Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(50)

“Do the preliminary stuff,” Josie instructed her. “I’m on my way.”

She hung up and looked at Oaks. “My team has John Bausch. But before I leave, I think we need to take a much closer look at the list that was made of people closest to Amy and Colin. Specifically, Amy.”

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking then,” Oaks said.

“That this guy is using people close to Amy to make contact so he can’t be traced on any phone he purchases himself?”

“Right,” Oaks said. “With the technology available to us today, we’d be able to pinpoint his location quickly and with pretty good accuracy if he called on his own phone. Once we had the number, we’d be able to go through the phone providers to track the location of the phone. It would have led us to Lucy before this thing ever got off the ground.”

“But if he goes to the homes of people close to the Ross family and uses their phones, he can leave without being tracked.”

“Right,” Oaks agreed. “Clever, really.”

“Yes. But this means that he has a list just like we do. We have to figure out who’s next on that list before he tries to make contact with Amy again.”

“Already on it,” Oaks said.

On the way to police headquarters, Josie kept thinking about the chrysalis Lucy had left behind at Wendy’s house. The very thought that the girl might still be alive was enough to make her heart soar. But then her hopes were immediately smashed back to earth by the fear that the kidnapper would kill her before they had a chance to beat him at his own wicked game. Because it was a game of some sort, and he was winning.

The police headquarters building came into view, surrounded by press vehicles. It was a historic three-story building which used to be the town hall but had been converted to the police station sixty-five years ago. It was huge and gray, with ornate molding over its many double-casement arched windows and an old bell tower at one corner. Josie parked in the municipal lot around the back to avoid the reporters stationed out front. She made her way to the second floor, past the great room where the detectives’ desks were, and down a long hallway to the door of one of the interview rooms. She stood outside and texted Gretchen that she had arrived.

A moment later, the door opened. Gretchen waved her in, but once through the doorway, Josie froze in her tracks. At the table sat a slightly overweight man, easily in his sixties, with long gray hair tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck and a thin gray beard. He smiled at her benignly. “This is Detective Josie Quinn,” Gretchen said to the man. To Josie, she said, “This is Mr. John Bausch.”

Josie stared at him a moment longer, dumbfounded, before she managed the words, “I’m sorry, sir. I need to speak with Detective Palmer in private for a moment.”

Without listening to his response, Josie turned on her heel and walked out. Gretchen followed her to the viewing room a few doors down, where they were able to see the man in the interview room over CCTV.

Gretchen said. “What’s wrong?”

Josie pointed to the screen. “That is not John Bausch.”

Perplexed, Gretchen raised an eyebrow. “Yes, it is. According to his driver’s license, it is.”

Josie looked at him once more. “Then that’s not the man who visited Lucy’s school. Did the school send over the photos that Violet Young took the day he was at the school? We sent them a warrant.”

“Wait here,” Gretchen said. “I’ll run it down.”

While she waited, Josie watched the man in the interview room. He sat calmly, hands folded over his stomach, whistling softly. Completely relaxed.

Something was very wrong.

“You were right,” Gretchen said when she returned. She handed Josie her phone, which displayed one of the photographs of the young man claiming to be John Bausch that Violet Young had taken.

Josie pointed to the CCTV screen. “That’s the real John Bausch, obviously, if he showed you ID, but he didn’t give a presentation at Denton West Elementary.”

“But he said he did presentations here in Denton,” Gretchen replied.

Josie handed Gretchen her phone back. “That’s what he said? Presentations? As in more than one?”

Picking up immediately on what Josie was getting at, Gretchen said, “How many elementary schools are in Denton?”

“Five,” Josie answered, “including the Catholic school.”

“But he knows he’s here because of Lucy Ross. He knows she’s missing. He says he doesn’t remember her, but he remembers doing a presentation at her school.”

“Did he specifically say Denton West?”

“Well, no,” Gretchen said. “He said he was presenting at a bunch of schools in Denton around that time.”

They returned to the interview room. Gretchen immediately launched into her questions. “Mr. Bausch, do you remember specifically the names of all the elementary schools you visited here in Denton?”

Bausch smiled. “Detective,” he said. “I visit hundreds of schools a year. I don’t remember all their names. My wife keeps the schedule. She gives me an address, I type it into the GPS and I go. Like I said, I was here in Denton and visited a bunch of schools, but that was a couple of months ago. I don’t remember all the specifics.”

Josie said, “You told Detective Palmer you had visited many of the Denton schools. Did any of them cancel?”