Page 103 of Stolen Angels

“Or this woman Jordan Jones threw it away,” Ellie replied. “Did you search the area? Trash cans? Her car?”

“We searched her car, and we searched the beach for Kaylee,” he said. “But with the witness’s account and the lab results, we saw no need to look for her drink container.”

His voice wavered slightly, as if he realized that might have been a mistake.

“I want you to work with a sketch artist and come up with a composite of Jordan Jones,” Ellie said. “Then send it to my office right away.”

“Okay, okay,” Forrester said. “There’s a sketch artist in the station now, I gotta catch them before they leave for the holiday. Bye.” With that, he hung up.

Ellie and Derrick spent some time going over the case file again, but there wasn’t much more to take from it for now. They were planning their next move when Captain Hale burst into the room.

“Ellie, Derrick, I just got a report. A little girl was dumped at the hospital in Gainesville. She’s in a serious condition.”

Ellie’s breath caught. “Is it Ava?”

“No,” he said. “But she was wearing a diabetic bracelet—the name on that is Becky Hornsby. The hospital found her picture online and say it’s her.”

Chairs scraped the floor as Ellie and Derrick both pushed away from the table and stood. “Is she okay?”

“Gainesville PD didn’t have any medical information except that she’s being treated.”

Ellie’s heart hammered. At least that meant Becky was alive. “Her mother is at the hospital with Priscilla. We’ll go get her.”

One Hundred Twenty-Seven

Bluff County Hospital

Ten minutes later, Ellie and Derrick rushed into the hospital and straight to Priscilla’s room. Jan looked up from the chair by the bed, where Priscilla was sleeping.

“How is she?” Ellie asked.

“Resting, but the doctor says she’ll be okay,” Jan said.

Ellie approached the bed while Derrick remained by the door. “We have some news,” Ellie said softly. “We’re highly confident Becky has been found.”

A myriad of emotions flashed across Jan’s face, and she jumped up from the chair. “Where is she? Is she all right?”

Ellie felt Derrick tense behind her and took Jan’s hand. “Someone left a little girl at the hospital in Gainesville. She was wearing Becky’s diabetes ID bracelet and the staff there are confident it’s her.”

Jan swayed slightly, her face turning a pasty yellow. “Please tell me she’s okay.”

“I don’t know her condition yet,” Ellie said as gently as she could, “but we’ll drive you there now.”

“Yes, yes, please,” Jan replied, her voice trembling.

“Kaylee?” They spun to face the bed. Priscilla had woken, and was clutching the side of the bed to get up, but fell back against the pillow with a groan.

“I’m sorry, no word yet,” Ellie said. “But we’ve talked to Detective Forrester, and I think you’re right about someone drugging your sister.”

Forrester hadn’t wasted any more time. On the drive, he’d texted Ellie a sketch he’d put together of the woman at the beach,Jordan Jones. Although the woman was wearing a beach hat, Ellie could see that she had brown hair in a chin-length bob, similar to the woman Grueler and Dottie had described. An angular face, square chin and olive skin. She didn’t see any other distinguishing marks except a small diagonal scar at the corner of her mouth, which looked like it had come from a cut of some kind. Maybe an accident?

She showed the sketch to Priscilla. “This is a sketch of the woman he spoke to. Does she look familiar?”

Priscilla groaned as she looked at it. “It’s hard to tell with her wearing that big hat, but she reminds me of Renee’s AA sponsor. I never met her, but one day I saw the two of them outside the church where the group met. Renee waved me over, but the woman dashed away before I could get close.”

Ellie’s breath came faster. “We think she may have drugged Renee.”

“But she was in AA,” Priscilla said, clutching the sheets.

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