Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn #6)- Lisa Regan Page 0,88

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.

“You went here?” Gretchen asked.

“Yes,” Josie said. “The field is just on the other side of the building there.” She pointed out the windshield where they could just see a set of goalposts peeking out from behind the school building.

Josie turned the car off and they sat there for a minute. A man in a windbreaker, sweatpants and a ballcap walked a small dog along the grassy area surrounding the lot. “That’s one of Oaks’s guys,” Gretchen said. “I recognize him.”

“This guy has to know we’re going to be here,” Josie said.

“I’m not sure we should be here,” Gretchen said. “If he sees you, he might recognize you from the news.”

“It’s just him and the woman,” Josie responded. “He can’t have eyes everywhere. Come on. I’ll show you a secret entrance that goes under the bleachers.”

They checked their weapons and from the backseat, Josie pulled out a couple of bulletproof vests which they quickly strapped on beneath their jackets. They were bulky, but Josie hoped if the kidnapper was watching all the activity around the school from far away, he wouldn’t notice. Over top of those, they each pulled on a Denton East High School polo shirt. From the trunk, Josie pulled a mesh bag filled with football pads. Someone had secured them from the school earlier. Josie and Gretchen would lug them into the rooms beneath the bleachers. If, by chance, the kidnapper or his accomplice saw them, they would appear to be a couple of staff members bringing football equipment into the sports complex.

Bleachers couched in brick ran the length of the field on either side. Along the backside of one row of bleachers, Josie found the old metal door that led under the bleachers to a locker room and a couple of restrooms. It had been boarded up and painted over since she had attended Denton East. Oaks’s team had gone ahead and sent some men to reopen the door so that both teams could use it without being