Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(21)

“It was a long day,” one of the other mothers noted.

Josie managed a tight smile. “It’s been very difficult for everyone involved. We’re grateful for your help. In a search like this, every person is a big help. We were wondering what you could tell us about Lucy and Amy Ross. Do you see them often?”

A short, curvy woman with curly blonde hair lifted a hand to draw attention to herself. She had introduced herself as Zoey when Mettner was taking names. She was the other name on the list of mothers that Amy had given them. “My daughter and Lucy are best friends. I try to get them together at least once a week. Usually, I go through the nanny.”

“For playdates?” Josie asked. “Amy doesn’t bring Lucy?”

Zoey shrugged. “Well, sometimes but not usually. I take my daughter to the park and they meet up there.”

Mettner raised a brow. “You said once a week? What does the nanny do while the kids are playing?”

“She’s usually on her phone. Most parents are. I mean, the playground is pretty safe—” she broke off and her face flushed. Stammering, she added, “I-I-mean, it—it was.”

“It’s okay,” Josie said. “I imagine at seven years old, the girls don’t need that much supervision on the playground.”

“They’re pretty self-sufficient,” Zoey said. “And they know we’re right there if they need anything or if they fall or anything like that. I mean, it’s not like we ignore them completely. We just don’t follow them around every inch of ground they walk.”

“Of course,” Josie said. “Tell me, have you ever noticed Lucy talking to any other adults at the park?”

Zoey thought for a moment. “I don’t really remember. I guess she could have.”

“I saw her talking to an adult,” Ingrid volunteered.

All eyes turned to her. Mettner asked, “When was this?”

“A few months ago—January fifth. We had a birthday party for my daughter at the funplex near the mall. Amy brought Lucy. The kids were running all around. Lucy and a few other kids had gone into the arcade. Amy was getting tokens from one of the change machines for the games and Lucy was on the other side of the arcade, playing skee-ball. I walked by and saw a man talking to her.”

One of the other mothers said, “You never told us about that.”

Ingrid took a sip of her wine. “I didn’t think it was important. As I got closer, I saw he was getting a ball out of the ball return for her. It was stuck. But then he seemed to linger so I called out for Lucy. She turned toward me, and he walked away.”

“What did he look like?” Josie asked.

“He was young. Maybe mid-twenties. Caucasian. Tall. I couldn’t see his hair because he had a baseball cap on.”

“How was he dressed?” Mettner asked.

“Casual. Jeans and a sweatshirt. I really didn’t think anything of it.”

“You thought enough of it to intervene,” Josie pointed out.

She didn’t miss the eye-rolls of at least two of the other women. Ingrid said, “I only ‘intervened’ because Amy is insane about Lucy talking to people she doesn’t know.”

One of the other mothers laughed. “She never lets Lucy do anything. That poor girl. It’s no wonder she had no friends.”

“Jaime, stop, you’re drunk,” Zoey chastised.

Jaime waved her glass in the air, the liquid sloshing around. “You know it’s true. Amy is a helicopter parent. She hovers constantly. It’s a wonder she even has a nanny, the way she is with Lucy.” She looked around the room. “Colin’s not so bad but he’s hardly ever home. Tell me, has Amy ever just dropped Lucy off to any of your houses so she could play with your kids? Has she ever let Lucy come to anything unless it’s parent-attended? Have she or the nanny ever not gone on a school trip?”

A ripple of discomfort ran through the room, each woman shifting their weight and looking everywhere but at each other.

“She’s overprotective?” Mettner asked.

Ingrid said, “It’s more than that. We’re all overprotective. Amy is… it’s like she doesn’t want anyone else to get close to Lucy, even other children.”

“You have to let them bond,” Zoey added. “That means giving them time together without micromanaging. She hardly ever does play dates. She really only brings Lucy to birthday parties.”

“Does Lucy get invited to many birthday parties?” Josie asked.

One of the other moms laughed. “At this age, everybody gets invited. Even the ones we don’t want to invite.”

Mettner looked up from his phone. “Is Lucy one of the kids you don’t want to invite?”

“Oh no,” Ingrid said. “Lucy is very sweet. Very quiet. It’s just that Amy keeps her on such a tight leash, it’s like she can never have fun. Well, unless the nanny brings her.”

“I think she’s very lonely,” Zoey added.

“You mean Lucy?” Josie asked.

All the women nodded.

Mettner asked, “Does Lucy have trouble making friends?”

“Oh no,” Jaime said. “Like Ingrid said, she is the sweetest little thing. Always the best-behaved child at any party. I’ll say that for Amy—she raised a well-mannered, pleasant little girl. She must rule with an iron fist.”