Her Silent Cry

Eleven

Josie woke to the sound of Harris’s voice coming from somewhere downstairs, then Misty’s little dog, Pepper, yapping. She opened her eyes and looked to her left, but the bed was empty. Turning in the other direction she looked at her clock to see she had slept for three hours. The scent of coffee wafted up the stairs. Normally, it would be a salve to her exhausted and frayed nerves but today, as soon as the smell hit her, nausea took hold and her stomach bile rushed up into her throat. Throwing the blanket aside, she jumped up and raced to the bathroom. She dry-heaved into the toilet a few times but nothing came up. Cold sweat broke out across her forehead. As she sank to the floor and pressed her back against the cool bathroom tiles, she willed it to pass. She had to get back out to the park today and help look for Lucy.

She heard her front door open, the clunk of Noah’s crutches across the foyer floor and then his voice. “Hey, little buddy!”

Then Harris: “Noah, Noah! Hey, who’s that?”

“This is my friend, Mettner,” Noah said. “He gave me a ride home.”

Home. Noah referred to Josie’s house as home. She felt a warm little squeeze in her heart. Standing, she splashed her face with water, brushed her teeth without looking in the mirror and went downstairs. She could tell by the look on both Mettner and Noah’s faces that she looked bad.

Mettner said, “Geez, she hit you hard, huh?”

Josie touched her nose and cheekbones. Both were tender. “It’s okay. Any news?”

Both of their faces fell. “No,” Noah said. “Nothing. We had people searching all night, and the volunteer search starts in an hour. People are already gathering at the park. Looks like it’s going to be a great turnout.”

Harris ran in and hugged Josie’s leg. “JoJo, I watch TV?”

“Sure,” Josie said, stroking his hair. “Make sure it’s okay with Mommy, okay?”

He ran off. Josie said, “I have to get over there and relieve Gretchen.” She remembered the thought that had sparked in her sleepy mind just a few hours ago. “I need to look at the photos and video again, too.”

“I’ll meet you over there,” Mettner said.

On her way to the park, Josie called Trinity, who had called three times while Josie slept. “It’s about time,” Trinity answered, not even bothering with pleasantries.

“I’m sorry,” Josie said. “I’ve been working. Do you even sleep?”

“Don’t worry about my sleeping habits. Tell me about this missing girl. You know I don’t like getting my information from the local correspondent at WYEP.”

Josie gave her a rundown, concluding, “I don’t know that there’s a story here, Trin, but if you want to help, the parents used to live in New York City. That’s where they lived before their daughter was born. Maybe you could track down some of their old friends. Colin Ross’s parents still live there. You could talk to them maybe. See what kind of people we’re dealing with.”

“You think one of the parents had something to do with this?” Trinity asked.

“I don’t know,” Josie answered. “But if either one of them has anything nefarious in their past, I know you’ll find it and that you’ll find it faster than the FBI.”

Trinity laughed. “You’re damn right I will. I’ll be in touch.”

Josie hung up as the city park came into view. The playground area was packed with people, the line of citizens ready to help search for Lucy extending all the way outside the entrance and down the sidewalk. Josie felt encouraged by how many people were willing to get up early and donate their time to help a little girl. They stared at her as she walked past the line and into the playground toward the tent. It took her a moment to realize it was because of her black eyes. She picked up the pace and slipped into the tent. Mettner had beat her there. He sat in front of the laptop and beckoned her over. “Here’s the footage and photos. Take a look. I’m going to tell Gretchen she can go home and help get this search organized out there.”

Josie started scrolling through the photos. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking for. The idea that Misty’s words had sparked was still a shadow in her mind. It hadn’t entirely solidified. Gretchen appeared beside her. “Hey, oh wow. You look—” She broke off.

Josie smiled, the movement hurting her face. “I know. It’s fine. What’s going on? Anything? I haven’t seen either Amy or Colin.”

“They’re out with the search party. Mettner and the uniforms are organizing them now. I’ve got no news. Hummel got a bunch of random prints from the inside of the carousel column. None of them came up in AFIS. I talked to all the parents who were here yesterday and on the carousel when Lucy disappeared. None of them remember the door in the column opening. None of their children remember the door opening.”

