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Neither option improves my mood.

Tom drives away toward the highway, but I stay where I am. Because right now, I’m more interested in what went on inside the station than the man leaving it.

The officer at the front desk today is older than yesterday’s. Mid-fifties maybe, reading glasses perched low on his nose, expression permanently arranged into bureaucratic fatigue.

I stride up to the counter. “Hello. I’m trying to confirm whether there’s an active missing person’s case for Maggie Sterling.”

His eyes barely lift. “You a relation?”

“Cousin.”

“We can only release investigative details to immediate family.”

“I’m not asking for details.”

“That’s good, because you’re not getting them.” The response is delivered with all the warmth of a traffic warden issuing a parking ticket.

I rest one hand lightly against the counter. “Sir, a young child is involved.”

His typing slows slightly and looks at me over his glasses.

“Maggie Sterling,” I repeat. “Lives on Cedar Hart Lane.”

“I’m checking.”

He types again. Longer this time. Too long.

Active cases are usually easy to locate, so the wait makes me suspicious.

His forehead furrows as he reads the screen.

Interesting.

Then he says, “Family needs to contact Officer Grant directly.”

“Officer Grant handling the investigation?” I ask.

“I didn’t say that.”

“No,” I agree mildly. “You implied it.”

I hold his gaze in silence until, finally, he removes his glasses. “Sir, if the immediate family has concerns, they can call or come in themselves.”

There.

That’s enough to tell me the situation is incomplete at best.

By the time I leave the station, I’m almost certain there’s no report or investigation, that Tom White is controlling the flow of information. He’s shaping this narrative for his own purposes.

I just don’t know why yet, but I’ll find out.

The rain renews its assault while I sit in the truck again, flooding down the windshield, blotting out Everwood altogether.

I scan the few facts we have where I’ve written them in the margin of the notebook: Maggie missing for roughly two weeks. Tom inconsistent whenever police come up. Laurel uncertain whether a report was ever properly filed.

Then beneath all of it, after a pause:

Question: What benefits Tom if Maggie stays missing unofficially?