Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(4)

The tightness in Josie’s chest only increased as she studied the trees. The area at the back of the play area was larger and hilly and led deeper into the park which extended a few miles in each direction.

Too much ground for her to cover, even with the Ross parents helping.

She used her free hand to pull her cell phone out of her pocket and called dispatch.

“Detective Quinn,” she said when the officer answered. “I need two to three units over at the city park playground. I think we’ve got a missing child.”





Three





Fat tears rolled down Amy’s face as she stood next to the jungle gym, phone in hand. Colin paced nearby, his face pale and lined with fear. A dozen parents gathered around as Josie gave them instructions. “Please don’t leave until you’ve given your name and phone number to one of the officers,” she told them. “I’d also ask that you check your cell phones for any photos or video you may have taken in the last hour to see if you’ve captured Lucy Ross in the background.”

Josie catalogued their faces in her mind. She wanted to make sure her team didn’t miss anyone. A man from the back of the crowd said, “Can we help you look?”

“I’d prefer it if you stayed in this area and talked with the officers,” she answered.

There was no evidence that Lucy had been abducted, but the thought had certainly crossed Josie’s mind. She knew it was extremely unlikely that any of the frightened parents before her or their exhausted children had had anything to do with Lucy’s disappearance, but she couldn’t take a risk and allow any of them to be part of the search. What if one of them had done something to Lucy? She might be sending them out into the park to cover up what they’d done. The thought sent a chill through her. Against her shoulder, Harris snored, having fallen asleep in spite of all of the commotion.

“You’re not going to let them help?” Colin asked. “We need to get out there. The sooner we start looking—”

His words were swallowed up by the wail of police sirens as two marked Denton cruisers pulled up outside the play area entrance, followed by Detective Gretchen Palmer’s unmarked car. Relief washed through Josie as her colleagues got out and jogged over. As Josie briefed them, Amy pulled up the photo of Lucy she had been showing the other parents so the officers could have a look at it. Josie assigned two of the officers to work the crowd, taking down names, addresses, phone numbers and getting any cell phone photographs or video footage that existed. Gretchen said, “We’ll need more bodies to search the park.”

Josie sent Hummel and one of the other officers off in separate directions to search the wooded areas that abutted the play area while Gretchen called for more units. Amy tapped her on the shoulder. “I want to look,” she said. “I’m going to look.”

Josie turned to her. “Of course. We just need to ask you some questions first. It won’t take long.”

Colin stepped up behind his wife. One hand still held his cell phone while the other pushed through his graying hair. “I don’t understand what happened,” he muttered.

Gretchen hung up her phone, introduced herself to the Ross parents, and took out her notepad. Josie began, “How old is Lucy?”

“Seven,” the two parents answered in unison.

“Is she in the first grade, then?” Gretchen asked.

“Yes,” Amy said. “She goes to Denton West Elementary. It’s right—it’s only a few blocks from here.”

“How about your home address?” Josie asked.

Amy recited it and Gretchen wrote it down. It was only two blocks away, Josie noted. To the Ross parents, she said, “I think we should have someone take a quick look at your home in case Lucy went there for some reason. Do you think she would know how to get home from here?”

Colin answered, “Yes.”

Simultaneously, Amy answered, “No.”

Colin looked at his wife. “She would know how to get home from the park, Amy.”

Amy wiped away a tear as it streaked down her face. “No, she wouldn’t. She got lost on her way back to her classroom from the nurse’s office at school two weeks ago.”

He looked stricken. “What?”

Amy folded her arms across her chest. “You would know that if you were home more often.”

“I call every day when I’m on the road,” Colin shot back. “One of you could have mentioned it.”

Gretchen cleared her throat to bring their focus back to her. “Mr. and Mrs. Ross,” she said. “Regardless of her age or sense of direction, it just makes sense to check your home, especially since it’s so close.”

As Detective Finn Mettner walked past, Josie flagged him down with her free hand and instructed him to escort Colin to his residence to check for Lucy.

“Does Lucy know her address and phone number by heart? If she got lost and a stranger asked her to tell them, would she be able to?”

“Yes,” Amy answered as Colin followed Mettner out of the park.

“That’s good,” Josie assured her.

Gretchen asked, “Has Lucy ever wandered off before? Here or maybe in a store or anything like that?”

Amy shook her head, more tears spilling down her face. “No, she’s not prone to wandering off. She always stays near me. It’s a rule. She knows how I am about—”