Her Silent Cry

Eight

They raced back out to the carousel, flashlight beams sweeping the area. Noah trailed behind, going as fast as he could on his crutches. Josie and Gretchen showed them the door. Mettner climbed inside as Josie had done earlier. There was nothing there. Josie said, “Someone call Hummel and have the Evidence Response Team come out and process the inside.”

Mettner closed the door and pulled his phone out. The four of them ambled back to the tent. Gretchen said, “You think she went in there?”

“I don’t know,” Josie said. “If she was hiding in there, she would have still been in there when we started looking for her.”

Noah said, “Wouldn’t someone on the ride have noticed the door opening?”

“You would think,” Gretchen said. “I’ll call everyone on the list of parents whose kids were on the ride tomorrow morning and see if anyone remembers seeing the door open.”

Mettner hung up his phone. “Hummel will be here in fifteen. What if someone else was inside the door?”

Noah said, “I thought you weren’t down with the kidnapper theory.”

Mettner shrugged. “I never said I wasn’t. I just said we didn’t have any evidence that she was kidnapped.”

Gretchen said, “It seems unlikely that a kidnapper could successfully take a seven-year-old from inside the carousel. I mean, the only way out is through that door.”

When they got back to the tent, Colin had gone and Amy sat in his place on a chair, bundled in a thick fleece jacket. Her sandy hair hung limp and unbrushed. Her eyelids were swollen. She looked up hopefully when they came in. “Anything?”

They all shook their heads. Josie said, “Not yet.”

Amy frowned. “What—what happened to your face?”

Everyone froze and stared at her. Mettner said, “You don’t remember?”

Amy said, “Remember what?”

She had been so hysterical, Josie wasn’t at all surprised that she didn’t remember struggling against her and Mettner. She probably didn’t even realize she had hit Josie. Besides, it was an accident. Josie cut in, “I ran into a tree branch. Mrs. Ross, do you think you could look at some video footage and photos for us from today?”

Amy jumped to her feet. “Yes, please. Anything that you think will help.”

Noah patted the chair next to him and Amy took it. They went through the footage of Lucy getting off her carousel horse and running off. None of them mentioned the door opening but Josie did explain that they believed that Lucy was running toward something or someone. They asked Amy to review all the photos they had from the day to see if she recognized anyone in the background that Lucy may have been excited to see. Two hours slipped past, but Amy didn’t recognize anyone in the photos.

Two of the rotating search teams returned, having found nothing, and two fresh teams went back out. The ERT had finished processing the inside of the carousel, but the results of their findings would take time to get back. Gretchen decided that two of the detectives from their investigative team should go home and sleep for a few hours. Josie and Mettner volunteered. Noah and Gretchen would stay on-scene until they returned and then they would go and do the same. They were all hoping for many volunteers to help with the search in the morning.