“Nothing.” Becky dropped her head into her hands. “Someone must have seen Mary leave. If she was on foot, she couldn’t have gone far.”
“I’m so sorry.” Molly’s face crumpled and tears streamed down her face. “I shouldn’t have left her here. I should have taken her with me.”
Becky wrapped her sister in a fierce hug. “’Tis okay. You didn’t know this would happen.”
“I should have been more careful.”
Molly was baking cookies with Mary when she went missing. With no lemon zest to add to the frosting, Molly did what Becky always did. She went next door and asked their neighbor if she could take a lemon from his tree. When Molly left the house, Mary was sitting at the kitchen counter, cutting out cookie dough shapes. In the few minutes it took to walk back, Mary was gone.
Taking a deep breath, Becky wiped the tears off her face. “Mary is strong and resourceful. Our little girl will ask someone for help if she is lost. If Edith has her…” Becky tried not to think the worst. “If Edith has her, she will be safe.”
Molly held Becky’s hand. The fear in her eyes matched how she was feeling. “What if Edith didn’t take her? She could be halfway to Idaho or Wyoming by now. Or she could—”
“Don’t think such things. We have to have faith,” Becky told her sister. “Mary will be all right, we just need to find her.”
A police officer walked into the living room and Becky searched his face. The slight shake of his head added to the weight in her heart. The last thing she wanted to do was sit here waiting for news of their little girl. But, with half of Bozeman searching every property and creek in the area, the police needed her here in case they had any questions or new leads.
Closing her eyes, Becky prayed with all her might Mary was safe. Because Molly was right. If Edith didn’t have her, who did?
After he madesure Molly would stay with Becky, Sean joined his team. In a coordinated pattern, they were searching the drains and waterways close to Becky’s house. So far, they’d found nothing.
When Mary went missing, she was wearing a pink T-shirt, a purple skirt, and white sneakers. If there was something positive to hold onto it was that the day was warm. It gave them time to find her before the cool night air added another layer of danger to a heartbreaking situation.
“How are you doing?” Jacob, Molly’s husband, asked.
“Better than Becky and Molly will be. Has anyone seen any sign of Mary?”
Jacob shook his head. “Grant called a few minutes ago. His team has searched Bogert Park and the Bozeman Creek. There was nothing there.”
Sean took a deep breath and studied the people spread across the land. Members of their team and other volunteers were walking carefully through the tall grass, searching for any clues to Mary’s disappearance. Other people were searching in grids spanning the entire radius of where she could have gone, but no one had found anything. Even if Mary was running, she couldn’t have gone farther than they were looking.
“Has anyone found Mary’s grandmother?” Sean asked.
“Not that I’ve heard.”
“If Edith flew here, she’d need some way of getting around. Hopefully, the police have been able to locate the rental vehicle—” Sean’s two-way radio crackled at his waist. A rented SUV had been involved in a one-vehicle accident on the I-90 two miles east of Logan. The police and the Manhattan Fire Department were on their way to the scene.
When the dispatcher said there was an elderly female driver and a young passenger in the vehicle, Sean and Jacob exchanged glances and sprinted toward the parking lot.
Jake Stanley was standing beside the deputy who was coordinating this area of the search. “Take my vehicle. The passenger is a little girl.”
While they followed Jake to his vehicle, Sean let the command center know where they were going.
“It will take about fifteen minutes to get there,” Jacob said. “Do you want to tell Becky?”
Sean shook his head. The last thing she needed was false hope. “The police will tell her if they think it’s Edith and Mary.”
And as he threw on his seatbelt, he prayed to God it was.
Chapter20
Becky poured hot water into two mugs and lifted the tea bags up and down. It seemed all they’d done was make one hot drink after another. But at least it gave them something to do while they waited for news of Mary.
“It’s nearly lunchtime. I’ll make you something to eat.”
She glanced over her shoulder at Molly. “I couldn’t eat a thing. My stomach feels as though it’s tied in knots. Did the police officers enjoy the cookies?”
“They did.” Molly sat on a kitchen stool. “Has Adam heard anything from the lawyers in Milwaukee?”
