Page 40 of My Child is Missing

He waved a hand in the air. Two circles of pink appeared on his acne-pitted cheeks. “I know, I know. We’re down a man and I haven’t hired anyone to replace Mett. I’m your fourth man right now. You got that? I’ll go over to Thomas’s cabin and ask about the teenagers. I’d like to get a read on this asshole myself.”

Noah said, “We appreciate that, Chief, but as a long-term solution—”

The Chief cut Noah off with a yell. “I’m not hiring someone today, Fraley! We’ve got a case to solve. A kid to find. I know you’ve seen the damn stack of résumés on my desk. The three of you are so damn nosy. I’ll get to it when I get to it. Now let’s get to work!”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Josie and Noah prepared the warrants for the Patchetts’ phone records as well as the three vehicles registered in their names. Once the warrants were sent over to the cell phone carrier, they called Hummel and asked him to meet them at the Patchett household so that the family’s vehicles could be impounded. Shelly stood at the front door, Savannah wrapped around her with her face buried in her mother’s stomach while Dave paced back and forth between two of the vehicles, complaining loudly that they weren’t doing enough to find Kayleigh. Josie and Noah assured him that this was merely protocol and that their entire staff was working around the clock to locate his daughter. He was not convinced.

“I’m going to hire my own private investigator!” he shouted at them as they got back into their vehicles to leave. “And I’m going to get a lawyer, too, and sue you all for not doing your jobs!”

Noah shook his head as he pulled onto the road and headed back into town, toward Timber Creek restaurant. “You sure Olivia Wilcox is working today?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Josie said. “I called ahead of time and spoke with the manager. He said she would be there after school from four to ten.”

Even though Olivia was underage, her parents did not need to be present or even notified that they were going to speak with her, since they weren’t questioning her as a suspect. In fact, Josie preferred to talk to Olivia away from her parents. In her experience, there were always things that teenagers would talk about without their parents present that they’d never admit to while they were there.

Noah said, “Did you actually sleep last night?”

Josie thought of Harris curled up beside her on the couch. At some point during the night, Misty had gotten them both off to bed, but Josie had no memory of it at all. “I did, actually. By the way, Misty and Harris stayed over last night. You’ll be going off shift before me. They might still be there. I told Misty they could stay as long as they want.”

“Of course,” Noah said. “Did something happen?”

Josie recounted the conversation she’d had with Harris, still feeling sick to her stomach at how much fear he held in his little body and how powerless she had felt to reassure him. “Noah, I had no idea what to say to him.”

“It sounds like you handled it well,” he replied.

“I guess,” she muttered. She turned her gaze to the window, watching the trees recede and more dense residential areas come into view as they reached the central part of the city. “It’s this stupid Woodsman story. I feel like if he hadn’t already been dealing with that for so long, then he wouldn’t be so afraid now. Sure, he might see this on the news and be upset and scared, but the Woodsman thing has just amplified everything.”

“I know,” Noah said. “It’s unfortunate, especially since he isn’t the only kid affected by it. I mean, the whole reason Kayleigh took Savannah into the woods was to prove to her that this man or creature or whatever wasn’t real.”

“It might as well be real though,” said Josie. “If Heather’s cases are connected to Kayleigh’s, then for all intents and purposes, he is real. A serial killer targeting kids, Noah. This is the world we’d be bringing a child into. Do you ever think about that?”

“Of course I do. With this job? Can’t help it.”

Josie looked at his profile. “It doesn’t scare you?”

“It terrifies me.”

She didn’t speak. She couldn’t push the words out:then what are we doing?

She turned back to the window, watching the city’s central business district pass by. A moment later, one of Noah’s hands closed over hers, squeezing.

“Knowing something bad might happen isn’t a good reason not to have a baby, Josie. Something bad might always happen, whether we have a kid or not. Hell, something bad is happening in lots of places as we speak. That is the reality of the world. We still have to live.” When she didn’t respond, he added, “No regrets, right?”

She swallowed and turned to offer him a weak smile.

Another two blocks flashed by her window. He said, “You have a session with Dr. Rosetti tomorrow, right? You should talk to her about this.”

“In the morning. I wasn’t going to go to that,” Josie said. “The case—”

“You need to go, Josie. It’s fifty minutes. Gretchen and I can hold down the fort.”

“I can reschedule,” she insisted.

“No,” he said firmly. “You haven’t been sleeping. You need to go to these sessions.”

Josie was trying to muster a protest when the Timber Creek restaurant came into view. Noah released her hands and made a right into the parking lot. It was a sprawling, one-story building that was made to look like a faux log cabin from the outside. It was early, before the dinner rush, and the parking lot was nearly empty. The perfect time to question the staff, Josie thought. Large wood carvings of bears and wolves lined the front entrance. They passed through a vestibule. The host station sat directly in front of the doors inside the restaurant and there stood Olivia Wilcox, her long red hair pulled back and twisted into a neat bun. She pasted on a smile for them. “Hello,” she said in an overly cheerful voice. “Welcome to Timber Creek. Will there be two of you today?”

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