Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn #6)- Lisa Regan Page 0,67

sound like yourself lately.”

“I’m fine,” Josie lied, pressing a hand over her belly.

“Sure you are,” Trinity said skeptically.

“Really,” Josie said. “I am.”

“I’ll be the judge of that when I see you. I just need a couple more days. Two, tops.”

The next morning, Josie and Noah reported to the mobile command tent. Gretchen’s warrants had turned up some video footage from various places Amy had gone with Lucy in the weeks before Lucy’s kidnapping. Josie sat beside Noah as he began reviewing the footage. “We’ll start with this,” Noah said. “It’s from the arcade. According to the list that Colin made for us from their bank and credit card statements, Amy took Lucy there three weeks ago just to play some games.”

“Let’s have a look then,” Josie said.

Noah pulled up the footage from the arcade, which had multiple cameras, each one displayed in a box on the screen.

“This is going to take forever,” Noah groused.

“Not necessarily,” Josie said. “You watch the ones on the left, and I’ll watch the ones on the right.”

Fifteen minutes later, Josie said, “Stop. Right there. That camera.” She pointed to one of the squares on the right side of the screen. “Can you pull that one up? Just that one?”

Noah clicked a few times and the small square filled the screen. It was an angled, slightly overhead shot of several games in the corner of the arcade. One featured a large screen and in front of it, on the floor, several panels which lit up in different colors. Josie leaned in and saw that the name of the game was Dance Off. Computerized figures moved on the screen and in front of it, using the panels beneath her feet, a small blonde girl tried to match the figures move for move.

“That’s Lucy Ross, isn’t it?” Noah said.

“I think so,” Josie said.

“Where’s Amy?”

Josie searched the rest of the frame. In the lower, left corner stood a woman with a cell phone pressed to her ear, her back turned toward Lucy. “There,” Josie said. “I think that’s her.”

They had to wait several seconds for the woman to turn around so they could see her face. “That’s definitely her,” Noah said, pausing the footage and zooming in.

“Yes,” Josie agreed.

He zoomed back out and restarted the footage. Amy took a glance at Lucy, who was jumping and dancing on the platform of the Dance Off game. Then she turned away once more. “Who do you think she’s talking to?” Noah asked.

“My money’s on her husband. She doesn’t have anyone else in her life—that we know of.”

A few seconds later, another figure entered the frame, walking up behind Lucy.

“Look at this guy,” Noah murmured.

It was a man dressed in jeans, boots and a sweatshirt with a ballcap pulled low over his face. From under the back of the cap, Josie could see brown hair. “It’s hard to say, but I think he looks just like the guy from Lucy’s school. The bug expert impersonator.”

“Let me see if I can pull some stills,” Noah said.

“Let’s watch this first. We should also check the other cameras to see if we can get a clearer shot of his face when he was coming in and leaving.”

Noah let the footage play. The man watched Lucy for a few seconds. Then suddenly, she turned, looked up at him and beamed. She moved off the platform, arms raised as though to hug him, but he stepped away from her and motioned with one hand toward her mother.

“My God,” Josie said. “She already knew him.”

“Quite well,” Noah said. “She looks like she was about to run into his arms.”

But on the screen, Lucy froze, then nodded and returned to her game, this time dancing with much less enthusiasm.

“He’s already done a lot of work with her by now,” Josie noted. “All he had to do was give her a small signal—just a little hand movement in Amy’s direction—and she knew to act like she didn’t know him. She knew not to alert her mother.”

“This is scary,” Noah said.

The man let her play for a few more seconds, every so often turning his head slightly to check on where Amy stood. Then he joined Lucy on the platform. They danced together for a few moments—only their backs visible on the camera. Lucy’s movements became more enthusiastic. When fireworks exploded across the screen, the two of them high-fived. Then the man glanced in Amy’s direction again, took something from his pocket and handed it to Lucy. He leaned down and