Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(55)

Amy stared up at her as though waiting for her to answer her own question.

Josie said, “Amy, do you understand what I’m asking? I need to know who is next.”

“I don’t—I can’t—there isn’t anyone.”

“You saw Jaclyn almost daily. You had lunch with Wendy a couple of times a week. Who else is there in your life whom you have regular contact with?”

“No one,” Amy said. “Not in a meaningful way. I see the same cashier at the grocery store most times I’m there. We have the same mailman.”

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

“Detective Quinn—”

“Josie, please.”

“Josie, I don’t have many friends. None really. Not anymore. Wendy was my friend. That was it. Jaclyn helped me with Lucy. I’m a mother. That’s what I do.”

“Who would you call if you had a problem? Needed to vent?” Josie asked.

“My husband.”

Josie sighed. “I’m pretty sure Colin will stay out of harm’s way. He’ll be here with us until this is over. But Amy, I really need you to think carefully about this because this guy is not going to stop. He’s made a demand now—a million dollars—but he didn’t tell you where to bring it to him or when which means he needs to get in touch with you again. He’s going to use someone to do that. Who?”

“I don’t know,” Amy insisted. “I’m telling you, there’s no one else.”

“What about old friends? Someone from New York City or from your childhood?”

“No,” Amy said. “I didn’t keep in touch with anyone. I’m telling you, there is no one else. I only ever had my mother and she died years ago. I’ve never been good at making friends. People are—they intimidate me, make me nervous. I have my husband and my daughter. That’s all I’ve got left.”





Thirty-Four





Noah was seated at his desk in the great room at Denton’s police department when Josie arrived later that afternoon ahead of the joint news conference planned by Special Agent Oaks and Chief Chitwood. Someone had wheeled over another desk chair and his casted leg was propped on its seat. “Hey,” he said as Josie walked over and squeezed his shoulder. “You here for the press conference?”

“Yeah,” she said. “How’d you get here?”

“One of the Feds gave me a ride from their mobile command.”

“They keeping you busy?”

“Yeah, it’s not bad. They got a composite from Violet Young.”

“Let me see,” Josie said.

With a few clicks of his mouse, the artist’s rendering of the man who had given the bug presentation in Violet Young’s class flashed across the screen. “You recognize him?” Noah asked.

Josie frowned. “No.”

“Well, they’ll use it in the press conference. They’ve got a tip line ready. Hopefully someone out there will remember seeing him and know where to find him based on the drawing and the photo of him in profile. Are the parents here?”

“Downstairs,” Josie said. “Mett put them in the conference room until the press conference starts. They’ll be on camera but Oaks isn’t having them speak.”

“How are they holding up?”

“Better now that they know Lucy was alive as of earlier today.”

“Oaks isn’t worried about the kidnapper calling while they’re here?” Noah asked.

“The agents who monitor their phones are down there, too,” Josie explained. “But I doubt this guy is going to do two murders in a day and after this press conference, he’s going to know we’re onto him.”

Gretchen bustled into the room with a stack of papers in her arms. “I got warrants for the grocery store and the arcade at the mall. Just got them signed. If they’ve got footage, it’s going to be a lot to go through.”

Noah raised a hand. “I’m happy to stay here at my desk and help with that.”

“Great,” Gretchen said. “By the way, the real John Bausch’s son-in-law checks out.”

“No surprise there,” Josie said.

Mettner came in and grabbed the remote control for the television hanging on the wall in the corner of the room, flipping it on. The screen flickered to life, already tuned to WYEP, which was broadcasting the scene in Denton’s municipal parking lot below. There were too many reporters to have it indoors. The four of them watched as Special Agent Oaks walked up to a podium covered in microphones, followed by Chief Chitwood and Colin and Amy. The parents clung to one another, looking frightened and lost.

“Shouldn’t you be down there?” Noah asked Josie. “Oaks has you on Amy, right?”

Josie motioned to her face, which still bore dark bruising around her eyes. “Chitwood doesn’t want me out there looking like this. It would be a distraction, he said.”

Gretchen made a phone call and a few moments later, a couple of uniformed officers came up to get her warrants for footage from the places Amy had visited with Lucy in the last two months so they could be served as soon as possible.

The room fell silent as the press conference started. Oaks gave a brief update, sharing the photos and composite of the bug expert impersonator and asking the public for help. He took questions for a very short amount of time and then ended the press conference. Josie knew that Oaks had chosen not to have either parent speak because he didn’t want to give the kidnapper what he wanted, which was to see the parents suffer. At the same time, it had been important for both of them to be present and seen on camera so the public would be more inclined to help. It had taken some convincing to get Amy on camera. Ultimately, since she didn’t have to speak, she had relented.