Page 3 of Crossing Lines

“… Kirsten’s a good girl. Never stays out. She didn’t run away. Something happened to her.” Maria started crying.

Jo’s heart went out to the distraught mother as she pushed the tissue box toward her. She remembered her own mother crying when Tammy was taken.

Lucy appeared around the corner of the antique brass post office boxes that separated the reception area from their desks in the old post office building that now housed the small police force. Sam was here. Lucy trotted straight to Jo and nudged her hand with her nose in greeting. The gesture lifted Jo’s heart for a second before she turned back to Maria.

Jo introduced them, and Sam pulled the chair from Wyatt’s desk up next to Maria. He radiated kindness.

“I’ve gotten the basic information,” Jo said to Sam. She turned to Maria. “Is it okay if Chief Mason asks some questions too?”

Maria gave a shaky nod. “Anything that will help.”

Lucy trotted over to Maria and sniffed her purse. The dog’s attention earned a sad smile from Maria. “Kirsten loves dogs.” She reached into her purse and produced a blue bandana. “I’ve heard how Lucy helps with cases, so I brought one of Kirsten’s bandanas just in case she needs to sniff it.”

Sam nodded, and Maria held the bandana out. Lucy sniffed diligently.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll find your daughter,” Sam said. “Have you talked to any of her friends?”

“Just Mary. That’s her best friend. Mary Ryder.” Maria dabbed at her eyes with the tissue. “She didn’t know anything.”

“Can you give us names of her other friends? Anyone you think she might be with?”

Maria nodded toward Jo. “I gave them to Sargent Harris.”

“What about places she hung out?”

Maria’s lips pursed. “She did go to the woods by the campground a few times. I asked her not to hang around there. It’s a bad crew, especially that Jesse Cowley.”

Sam and Jo exchanged a glance. Jesse was a small-time drug dealer in town that they sometimes used as an informant.

Jo’s worry about the case deepened. The bodies they’d found in the woods last month had been linked to a drug ring. But now that Thorne was out of the picture, the drug flow in town should be only a trickle. Still, Jo figured Thorne was just a small cog in a larger cartel. Had they put someone in his place already?

“And you have no idea where your daughter might have gone? Maybe to stay over at a friend’s or out of town?”

Maria shook her head. “No, of course not. She would tell me if she wasn’t coming home, and she didn’t mention a thing.”

“What happened the night she disappeared? Did she do or say anything unusual?”

Maria took a shaky breath. “I didn’t see her that night. I work afternoons at the Blue Hill Diner. That morning she was fine. Happy. She said she was going to get some videos at the store and stay in.”

“And what happened when you got home from work and discovered she wasn’t there?”

Maria looked down, fresh tears flowing. “I didn’t know she wasn’t there. If only I’d looked in her room. But she values her privacy. I thought she was in there watching videos.”

“That’s understandable. I had teens myself.” Sam had twin daughters in college.

“This morning, I thought she was still asleep. Tonight when I got home from work, I realized she never came home, and she doesn’t answer her cell.” Maria turned pleading eyes on Sam. “Chief Mason, you just have to find her. Please.”

“Don’t worry, we will.” Maria Stillwell looked somewhat relieved at Sam’s reassuring words, but Jo knew that Sam had omitted one important thing. They’d find her, but what shape would she be in?

Chapter Four

Sam watched Maria Stillwell leave the police station, dabbing at her eyes with the tissue all the way to her car. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through. Thinking about one of his daughters going missing made him feel like he was suffocating. He’d do everything in his power to get the girl back safely.

“Where do you think we should start?” Jo asked. She’d been standing beside him watching the woman too.

“We’ll get a missing person’s report out right away. Then start asking around.” Sam looked down at the picture provided by Maria Stillwell. “Jesse Cowley’s first on the list. If she was mixed up with him, maybe this is something as simple as the daughter partying too much when she wasn’t supposed to be.”

“Let’s hope.” Jo turned from the window, her manner hesitant.

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