“They didn’t remember seeing Lucy either,” Josie pointed out. “But we know she was there.”

“True,” Gretchen conceded.

Josie stood. “Well, we’ll just keep looking. Why don’t you go home and get some sleep.”

Gretchen didn’t argue. Josie took over command. She itched to get out and search the woods even though a part of her was convinced that Lucy was not there. Those woods had been searched several times already—all through the night—and no sign of the girl had been found. But she had to stay at the command post to coordinate all the various teams of law enforcement and civilians there to help. She stood at the front of the tent as the morning’s massive search got underway. They’d start at the park and then work their way outward, searching the yards of residences in a one-mile radius as well as the college campus. If that didn’t turn anything up, they’d expand the radius.

She saw Amy and Colin walking together deeper into the city park. Both looked exhausted and pale. Amy wore jeans and had pulled a black sweater tight around her torso. Her sandy locks were thrown back in a messy ponytail. Colin wore a bright blue windbreaker and his thick salt-and-pepper hair looked like he hadn’t combed it at all this morning. He pushed both hands through it, in what was obviously a nervous habit. The two walked side by side but didn’t touch.

Josie studied the long line of searchers who stared at the couple as they walked into the trees. The age range was diverse. A number of students from Denton East High School as well as Denton West had shown up. They wore sweatshirts with their high schools’ names and mascots emblazoned on them. There were housewives, young professionals, retirees and what looked like a few college professors. One older man with gray hair and a neatly trimmed gray beard wore a tweed suit complete with a tie. He sipped coffee from a paper cup as his eyes followed the Ross parents’ movements. It was an odd choice of clothing for a search and contrasted with the garb of several volunteers who had shown up in bright orange vests and Mossy Oak ballcaps. Josie suspected they wore their bright colors hoping to draw Lucy’s attention should they find her in the woods.

Several amateur search and rescue dogs had also arrived. From where she stood, Josie spotted a lumbering bloodhound that looked very familiar. Even before she spotted his owner, her heart started tapping double-time in her chest. Then she saw him. Luke Creighton; tall, broad-shouldered, and bearded with shaggy hair. They’d been engaged once. Then he had gotten tangled up in a complicated case, had made a series of bad decisions, and ended up doing six months in prison. During her last big murder investigation, she had seen him again after two years. That case had taken her to Sullivan County, three hours north, where he lived on a remote farm with his sister. Josie had been forced to enlist his help locating a witness who turned out to be a victim. It had been a difficult time with the investigation into Noah’s mother’s murder and Noah had decided that he and Josie needed to take a break. Josie had ended up spending the night at Luke’s. Which in itself wasn’t so bad, except that she’d gotten drunk and blacked out. She had no idea what had happened that night. She was quite certain that nothing romantic or sexual had happened between them, but the truth was, she couldn’t really say. She’d left the next morning before he woke up. She had hoped she’d never have to see him again.

He spotted her from where he stood. Her cheeks flamed as he lifted a hand and waved to her, a warm smile on his face. She waved back stiffly, praying he wouldn’t come over to talk to her. He didn’t. Instead, he walked off with a group of searchers and disappeared deeper into the park.

Relieved, Josie returned to the tent, picking up the walkie-talkie that Gretchen had left and assuming command. The searches went on through the entire day. By her estimate, over a thousand people had shown up to help look for Lucy. Local businesses donated food and drinks to the effort—keeping searchers and law enforcement well fed and caffeinated. A few students from the college’s robotics engineering department arrived with drones equipped with cameras which they used to fly over the city in a grid pattern, searching for any sign of Lucy. WYEP sent three news crews to cover every aspect of the search. Thankfully, Chitwood showed up to do the on-screen interview. Amy and Colin somehow stayed off the press radar, alternating between searching and resting in the command tent. Gretchen and Noah returned sometime in the afternoon after having rested and showered. Chitwood left after talking to the press. He stopped in several times during the day but spent most of the day at the police station, coordinating the officers he had left to handle the routine issues that arose in the city. By the time the last rays of sunlight disappeared from the horizon, no sign of Lucy had been found anywhere in the city.

