories that captured the imagination of the entire country. Trinity wanted to talk to her about the Lucy Ross case because there might be a story worth mining. Three years ago, Josie would have wanted to strangle the woman. Now she knew that despite Trinity’s burning ambition to be at the top of her field, she did have people’s best interests at heart. More than once, Trinity’s reporting, research and ingenuity had actually helped people.

Josie’s finger hovered over the call button, as she stared at Trinity’s name. But she didn’t feel like talking to her sister after the day she had had. Instead, she scrolled through her contacts until she found Christian Payne’s name. She had already hit ‘call’ before she realized just how late it was. Still, Christian answered on the fifth ring, his voice thick with sleep. “Josie?” he said.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Josie said. “I didn’t realize it was this late.”

“Is everything okay, honey?”

At once, Josie felt simultaneously warmed and put-off by his familiarity. She was still getting used to the fact that Christian was her real father. The man Josie had believed to be her father died when she was six, but in her heart, she wasn’t sure she would ever think of Eli Matson as anything but her dad. Still, she knew it wasn’t Christian’s fault that they’d been torn apart and had had to spend thirty years unknown to one another.

“Yeah,” Josie said. “Everything’s fine. I’m sorry. We can talk in the morning.”

“Josie,” he said, sounding more awake now. “For the last thirty-some years I would have given my own life to get a phone call from you at all—to know you were alive—so you get to call me in the middle of the night just as much as you want. What’s on your mind?”

In the background, she heard a door creak. She imagined him walking out of the bedroom he shared with her mother and padding down the hall to the stairs, heading for the kitchen of the house they lived in, two hours from Josie. “It’s a case,” Josie explained. “A little girl went missing today. Her father is Colin Ross. He said he knew you.”

“Yeah, he works in our pricing division,” Christian said easily. “I’m really sorry to hear about his daughter. My God. Is he okay? What happened?”

Josie gave him a brief rundown of the situation. Christian said, “What can I do?”

“Well, I just hoped to get your impression of Colin Ross.”

“My impression?” Christian asked haltingly. “You think he had something to do with his own daughter’s disappearance?”

“I think,” Josie said, “that we can’t rule anything out.”

“Jesus.”

“Do you know him well?” she asked, forging onward even though the conversation had become awkward.

He sighed. “Not that well. We’re not what I would consider close, but we’ve had a few drinks and been on a number of business trips together. When he worked in New York City, I’d see him several times a year. I had to travel there frequently for the company. Marketing works closely with his department once a drug is rolled out. He lived there for many years. His parents still live there, I believe. That’s where he met his wife.”

“What do you think of him?”

“Colin is a good guy. He’s really settled down since he got married.”

“What do you mean?” Josie asked.

“Just that he used to… how should I put this? Enjoy the ladies. He saw a lot of different women but never committed to any one of them.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. He met Amy. She wanted nothing to do with him. I don’t know if that was the reason he became obsessed with her, but he pursued her relentlessly. Some of his colleagues in the New York office used to joke that he wore her down. I used to think that once he convinced her to marry him, he’d get tired of her. No one at Quarmark thought it would last.”

“Well, it has,” Josie said.

“Oh, I know,” Christian said. “All he talks about is his family. It used to be when we’d get together for drinks he’d talk about the latest woman he’d been with, but I really think that becoming a father changed him. Settled him down. Either that or he’s just getting old.” He chuckled but the sound quickly died. “I can’t believe it. That poor little girl.”

“We’ll find her,” Josie said with more authority than she actually felt.

“I believe you will,” Christian said. “You know, your sister will be blowing up your phone the minute she hears about this.”

Josie laughed. “She already has.”

They said their goodbyes and Josie put her phone back on to charge and laid back in her bed. Silence roared through the house, the loneliness cloying and creeping. She thought of the bottle of Wild Turkey she’d bought a month ago, just after Noah’s mother was murdered. It was still in her kitchen, at the very back of one of her cabinets. Just one shot and she would fall easily to sleep. But her stomach had been on edge for over a week now, and she didn’t want to make it worse. Besides that, she had learned the hard way that nothing good came of her consuming Wild Turkey in any quantity.

She heard a car pull into her driveway and sat bolt upright. A moment later she heard two car doors slam and then a knock on her door. It was dark outside, but the motion sensor light above her front door snapped on. Through the peephole, Josie saw Misty with a sleeping Harris in one arm and her tiny Chihuahua Weiner mix breed dog in the other. Josie threw the door open and herded them all inside, taking Harris from Misty’s arms. “Misty, it’s the middle of the night. Are you okay?”

“I am so sorry,” Misty said. “We’re fine. I just—I couldn’t—”

In the dim foyer, Josie saw tears glistening in Misty’s eyes. She locked the front door and waved Misty into the living room. Harris slept peacefully on Josie’s shoulder. Misty’s tiny dog searched its new surroundings warily. “What’s going on?” Josie said. “Did something happen?”

“Oh no,” Misty said. “My God, what happened to your face?”

“Oh, nothing,” Josie said. “I’m fine. What about you guys? What’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry. I know this is ridiculous. It’s just that I… I just—I can’t stop thinking about that little girl who went missing. I saw you on the news. I know that you said that ‘it is believed she wandered off’ but still, the thought of that little girl missing took me right back to when Harris was born. You know, when they took him from me.”

“Oh, Misty,” Josie said softly. With one hand, she reached out and squeezed Misty’s shoulder. Misty had given birth to Harris at home with the help of a woman who had turned out to be on the run from some very dangerous people. Misty had been beaten badly, and Harris had been kidnapped.

Misty said, “I know I don’t remember much of what actually happened, but…”

“You were still very traumatized,” Josie said. “I understand.”

“I just couldn’t stay in that house tonight. Every noise freaked me out. I hope you don’t mind. Harris and I feel safe here.”

Josie smiled. “I’m glad you came over. Come on upstairs. I have a king-size bed. We can all fit.”

“Thank you, Josie.”

She would never admit it to Misty, but Josie was grateful for the company. They settled Harris in between them, and Misty’s dog slept at the foot of the bed. The steady sounds of Misty, Harris and the dog breathing began to lull Josie to sleep almost instantly. As she was about to drift off, Misty whispered, “I keep thinking about that girl’s mom. What she must be feeling. I can’t even imagine if Harris—”

“Don’t,” Josie said. “Don’t imagine it. We’ll keep him safe. Always.”

“But how can we?” Misty asked. “How can we in this world where terrible, terrible things happen?”

“I don’t know how,” Josie answered honestly. “But I would die trying. That’s what I know.”

Her speech had slowed. She was so fatigued, and sleep grabbed at her, pulling her under. Misty was still speaking. The last words Josie heard before her consciousness fell away were, “How can we keep our kids safe when you can’t even tell the difference between someone who’s bad and wants to take your child away and someone who isn’t? Bad people are all around us, Josie. But they’re disguised as good people. Regular people.”

Something in the back of Josie’s mind shouted out. The voice told her to hold onto it for when she woke, and then she was out cold.