Page 14 of We Are All Guilty Here

“Ma’am,” Gerald said. “The girls were taken by force. We found a significant amount of blood at the scene. The situation is dire.”

Ruth’s mouth opened, but she said nothing. She was too stunned to even blink.

“Sheriff.” Felix Baker held onto his youngest daughter’s hand. Pamela looked as wide-eyed and shocked as her mother. “What can we do?”

Gerald said, “Tell me about your afternoon.”

“Yes, of course.” Felix took a deep breath. Emmy recognized the coping mechanism. He was trying to be calm and clear. “I had some work to do, but I came home to help pack the van for the picnic. We left for the river basin around three. I told Cheyenne to come home directly after the fireworks.”

“That was the last time you saw or heard from her?”

“Yes.” Felix’s lip trembled when he looked at his wife. “Both of us, that was the last time.”

“She didn’t go with you to the Flint?”

“She wanted to be with Madison.” Ruth’s voice was strained. “She begged me. I should’ve said no, but …”

Gerald kept his attention on Felix. “You drove straight to the Flint River basin?”

“I dropped them off.” Felix nodded toward his wife and child. “I had a couple more hours of work to do. I’m a mechanical engineer. I went to the factory to review some schematics, then left around seven and met Ruth and Pamela at the river basin.”

Emmy did the math. That was more than a couple of hours. Maybe they were wrong about their predator profile. It wasn’t lost on her that a father whose daughter and her best friend were missing had a shaky alibi.

“Why are you wasting time with minutiae?” Ruth had found her voice again. “Whatever happened, Madison is the one who got them into this. Cheyenne never got into trouble until we moved to this backwater. Felix! Tell them!”

Felix was shaking his head. But then he said, “She’s right. Cheyenne changed when she met Madison.”

“When was this?” Gerald asked.

“Two years ago.” Ruth gave a startled laugh, as if she couldn’t believe it was that recent. “Two years, and she ruined our damn lives.”

Emmy tried to check in on Pamela, but the child was staring at the ground. This was not a conversation to be having in front of a ten-year-old. And the neighbors. Emmy could see lights onin the surrounding houses. She wondered why her father hadn’t suggested they go inside.

“Sheriff,” Felix said, “are you sure she didn’t run away?”

Gerald asked, “Do you think she ran away?”

“I thought—” Felix stopped to swallow. His composure was slipping. “We were talking about—before this—we were talking about moving back to Iowa. To be closer to family. And Cheyenne didn’t want to do that. She said she would run away if that happened.”

“Had you made any firm decisions?” Gerald asked.

“No.” He glanced at his wife. “No, we didn’t.”

“You don’t know!” Ruth yelled. “She could’ve run away!”

“No,” Gerald said. “The girls didn’t run away.”

“How can you be sure?” Ruth demanded. “Whose blood did you find? Maybe Madison attacked her. Maybe they’re both hiding somewhere.”

“Mrs. Baker,” Gerald said. “Tell me about the changes in Cheyenne.”

Ruth’s mouth opened, then closed again. She didn’t answer because she wanted to hold onto the fantasy that maybe the girls were playing an awful game.

Felix cleared his throat. “It was so fast. She met Madison, then practically overnight, she was different.”

“How?” Gerald pressed.

“In every way possible.” Ruth tried to use the hem of her shirt to wipe under her eyes, but her hands were shaking too hard. “Before Madison, Cheyenne was our perfect little girl. Then suddenly, she didn’t want to be seen with us anymore. Refused to go to mass. Started skipping school. Everything was a secret. Then the lying started. Lying about where she was going, who she was going to be with. Spending a lot of time alone in her room. Being very unkind to Pamela.”

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