Most people had gone home. Only a handful of dedicated volunteers, state police officers and sheriff’s deputies remained to assist Denton PD. Josie’s team was left despairing, standing around the command tent facing Amy and Colin with no more answers than they had had the day before.

“How does this happen?” Colin asked. “She was right out there. She was on the goddamn carousel. Detective Quinn, you said yourself that children don’t disappear into thin air.”

“What are you saying?” Amy asked, her voice shaking. She had been strangely silent all day. Josie wondered if she was taking something for her nerves. Josie thought about what it would be like to have a child of her own and for that child to be missing. She would need drugs just to keep breathing, let alone to stay calm.

Colin raked his hands down his face. “I’m saying she couldn’t have wandered off. We would have found her by now. The K-9 officer said she could have gotten into a car.”

“But why would she get into a car with someone else? Why would she run away? You saw her,” Amy said. “She jumped down off the horse and ran away. She ran away. Why?”

Josie again thought of Lucy’s excited movements, how she’d moved with purpose, the same way little Harris ran when he saw his mother after a long day with Josie or with his grandmother. Josie said, “Please don’t take offense to this, but I have to ask: is Lucy your biological child? Both of you?”

The two parents stared at her. Gretchen picked up the line of inquiry. “We didn’t get into this yesterday because the assumption is that Lucy wandered off and simply got lost. But since we haven’t found her or any sign of her, we need to ask questions now. We have to know if there are other parents involved. Is Lucy a result of your marriage or did one of you bring her from a prior relationship?”

“Oh,” Amy said. “She’s ours. Neither of us had children before we were married.”

“How about grandparents? Is she close to either of your parents?” Josie asked.

Colin said, “Amy’s dad was never in the picture and her mom passed away before we met. My parents live in New York City. We take Lucy there to visit them three or four times a year.”

“They don’t come here?” Gretchen asked.

“They don’t like it here,” Amy blurted. “It’s not ‘urban’ enough for them.”

Colin shot her a cautionary look, and Josie had the feeling the two of them had had this argument before—clearly his parents and his wife didn’t always get along.

Josie asked, “How about aunts and uncles? Do either of you have siblings who are close to Lucy?”

Amy shook her head. “I had two sisters. One died in a car accident along with my mom. I haven’t spoken to my other sister since the accident. That was over twenty years ago. We… never got along. I don’t even know where she lives now.”

“What’s her name?” Josie asked.

“Renita Walsh,” Amy said. “Although if she got married, it may have changed.”

“Younger or older than you?”

“Two years older.”

“Have you ever tried to contact her?” Josie continued.

Amy shook her head. “No. Like I said, once Mom was gone, there was no reason for us to keep in touch. I went to New York City. I don’t know what happened to her after that. Colin has a brother, but he’s a bigwig at some company in Hong Kong. We see him once a year, if that.”

“What about Lucy’s friends? Does she have many friends at school?” Josie asked.

“She has a couple of girls that she really likes,” Amy answered. “I can give you their names.” She took out her phone. “I can give you their mothers’ names and numbers as well.”

Josie nodded toward Mettner who walked over to Amy with his own phone, pulling up his note-taking app so he could take down the information.

“Why are you asking this?” Colin said. “You think someone we know took Lucy?”

“Not necessarily,” Josie said. “I think she saw someone as the ride ended and that she was in a hurry to get to that person. I’m wondering who it was and if they saw anything suspicious or strange—if they realized that Lucy was running toward them at all.”

“We’ll make a list,” Colin answered. “Everyone we know. Everyone Lucy knows. You can investigate all of them.”

Gretchen said, “That’s not a bad idea.”

Both parents brightened at having something useful to do. They sat at a table with Mettner and Noah, and Noah began making a list on a legal pad while Mettner tapped notes into his phone.

Again, Josie returned to the photos and footage from the day before. She replayed the video of Lucy running around the center column of the carousel and that dark square jutting out as she ran around the left side. The door. The door had opened, but no one remembered seeing it open. Gretchen had told her that every parent she talked to said the same thing: they didn’t even know the door was there. Gretchen had asked the parents to speak to their children to see if any of them remembered seeing the door open. No one did. How was it that the carousel had been at capacity and no one noticed the column door open? It happened the same way that no one noticed Lucy exiting the carousel, Josie realized. All those parents were only concerned with getting their children off the ride, and the children were likely focused on whatever was next—the swings, the slide, perhaps ice cream. But surely if Lucy had gone inside the column, someone would have noticed that.

