Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(74)

“Amy,” she said quietly. “Before you do this, we need to talk. Even if we get Lucy back tomorrow, you have to understand that without straight answers from you, everyone here is going to look at you hard for involvement in this. This guy murdered two people in cold blood—and he may have killed Violet as well.”

“I—why are they letting me do this if they think I was involved?” Amy asked.

“Because Lucy’s life is in jeopardy,” Josie said. “And right now there is no proof that you’re involved, only suspicion. I can put that suspicion to rest if you tell me the truth about your past. You said Tessa Lendhardt was a fiction, and we can’t find any record of her ever having existed. You were someone else before you were Tessa, weren’t you? That’s what’s going on here. What is your real name? Not Tessa Lendhardt. Who were you before that?”

Amy looked around the room and when her gaze landed back on Josie’s face, her eyes were wide and afraid. “You won’t believe me,” she whispered.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Josie asked.

“Because I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember? What are you talking about?”

Before Amy could answer, Oaks’s voice boomed across the tent. “Mr. and Mrs. Ross, over here, please.”

Amy raced past Josie, following Colin over to where Oaks waited to brief them, leaving Josie alone and more frustrated with the woman than ever. She took in some deep breaths and counted to ten. Mettner walked over and started talking to her, but she didn’t hear anything he said. When he waved his hand in her face, she snapped to attention. “Sorry, Mett,” she said. “What was that?”

“I’m going with the team headed to Lover’s Cave since I’m familiar with it and the park.”

“That’s a good idea,” Josie said. “I’ll go with Amy and that team to the football field—I went to Denton East High School. Is Gretchen coming with me?”

He nodded. “Oh, and Lamay is outside for you.”

“Perfect,” Josie said.

She walked outside the tent, eyes tracking the crowd until she spotted Dan Lamay, their desk sergeant. He had been with the department over forty years and had seen the coming and going of five chiefs of police—Josie included. He was now past retirement age, with a bum knee and an ever-increasing paunch. Josie had kept him on as a desk sergeant during her tenure as chief because his wife was recovering from cancer and his daughter was in college. He was fiercely loyal to her, helping her when she needed it most. She had worried that Chief Chitwood would let him go, but so far, he had stayed off Chitwood’s radar.

“Thanks for coming, Dan,” she said. “Did you get the kids from the college?”

“Yeah,” he said. “The ones with the drones? They’re in.”

Josie felt a thrill of excitement run through her. “Fantastic.”

Lamay shifted from one foot to the other. “Boss, I, uh, I’m not sure I understand exactly what you want me to do.”

Josie said, “I want you to find Violet Young.”

Lamay looked around them as if to make sure that no one else was listening. “Boss, I don’t get around so well these days. I’m not sure I’m the best man for the job.”

Josie laughed. “You won’t need to go trekking through the woods, Dan. You’re going to coordinate. The FBI gave me two locations where the GPS on Young’s phone put her between when she left the school and when the kidnapper called Amy Ross. You’ll need to start in the center, I think, and work your way outward.”

She punched the passcode into her phone and brought up the map that one of Oaks’s agents had forwarded to her. Lamay took reading glasses out of his breast pocket and studied it. “Okay,” he said. “I know where this is. But boss, who am I supposed to coordinate?”

“The first thing I want you to do is find Luke Creighton. I’ll text you his number. You’ll call him. He should still be in town. He’s got a bloodhound. Ask him if he’ll help you search for Violet Young. He’ll say yes. You’ll call those college students back and tell them where to meet you with their drones. Then call Young’s husband and ask permission to enter his home to find something that Violet wore recently. You’ll check her laundry bin. Maybe the pajamas she wore to bed last night. Tell him you have a search and rescue dog you’d like to use in the search for Violet. He’s not going to say no. Then you’ll call WYEP and tell them you need volunteers for a search of this area for missing schoolteacher Violet Young and that time is critical. Have them post all over social media to meet you at a particular place in the next half hour. Luke and the kids with the drones will get a head start.”

“You think people will show up on short notice?” Lamay asked.

“This is Denton,” Josie said. “Of course they will.”

Lamay didn’t look particularly confident, but he nodded anyway. “I’ll do my best, boss.”

Josie grinned at him. He had never let her down before. “I know you will, Dan.”





Fifty-One





The grounds of Denton East High School were eerily quiet. Oaks and his team had done a good job of hiding themselves. All sports activities had been canceled and although Josie couldn’t see them, she knew the FBI had set a perimeter around the building as well as the football field. Josie and Gretchen passed a state police officer sitting in his cruiser about a mile away from the school entrance, and nodded at him, before driving Josie’s unmarked vehicle into what was normally the faculty parking lot.