LITMIR.BIZ

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neighbor did you not talk to?”

      The muscles in his neck ached, pain radiating from his shoulder blades down his back. He again kneaded his nape, but nothing relieved the tightness. “Mrs. Goldsmith left for Central City a little before six to do some shopping and won’t be back until probably ten, according to her husband.”

      “Mr. Goldsmith can’t reach her on her cell?”

      “She doesn’t have a cell.”

      “Oh.” Madison walked through the living room toward the kitchen. “We’ll need to talk to her as soon as she returns. She might have seen something and not realized its importance.”

      “Yeah, I told Bob that. He’ll call when she comes home, which should be anytime now.”

      While Madison went into the kitchen, J.T. hung back, watching her introduce herself again to Kirk and Rachel, even though they had all worked on last year’s murder case together. His daughter sat at the table, a couple of bites taken out of the ham sandwich sitting on a plate before her. Her pale features, too-shiny eyes and hunched shoulders revealed the strain the past few hours had taken on her. Unless Ashley was found soon, he knew the stress had only just begun.

      “Besides canvasing the neighborhood, what other searches have been done?”

      Although Madison had asked Kirk the question, J.T. moved into the room and said, “We have searched the usual places kids like to hang out and any place Ashley is familiar with. We have checked with all her friends and classmates.”

      Madison turned toward him as a flash of lightning, followed almost immediately by a clap of thunder, rocked the house. “How about the area behind your yard?”

      With a box in his hands, Kirk skirted around Madison and headed toward the front of the house. “I’m in charge of organizing a search of that area all the way to the lake and the lake itself first thing tomorrow morning. The terrain is rough and would be difficult to search properly in the dark even with lights. We’ve got some firefighters and police coming from Central City to help us. We’ll be using Central City’s K-9 unit along with some search-and-rescue teams. They should be here an hour or so before dawn. Hopefully the rain will let up by then. That’s what the weather report says.”

      “Isn’t it likely if there was a kidnapper, that he took her out that way since none of the neighbors saw anything unusual?” Madison asked Kirk as she trailed after him.

      In the living room away from Kim, J.T. caught Madison’s arm and halted her progress. Another rumble of thunder vibrated the air. Tension whipped down his length. “There’s no if in this. Ashley has been kidnapped.”

      Madison glanced down at his hand on her then back up into his eyes. He instantly dropped his arm away as though touching her had burned him.

      “I agree this is most likely a kidnapping, J.T. Until we discover otherwise, our standard procedure is to assume a child is in immediate danger and act accordingly. It’s better to do that rather than think she’s missing or a runaway. We don’t want to miss any clues.”

      She was giving him information he already knew, but he realized it was her way of keeping a rein on his emotions, which could so easily run rampant if he allowed them. “I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”

      She stepped closer and laid her hand on his arm, the touch meant to reassure. Strangely it did. “We are. I promise you we’ll do everything humanly possible to bring your daughter home.”

      Day one, 5:00 a.m.: Ashley missing for ten and a half hours

      Madison scrubbed her hands down her face. Her eyes stung from the sleepless night spent at the sheriff’s office, now the command center for the missing child case. The rest of the FBI agents had arrived right after they had moved to the station to set up the new command post away from the victim’s house.

      Just the mere thought of the word victim, in reference to J.T.’s little girl, chilled Madison. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the anguish J.T. and his family were going through, and yet he was in the middle of the investigation as though the child missing was someone else’s. Professional. Staunch.

      She’d tried to get him to back off and let his deputies and the FBI work the case, but he wouldn’t. Since he was the sheriff as well as the parent, he wanted to be in on it every step of the way. There was a part of her that understood his need, and yet she also knew the danger of being so emotionally invested in a case. Ashley wasn’t her child, but she knew the little girl from the summer before. J.T. and his family had made her feel welcome when she had been here with this department working on the murder. Her emotions were involved more than she wished.

      Madison found J.T. standing in front of the time line her boss had constructed on a large dry erase board. At the moment there was little information about Ashley posted. The bleak look in J.T.’s expression spoke of how taxing the situation was for him. But he was going over the information on the board with Matthew Hendricks as though this wasn’t his daughter they were discussing.

      J.T.’s faith was strong like hers. Was that what was holding him together? What a test of his faith! Throughout the past night she’d prayed silently on a number of occasions for Ashley’s safe return. From the distant look that would appear from time to time in J.T.’s eyes, she suspected he had, too.

      Heavenly Father, give us some kind of direction. We’ve got everything set up and ready to go but no leads to speak of. Where do we start? Where do we go from here?

      “I made some fresh coffee.” Susan placed a steaming mug in front of Madison. “That’s the least I can do since I returned to the station. There’s no arguing with J.T. when he sets his mind on something. I didn’t want to go home to sleep.”

      “A few people needed to get some sleep. I hope you were able to.” Madison put her hands around the warm mug.

      “Not much, but I did manage to close my eyes for a while. Then I’d see Ashley’s face and I just couldn’t get any sleep. She is so dear and sweet. J.T. dotes on her. You should see them together when she comes down to the station. Such patience, showing her what he does. I just don’t understand how someone could take—” Distress on her face, Susan shook her head. “Sorry. I shouldn’t go on like that. And certainly J.T. doesn’t need to hear me carrying on. He’s got enough to deal with.”

      “I don’t see how anyone could ever take a child, but it happens and the parents’ lives are never the same.”

      “Even when the child is found?”

      “Their sense of security is stripped away.”

      A thoughtful expression appeared on Susan’s face. “Ah, I never considered that.”

      The aroma of the brew flavored the air and for a few seconds Madison shut her eyes and relished the smell. “Thanks for the coffee. I was about to tape my eyelids open.”

      J.T.’s secretary chuckled. “I know the feeling. It’s been a long night for everyone here.”

      “And today will be a long day.” Madison rose from the desk she had commandeered from one of the deputies. “How’s J.T. holding up?” She’d been reviewing the neighbors’ statements and had been working on a list of people to interview again while J.T., her boss and Kirk had finalized the search protocol and gone over the case to date.

      “I don’t know how he keeps going. I would have fallen apart hours ago.” Susan walked to the next desk to hand one of the FBI agents a mug of coffee.

      Madison again searched for J.T. in the large room, realizing that periodically throughout the night she had done that very thing. By the time she’d left last summer they had become friends. She hated seeing a friend going through such pain. She wished she could do more for him.

      J.T. moved away from the dry erase board and stopped in front of a table where a map of the region was spread out. He pointed to an area and said something to Matthew. The lead agent nodded, then gestured to another place.

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