River placed a slice of pizza on her plate and poured the drinks. She took a couple of small bites. “I’ll do anything to find my daughter. What do you need to know?”
“Since we’ve ruled out relatives, I need a rundown on anyone who might have known about the field trip. Parents and other teachers, neighbors.”
She didn’t have to ask to know that each name would be checked out for criminal history, including child abduction or abuse or…worse.
She stared down at her pizza and then looked into River’s blue eyes, shaking her head. “What if she’s cold? What if she’s hungry?”
“Don’t let your mind go there. You’ll shut down. Let’s focus on what we can do. Think of anyone who might have something against you.”
Lydia nodded. She ate a little more pizza while she wracked her brain. “At the beginning of the school year, there was a kid who drowned in a pond while we were on a field trip. The death was due to a seizure. There was nothing anyone could have done, but Tyler’s father blamed the school and me in particular. He was kind of a hothead anyway. I was the lead teacher for that trip.”
“What’s the guy’s name?”
“Prentiss Grafton. Tyler’s mom was not in the picture. I was at a school event, and Prentiss came on to me. This was before the accident with his son. I’m not interested in dating anyone. He seemed pretty upset when I spurned his advances. That might be why I became a target after his son’s death.”
River wrote down the name. “We’ll check him out.”
“The field trip was posted on the class schedule. Anyone who walked through the school and peered into my classroom might have seen it.”
“That makes the suspect list pretty long,” said River. He wrote down the names of the other teachers and staff that she gave him, but she doubted any of them were involved.
He seemed capable…she could only pray he’d find Elsie. Again, she wondered which agency he was with.
She pointed to the COK9TF badge on his windbreaker. “So, what’s this about? I thought you worked for the Ridge police force. That other searcher, the blond lady, had a jacket just like it.”
“I do work for the local PD, but this is for a task force put together with officers throughout Colorado. I’m sure you’ve seen the stories of the teenaged girls who were killed shortly after they gave birth.”
“Yes. I remember when Gayle Gorman’s body was found outside of Ridge.”
“There were two other girls. Jenny Clarke from Canyon Creek and Nina Olson from Colorado Springs. And now we have a missing girl from Denver who we think is still alive, Mia Andrews.” River got a faraway look in his eyes.
Elsie wasn’t the only missing person he was dealing with. She prayed they found the missing teen as well.
When she looked out the window, the sky had grown dark. They’d talked for a long time. Lydia tensed after glancing at the kitchen clock. Every hour that passed meant the chances of finding her girl got slimmer. She had to cling to hope. She had to.
“What is your experience with this? You’ve found children alive even after a day has passed, haven’t you?”
“Every case is different.” He looked away and then stared at the floor. There was something he was keeping from her.
And sometimes the outcome isn’t good, she thought.
She rose to her feet, crossed the kitchen and stared out the window at her backyard. She’d totally forgotten to turn on the water for her fledgling raspberries, something she always did when she got home from work. Maybe doing the routine caretaking of her yard would quell the fear that ambushed her over and over.
“I’ll be right back. I just got to turn hoses on. My raspberries are hanging on by a thread.” As was she. Lydia hurried out the back door and down the walkway to turn the spigot. The spring air and nighttime quiet was like a soothing balm to her.
Lydia raised her head when she thought she sensed movement nearby. Suddenly someone grabbed her and pulled her backward. A gloved hand went over her mouth so she couldn’t cry out. She reached for the garden bench, grabbing a trowel.
Inside the house, she heard Frankie bark.
Lydia twisted her body and used the trowel to hit the assailant’s arm. He held on and dragged her backward toward the trees that bordered her house. The man grasped her in an iron grip. Her heart pounded. The sky seemed to whirl around her.
She heard the dog barking. Frankie was getting closer. The man let go of her and pushed her to the ground. She fell onto her stomach.
River ran past her, Frankie on his heels. “You all right?”
She managed a faint, “Yes.”
He shouted a command at Frankie, who stopped close to her and licked her face. She reached out to the yellow Lab. “You’re going to be my protector.”
