Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(17)

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.”