It still bothered Josie that no one they questioned remembered seeing Lucy after the carousel shut down. She’d been wearing that bright pink shirt and colorful butterfly backpack. It was impossible to miss. Lucy hadn’t discarded it because no one had found it. She had to have left the park wearing it. But then why wasn’t she in any of the photos taken in the play area by parents during or after the carousel ride?

Misty’s words from the night before floated back to her in pieces. What was it she had said while Josie was drifting off to sleep? Something about bad guys not looking like bad guys. Something about…

“Disguises,” Josie muttered to herself.

“What’s that?” Gretchen asked.

“We showed everyone a photo of Lucy wearing that pink shirt and the butterfly backpack,” Josie said. “Nobody saw her.”

“Right,” Gretchen said. “But we know she didn’t leave her backpack behind because no one has found it.”

“But maybe people are all looking for that backpack and not really Lucy,” Josie said.

“What are you talking about?” Amy asked.

Josie looked up from the laptop, realizing she now had the attention of the entire room. Her gaze zeroed in on Amy. She beckoned the woman over and motioned for her to sit in the folding chair beside her.

Once seated, Josie said, “You’d know your child anywhere, wouldn’t you? I mean if you were trying to find Lucy in a group of children, what would you look for? Not what she was wearing—that changes every day—but maybe you’d look for her blonde hair or for the size of her frame.”

“It’s the way she walks,” Amy answered, understanding what Josie meant. “She breaks out into skipping all the time. She’ll go a few steps and then start skipping, and I have to tell her to stop and slow down. Now she does it without me even telling her. It’s like she hears me in her own head telling her to stop skipping.” Amy let out a little laugh which quickly turned into a sob. Her hand flew to her mouth, and Josie could see her fighting to hold it down. Josie reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “Okay,” she said. “I’m going to play this video again. Tell me what you see.”

She replayed the video. They watched the footage that was now forever burned into both their consciousness; Lucy hurrying down off her horse, running from the right side of the carousel platform to the left and around the column. They watched the sharp edge of the door open. Then Lucy was gone, the door closed. “Keep watching,” Josie said. “Tell me what you see.”

Just seconds later, Amy let out a gasp. She shot up from her chair and it toppled behind her. “Oh my God. Oh my God. It’s her. That’s her!”

Colin ran up behind his wife and looked over her shoulder. Josie rewound the footage again to when Lucy disappeared. As the other parents gathered their children and slowly made their way off the platform to the exit gate, a small child came skipping out from behind the column from the same direction that Lucy had disappeared while on the opposite side, Amy had just untangled herself from the safety strap and was now looking around for her daughter.

A large, black sweatshirt covered the small child’s torso, trailing down to the middle of her thighs. The hoodie was pulled up, but a flash of golden hair showed as she half-ran half-skipped her way off the platform and then weaved around the bodies between the platform and the fencing, until she came to the exit gate which was also opposite to where Amy was now more actively searching for Lucy, though she hadn’t started calling for her yet. At the exit gate, a little boy dropped what looked like a stuffed elephant and his mother stopped to pick it up, backing up the entire line. A dad went around them, dragging his toddler by the hand. Then came the small figure in the sweatshirt, skip-walking out of the exit gate followed closely by a mother holding one small child on her hip while pulling an older child by the upper arm behind her. The mother’s head was turned over her shoulder, and it looked like she was saying something to the older child. It had been chaos.

Josie rewound it, and they all watched it several times. Lucy ran through the exit gate and off to the right, out of frame. Immediately, Josie went to the photos, scrolling through each one. They found the girl in the sweatshirt in the background of two other photos, one in profile and one of her from the back. In each one she was headed in the direction of the fence that separated the playground from the street on the other side.

“Oh my God,” Amy cried.

“Where did she get that sweatshirt?” Colin asked, voice trembling.

