Page 78 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“How long ago did you quit?”

“A few years,” she said. “After my first child.” She made another quick glance toward the other room.

“You were the teacher in Hannah’s classroom the day she disappeared, right?”

Ellen nodded.

“What do you remember about that day?” JP asked.

She took a breath. “I’ve played it over and over in my mind, but it’s still a little blurry. I didn’t know their routine, and that was part of the problem.”

“What kind of routine?” JP asked.

“Walking them out to the crossing guard. I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.” She looked and sounded distressed. “I usually subbed in higher grades. I had never worked in a kindergarten class before.”

“So, you dismissed them from the classroom?”

“Yes,” she said. “Just like any other class I had ever taught in. I didn’t realize that mattered until later.”

“Do you remember Hannah that day?”

Ellen nodded. “Clearly. She was such a sweet little girl. She talked a lot.”

“What did she say?”

“She talked about all kinds of things, then she lowered her voice and asked if she could leave a different way.”

“A different way how?” he asked.

“She didn’t say,” Ellen replied. “But that should’ve been a trigger for me. I should’ve known something was wrong.”

“Do you think she knew there was a problem?”

“I don’t know, but I should’ve pushed for answers. I just had so many kids in the class and they were all tugging at me. It’s so different with the little ones.”

“Did she say anything else that you remember?”

“I don’t think so. It just felt like she didn’t want to do the usual thing, like she was trying to avoid something. Looking back, it’s easy to see that was Hayes.”

“Do you remember anything else?” he asked.

Ellen hesitated. “There was a car out near the street. It wasn’t in the pickup line, but I could see it through the classroom window.”

“Did that car pick up Hannah?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see her after she left the classroom. And the car may not have had anything to do with Hannah. But she was watching the car too from inside the classroom.”

“What kind of car?”

Ellen shook her head. “I couldn’t tell you. I wasn’t paying that much attention.”

“Why did it stand out?”

She thought about it. “I saw Hannah watching it, and so I looked out. It was just sitting there. It probably was nothing. It’s just that after she was abducted, I started to question everything I saw and heard.”

“Did you tell the police?”

“Yes. But I didn’t have enough information to be helpful. I couldn’t even remember the color, much less the make or model. And I couldn’t see who was in it.”