“He has. A neighbor of Edith’s took her to the airport two days ago. He was using her car while she was gone. He doesn’t know what rental company she used when she arrived here.”
“Hopefully, the police do by now.” Molly tapped her fingers against the counter. “Jacob isn’t answering his phone.”
“Neither is Sean. They must be busy.” Becky’s gaze connected with Molly’s.
A part of her didn’t want to know what they were doing. A few weeks ago, Sean had told her about some of the accidents and missing people incidents they’d attended. As a highly trained group of volunteers, there hadn’t been any callouts they couldn’t help with. But what they did could be physically and emotionally draining. Until now, Becky hadn’t appreciated just how bad it could get.
A police officer hurried into the kitchen. “They’ve found Mary. She’s fine.”
Becky stood utterly still, then burst into tears.
Molly wrapped her arms around her. “’Tis okay. Our little girl is all right.”
Wiping her eyes, Becky tried to pull herself together. “Where is she?”
“At Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. She was taken there as a precautionary measure, but she’s all right. Sean Gray and Jacob Green are with her.”
Becky and Molly looked at each other.
“How could they not tell us?” Becky said.
“Don’t worry about that now,” Molly said as she took a set of keys off the counter. “We need to see Mary.”
“What happened?” Becky asked the police officer.
“Her grandmother hired a vehicle when she arrived in Bozeman and waited until Mary was on her own before kidnapping her. After spending some time in town, they headed west toward Logan. She was driving too fast and the SUV left the road and flipped at least twice before coming to a standstill. It was found by another passing vehicle. Mary was buckled into a car seat with a five-point harness. Without that, she could have been seriously injured.”
Molly frowned. “Where’s Edith?”
“In the hospital being treated for a head injury.”
Becky grabbed the backpack she’d filled with Mary’s favorite toys and storybooks. “Let’s go. Our little girl needs us.” All she wanted to do was wrap Mary in a hug and tell her how much she loved her.
As she hurried out of the house, Becky said a prayer of thanks. At least with Sean and Jacob at the hospital, Mary would have familiar faces around her.
When they arrivedat the hospital, Mary was sitting on a sofa beside Sean, listening to him tell her a story. Jacob was leaning against the windowsill, watching the traffic far below in the parking lot.
All Becky wanted to do was rush across to Mary and give her a huge hug. But the doctor had warned them to take things slowly. The more anxious Becky and Molly were, the more traumatic it would be for Mary.
So, for a moment, Becky stood in the doorway with her heart pounding, watching the sweet scene between the two people she loved beyond measure. Every now and then, Mary pointed to one of the pages and smiled. Sean would look down at her and say something that made both of them grin.
Her eyes filled with tears as she imagined what could have happened.
When Mary saw Becky it was as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. “Hi, Becky. Sean’s reading me a story.”
“It sounds like a great one.”
“It’s about a kitten,” she looked up at Sean with a cheeky smile. “It gets into all kinds of trouble. But it’s a really good kitten,” Mary added quickly. “And her name is Tinkerbell and she doesn’t need to be looked after.”
“She sounds like a lovely cat.”
Mary nodded. “Did you finish cleaning the barn?”
Becky felt as though she’d dropped into an alternate universe. For the last three-and-a-half hours she’d worried herself silly about Mary. She’d forgotten about the barn, about anything to do with the beautiful wedding they’d organized for Matthew and Ashley.
She stepped closer to the sofa and sat beside her little girl. “The barn is sparkling, but it wasn’t my doing. Sean and his brothers stayed long after we left last night and did most of the work.”
“That’s good. Sean said we can have ice cream on the way home.”