“Can you be absolutely sure it’s her?” Mettner asked.

“Well, no,” Josie conceded.

“It’s her,” Amy insisted. “I know it’s her. I would know her.”

“With all due respect, Mrs. Ross,” Metter said. “You did see this video several times yesterday and failed to identify her.”

“Mett,” Gretchen cautioned.

Amy shot him daggers. “I was looking at where she went. I was looking for her pink shirt or her backpack. I didn’t—why would I notice a girl in a sweatshirt? Lucy wasn’t wearing an adult’s sweatshirt.”

“We all missed this,” Josie pointed out.

“You can’t say for certain it’s her though,” Mettner argued. “Where did she get the sweatshirt?”

“I think—” Josie broke off because the idea sounded borderline absurd when she decided to say it out loud. “I think it was inside the column.”

“And she just knew it was in there? Decided to take it and throw it on? Then race out of the park?” Noah said.

“If this was planned,” Josie said. “If someone took her and planned this out…”

“Someone would have had to prep her,” Gretchen said.

“Prep her? What do you mean?” Colin asked.

Gretchen looked at Amy. “Would you say that you and your daughter are close?”

Amy put a hand to her chest. “Of course we are. She’s my little girl.”

“Does she tell you things?” Josie asked.

Amy’s expression became pinched. “What do you mean? She’s seven. What ‘things’ are there to tell?”

“Things about her day,” Gretchen said. “About school. About people who talk to her.”

Amy looked mystified. “I—I guess. I mean, she mostly talks about bugs.”

“Bugs?” Josie said.

“Well, not really all bugs. She’s obsessed with ladybugs, moths, and butterflies. She made her own luna moth. I didn’t even know a luna moth was a thing.”

“Where did she learn about it?” Josie asked.

Amy shrugged. “Where else? School.”

“Who else besides you, your husband, and your nanny is she exposed to on a regular basis?”

“I—I don’t know. She’s seven. She goes to school. She comes home. Sometimes she comes here to the park. Sometimes we go to the mall. She goes to her school friends’ birthday parties some weekends.”

Gretchen asked, “Have you ever seen her talking to any adult at any place you’ve been with her? An adult you didn’t know?”

“Of course not,” Amy answered. “I wouldn’t just let her talk to a stranger.”

“What about your nanny?” Josie asked.

“Jaclyn is very attentive. I doubt that she would allow that.”

Josie looked around. “Who talked to Jaclyn?”

Mettner piped up, “I did. I called her and interviewed her. She’s due back in town tomorrow.”

Gretchen said, “Great. When she gets back, I’d like to talk to her at the station.”

“The station?” Colin said. “You think our nanny had something to do with Lucy disappearing?”

“No, not necessarily,” Gretchen answered. “But we have to consider all the possibilities here. If Lucy didn’t wander off, then she was taken. If someone had enough contact with her to come up with a plan where she was supposed to get a sweatshirt from inside the carousel, put it on and leave her parents behind to exit the park, then we need to find out who that person is—and we have to assume that person took her.”

Amy’s knees wobbled and she fell. Before she hit the ground, Colin caught her. He lifted her limp body, trying to keep her upright. Fresh tears streaked her face. “Oh God,” she sobbed.

Josie stood up and spoke to Colin. “Look, why don’t you take your wife home and get some rest. It’s been a long day, and we need to look strongly at the possibility that this is an abduction, which changes the direction of this investigation significantly. There’s a lot of work we need to do right now. We’ll let you know as soon as we know more.”

He looked like he wanted to refuse, but Amy was becoming more hysterical by the second. Finally, he nodded and dragged his wife out of the tent. Once they were safely out of earshot, Josie said, “We need to talk to the parents of her school friends. We should talk with her teacher as well. Also, we need to shake down every sex offender within a five-mile radius of her home and school. Someone had access to her. Someone convinced her to leave her parents behind.”

“Jesus,” Noah said, his voice heavy and sad.

“And I think we need to issue an Amber Alert and call the FBI,” Josie added.

Gretchen said, “Chitwood will never go for it.”

Josie took out her phone. “I don’t give two shits what Chitwood will or won’t go for.”