Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn #6)- Lisa Regan Page 0,32

really is standard procedure. You both take them, you both pass, and your involvement in Lucy’s kidnapping can be ruled out.”

“How could we have kidnapped her?” Amy went on. “Why? Why would either of us stage our own child’s kidnapping?”

Oaks said, “Exactly. So it shouldn’t be an issue to do the polygraphs.”

Colin said, “Ame, it’s fine. Let’s just do it, okay? We need to keep the focus on finding Lucy.”

Amy didn’t say anything, but she didn’t protest further.

Oaks said, “I’ll have the polygrapher here as soon as possible. Now, based on the content of the note found in Lucy’s backpack, we believe this kidnapper is going to try to contact you. Do you have a landline?”

“No,” Colin said. “Just our cell phones.”

“Not a surprise these days.” Oaks said. “What my team is doing in there right now is setting up their computers so that we can intercept and trace any incoming calls to either of your cell phones. Now, we have to do this through the legal department of your cell phone carrier. You’ll have to sign some consent forms.”

“Done,” Colin said.

“Great. We’d like you to answer your cell phones as normal. Keep them charged up. We’ll get it set up so that we can hear whatever you’re hearing. Keep in mind, this isn’t like television or like the old days—we don’t need you to keep the kidnapper on the phone for any amount of time. With Wi-Fi and IP addresses and the software we’ve got, everything can be traced and tracked quickly. We get a call, we pinpoint a location, we send a team out. That’s how we’re going to do this.”

Colin and Amy nodded. Finally, Amy relinquished her grip on Josie’s hands.

“Now,” Oaks said. “If you’ll come into the other room where my team has set up, we’ll get started.”

Sixteen

Back at the command center, the first few rays of daylight were creeping up the horizon. They had been up all night. Josie felt a bone-deep exhaustion that seemed to be shared by everyone on her team, given the haggard look of Gretchen, Noah, and Mettner. Oaks gathered them in the tent. To Josie, he said, “You have a real rapport with Amy Ross. A connection. Do you have children?”

“No,” Josie said.

“You were at the playground when this happened.”

“Yes. I was babysitting my friend’s son.”

“Okay, well we’re going to need you to be present with Amy Ross as much as possible.”

“Not a problem,” Josie said.

“Also, your team knows this city far better than any one of my people. If we get a call from the kidnapper, we’re going to need you guys to get us to his location as quickly as possible.”

“You think he’s still in the area?” Gretchen asked.

Oaks said, “We can’t be certain, obviously, but we’d like to be prepared if he turns up locally.” He paused and looked at each of them. “Why don’t you and your team go home and get some rest. Come back in later today and we’ll catch you up. I’ll have my team going full tilt at this until then.”

No one argued. They were all too tired, and it was clear that Oaks had no intention of shutting them out of the investigation if they went and got some rest for a couple of hours.

Once Oaks had all their phone numbers saved, Josie walked with Noah to her car and drove them both to her house. Misty’s car was gone but inside were still signs that she and Harris were staying. Her little dog, Pepper, slept in the corner of Josie’s couch. Harris’s toys were scattered across the living room floor. “Watch where you walk,” Josie said.

“I’m going straight to bed,” Noah told her as he hopped along with his crutches in one hand, using the banister for balance as he climbed the steps.

“I’ll be right up,” Josie said, heading into the kitchen where she dialed Trinity.

“Are you just getting up?” Trinity asked.

“Going to bed,” Josie replied.

“Some things never change. What’ve you got?”

“You know I can’t talk to you about an active investigation,” Josie said.

“Oh,” Trinity said. “So there’s a lot more to this than anyone initially thought.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to. If it was just a case of this girl wandering off, you’d just tell me there was no news. So what are we talking here? Sex offender?”

Josie said nothing.

“It’s not a sex offender?”

Josie remained silent.

“Then it’s something else. But still a kidnapping.”

Frustrated, Josie said, “How are you doing this?”

Trinity laughed. “Never mind that. I know you can’t