Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn #6)- Lisa Regan Page 0,8
mean why would you have to hire a nanny if you were a stay-at-home mom?”
Josie raised a brow in his direction. “Kids can be a lot to handle alone. Misty struggles.”
“Misty works sixty hours a week,” Noah pointed out. “And she has you and Harris’s grandmother to help her.”
“Maybe Amy Ross doesn’t have family nearby,” Mettner suggested.
Josie raised her hands in the air. “We don’t have time for this. We need to get out and look for this little girl.” She glanced at Noah. “I’ve got my phone if you need me. Gretchen will be stationed right over there. She’s coordinating. Mett, let’s go.”
With Mettner only a few yards away from her, they set out into one of the patches of forest surrounding the playground. They could hear the sounds of others searching all around them—the rustle and snap of tree branches and several different voices calling out Lucy’s name. Occasionally, Josie paused to text Gretchen to see if anyone had found anything. There was nothing. Gretchen had sent additional units to the houses that sat across from the park to conduct door-to-door enquiries and to search their backyards in case Lucy had exited the park instead of going deeper into it. An hour passed, then another, then another. They emerged from one forested section, crossed a different area of the park, and entered an entirely different section of trees. They walked until they reached the edge of park where the Denton University campus began. From somewhere behind her, Josie heard Amy calling out her daughter’s name again and again in a strained, near-hysterical tone. The light overhead faded, casting darkness over the forest.
As she circled back to the playground, the park’s overhead lights blinked on. Gathered around the entrance to the park were a number of officers, including Gretchen and Noah. As Josie got closer, she saw that both Amy and Colin were there as well as Denton’s Chief of Police, Bob Chitwood. All had donned jackets. Colin held his wife against his chest with one arm while his other hand clutched his cell phone.
“Anything?” Josie asked Gretchen as she joined the group.
A grim set to her mouth, Gretchen shook her head.
Mettner jogged up behind Josie. He quickly looked around the group, assessing the situation. He said, “Not even a sign of her?”
Gretchen said, “No. Nothing.”
“Can we ask for an Amber Alert?” he asked.
Josie and Chitwood answered at the same time. “No,” they said.
Josie continued, “We have no evidence that she was abducted. As far as we know, she ran off. Amber Alerts are specifically for abducted and endangered children. We can call the state police, though, and the sheriff’s office to ask for assistance.”
Chitwood held up a cell phone. “I already did. I asked for bodies to search through the night, and the sheriff is bringing their K-9 unit.”
Gretchen addressed Amy and Colin. “Can you go home and get something that smells like Lucy for when the dogs get here?”
Amy’s head lifted from her husband’s chest and swiveled in Gretchen’s direction. “Yes,” she said.
Josie nodded toward one of the uniformed officers who escorted the parents out of the park. She turned to Gretchen and Chitwood and said, “We should call the FBI.”
Chitwood scoffed. “No one is calling the FBI, Quinn.”
Josie put a hand on her hip. “They have a rapid deployment team for missing children.”
“Isn’t that just for abducted children?” Mettner asked.
“Yeah,” Chitwood added. “It’s called the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team—CARD.”
“No, not just abducted children,” Josie said. “Any disappearance of a child of tender age. That means under twelve years old. Their CARD team was deployed in North Carolina last month when a four-year-old boy disappeared from his backyard.”
“That’s right,” Noah said. “They found him alive in the woods.”
“And we’ll find Lucy Ross alive in this park tonight,” Chitwood said. “There’s no need to call the damn FBI. We’re equipped for this, and we’ll have the Staties and the sheriff helping us.”
“Sir,” Josie protested. “The CARD team could be here in less than two hours.”
“For the love of God, Quinn,” Chitwood said. Everyone stared at him, mostly because he hadn’t yelled at her. He always yelled—at everyone. But now his tone was low and frustrated, almost like he didn’t have the energy to argue with her. “Not every disappearance is an abduction.”
“Children don’t just disappear into thin air,” Josie pointed out.
“You have no proof that this was an abduction. Believe it or not, Quinn, kids do wander off.”
“If Lucy Ross wandered off, someone would have found her