Page 81 of My Child is Missing

“And Savannah is clearly the Patchetts’ favorite child,” Gretchen said. “Do you think Kayleigh killed these other kids? Where is she getting the flowers?”

“A bunch of them grow in Henry Thomas’s driveway,” Josie said. “I’m not sure which of them did the actual killing. I haven’t figured that out either, but I think they’ve been doing this together.”

“The trap that Chan can’t put together,” Gretchen said. “Did Thomas set that for her? Did things get out of control? Maybe he felt he needed to stop it.”

Josie shook her head. “No. It wasn’t a trap. It was a scarecrow. Think about it. The yellow sweatshirt with the holes in the outer arms? That’s where it fit over the frame that Kayleigh built with sticks and vines so it would look like a man. Then she set it up, very much like a trap, so that if she tripped it at just the right moment, it would come flying down at her. From far enough away, it would look like a man rushing toward her.”

“To an eight-year-old,” Gretchen said.

“Yes. She took the sweatshirt and jeans with her. At some point, somehow, after her staged abduction, she ended up in Asher’s car and stashed the sweatshirt there. Whether it was to get rid of it or to frame him, I’m not sure.”

“You think he’s seen her since her abduction, or that she put that into his car without him knowing?” Gretchen asked.

“He had to have seen her. I’d bet that’s where she’s been staying—or at least until we found him and started searching through his apartment.”

“You think he knows about her and Thomas?”

“I doubt it,” said Josie. “I think once we showed up on his doorstep, he probably told her to leave and never come back.”

“So she was out on her own, with nowhere to go,” Gretchen said.

“Except the woods. She was probably wandering around, keeping out of sight even before she started staying with Asher. She couldn’t exactly stay with Thomas, not with the searches and police scrutiny.”

“You think she was hanging around the Stacks and saw an opportunity when Brody Hicks and Felicia Evans went into the woods?”

“Yes,” said Josie.

“She just happened to have a snare trap on her?”

Josie shook her head. “I don’t know. Or maybe she snuck back up to Thomas’s cabin and they did it together. Maybe they went hunting together that night, and she just got lucky that it was Felicia who went in. She knew about the Stacks.”

“But the other cases,” Gretchen said. “The other counties.”

Josie pointed to Sarah McArthur’s body. “Look at her T-shirt.”

Gretchen put her reading glasses back on and leaned in, studying it. “Lady Ironmen Softball.”

“That’s Danville’s school team,” Josie said. “They’re in Montour County.”

“The Lady Ironmen? Really?”

“I know, I know, but that’s not the point,” Josie said with a laugh. “When I went to the park to talk to the Patchetts, they were at Savannah’s soccer practice and I overhead the coach telling the kids that they’d play Danville and then Fairfield. I couldn’t figure out why it was sticking in my head.”

“Fairfield is in Lenore County,” Gretchen said. “Kayleigh would have played softball against the same schools in both counties. She would have come in contact with the other victims. Talked with them. Maybe even encouraged them to do the Woodsman challenge. She might have even discussed with them where they would do it.”

“She was setting it up,” Josie said. “Then she and Thomas would have some idea of where to hunt. She could have done this a number of times. We don’t know how many times they were unsuccessful. We just know that those two times were the ones where they actually ran into the kids in the woods at night.”

“And they took away anything they thought could be used to trace back to them, even rocks,” said Gretchen.

“Yes. I doubt they kept the rocks, though. All they’d have to do is toss them somewhere not near the crime scenes. No one would find them, and even if they did, they’d never connect them to the scenes. Gretchen, if you look at the case through this lens, the pieces fit.”

“True,” Gretchen agreed. “Mostly. But if you’re right, where’s Kayleigh now?”

Before she could answer, Josie’s cell phone rang. She picked it up from her desk and answered. It was the Chief. “Quinn. You and Palmer need to get your asses over to the Patchett household right now. I’ll be right behind you. We’ve got a situation on our hands. Little Savannah Patchett is missing. Again.”

FIFTY-TWO

They could hear Shelly Patchett’s wails as they approached the front door. A uniformed officer stood on the front stoop, face impassive. Josie and Gretchen nodded a greeting and went inside. As she crossed the threshold and Shelly’s cries became louder, Josie’s heart thudded in her chest. Shelly was on the floor in a heap of limbs, her entire body convulsing. Dave knelt next to her, trying to pick her up under her shoulders, but her body went limp except for the trembling and the juddering rise of her chest and shoulders when she called out. “Savannah! Not Savannah! God, not Savannah!”

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