Chapter 54
54
ASHER
“Missing, how?” Summer asked, gaping at me.
I drew in a slow breath and tried to control my rising panic. Losing it wouldn’t help anyone. “Frannie left Marcy alone in the kitchen for a few minutes, and when she came back, she was gone.”
Summer frowned. “Surely Dean has her.”
I shook my head. “Dean was outside shoveling the drive. Frannie has already checked. He doesn’t know where Marcy is either.”
“She’s a baby. She can’t have just gotten up and walked away.”
My stomach knotted. “Exactly.”
That was what I was most scared of. If Frannie had left Marcy in a highchair, as she’d said, and neither of her parents had moved her, then someone else must have done. She couldn’t have gotten down by herself.
I held out my hand to Summer and when she took it, I pulled her to her feet. “I wish we could lie around and have a lazy morning, but I told Frannie we’d drive straight over.”
“Of course.” Her tone was brisk now, and she pulled her hand away and started opening her drawers and tossing items of clothing on the bed. “Let’s get moving. Are you going to feed Cookie first?”
“I fed her earlier, when Liam called. She’ll be fine.”
I hurried to the kitchen, quickly cleaned myself, and found a set of clothes in the bag my parents had packed. I’d run out of underwear, so I had to go commando. I’d just have to hope nothing sensitive would get caught in the zipper of my jeans.
I grabbed my jacket from where it was slung over the back of the sofa and glanced out the window. Snow was falling heavily. Good thing we’d left the chains on Summer’s Ute last night because we’d been too tired by the time we got back to her place to remove them.
Summer appeared in the doorway, a bag slung over her shoulder and the keys in her hands. “Ready?”
“Yeah.” I leaned over the sofa to pat Cookie, then followed Summer outside. She was already behind the wheel, and I got in the passenger side. As soon as I shut the door, she took off. She drove as quickly as she could to Frannie’s place, but with all the snow, she could only go so fast without endangering us.
Somehow, despite the police car parked out front, Frannie’s house was as picturesque as ever, with its white picket fence and snow covering the garden and roof. We followed the footsteps through the snow to the front door and I knocked but opened the door without waiting for anyone to answer.
I went straight to the living room and Summer followed behind. I wasn’t sure if she’d been in Frannie’s home before, but I didn’t think so. Voices came from the living room, along with the sound of a woman crying.
My heart seized. Frannie .
I strode through the doorway, immediately taking in the scene. My sister sat on the sofa, her shoulders heaving as she sobbed. Dean was rubbing her back and Mum sat on her other side, looking as though she wanted to hug Frannie but wasn’t sure whether she’d welcome it.
Dad stood behind Mum. Nate was squatting in front of Frannie, and Officer Mehrtens hovered to his left. That left an armchair free. I dropped onto it and patted my thigh. Summer glanced at Nate, as if debating whether being affectionate with me would upset him, but then she lowered herself onto my lap.
“Thanks for coming,” Dad said.
“There’s no sign of her?” I asked, holding tightly to Summer in an attempt to conceal my distress. Frannie didn’t need me falling apart on her.
“Not yet,” Nate said, turning toward us. “I need to get a full statement from Frannie and Dean so I can coordinate a search properly, but in the meantime, I’d like the rest of you to search the house and property.”
“We’ve already—” Dean started.
“Do it again.” Nate cut him off. “Babies are small. Perhaps she slid behind something, and you didn’t see her the first time.”
“But wouldn’t she be crying?” Summer asked.
Nate’s nostrils flared. “We don’t have any time to waste. Get to it.”
Summer nodded and stood. I got up too, and we gestured for Mum and Dad to join us nearer the door so that Nate could continue speaking with Frannie without us interrupting.
“Mum, you go through the bedrooms and the bathroom,” I said, automatically taking charge since I was on the local search and rescue team and had more experience with this than they did, even if the searches I was part of were usually in the forest. “Summer, I want you to check the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. Dad and I will search outside.”
No one argued. I zipped my jacket up and turned to Dad. “You take the front of the property, and I’ll do the back. If you finish before me, come and give me a hand.”
We split up. I went out through the back door and instantly doubted that I’d have any luck tracking Marcy. There were no footprints in the snow. In fact, it didn’t seem to have been disturbed at all. Still, I had to make sure.
Carefully, I took three steps down to the lawn. Almost the entire backyard was lawn, except for a narrow strip of rose bushes along the fence, which was much taller around here than it was at the front of the property. It would be difficult for someone to climb it, but not impossible.
I paced the perimeter of the fence, checking for anything out of place.
No luck.
I walked back and forth across the lawn, just in case Marcy had somehow gotten out here and become covered by the snow. I was halfway done when Dad opened the gate and pushed hard, dislodging the snow that blocked the way.
“Need help?” he asked.
“I’m just double checking she isn’t under here somewhere,” I explained.
“I’ll do the same thing, and we can meet in the middle.”
“She wasn’t out the front?”
“No.”
“Any sign someone had been there?”
He grimaced as he began matching me step for step, coming toward me. “Not in the garden, but we’ve had so many people in and out of the house to know for sure who all the footprints belong to.”
My heart sank, even though I hadn’t expected anything different. “Did you notice any footprints when you arrived?”
He turned and started back the other way. “Yes, but Dean had been outside so they could have belonged to him.”
“Damn.”
I had an awful suspicion that Marcy’s disappearance was related to everything else that had gone wrong lately, and if that was the case, it would be my fault. Whoever was behind those incidents was targeting me.
When Dad and I reached each other, we returned inside. Nate was no longer speaking to Frannie but was on his phone. Both Summer and Mum were in the room, indicating they must have already completed their searches too.
Nate hung up and pocketed his phone. He faced us, his expression grim. “I don’t want to scare anyone needlessly, but the fact Marcy isn’t on the property doesn’t bode well. I don’t see how she could have left on her own, and Frannie and Dean seem sure that no one they know would have come by to collect her for any reason.”
Nate’s eyes briefly met mine, and I saw in them the same concerns I had. “Because of that, we have to treat this as a possible abduction. Connor is initiating a search of the buildings in the forest surrounding the township in case someone took Marcy to one of the unoccupied huts. Meanwhile, I will coordinate a search within the town boundaries.”
Frannie hiccupped, and when I glanced over, tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes were puffy and red.
“We’ll do everything we can to find her,” Officer Mehrtens told her gently. “Connor and Nate have run searches like this before. They know what they’re doing.”
Frannie shook her head but didn’t speak.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. No doubt it was Connor, mobilizing the team.
“I’ll join Connor’s search effort,” I said.
Summer moved to my side. “So will I.”
I frowned down at her. “You don’t have any training.”
A challenge glinted in her eyes. “Either you let me come with you, or I’ll go out on my own.”
I huffed. “You’ll have to stick with me at all times and do exactly what I say.”
“I can do that,” she agreed.
Another day, I might have teased her about compliance not being in her nature, but this wasn’t the time for kidding around.
“What can we do?” Dean asked.
“Stay here,” Nate said firmly.
Dean scowled. “But we want to help.”
“The best way you can do that is by being here if Marcy returns. We can’t rule out the fact that whoever has her may not wish her harm, and if she is returned, she’ll need her parents.”
Dean’s lips pressed tightly together but he didn’t argue again.
“We’ll keep you updated,” Nate said, and strode toward the door with Mehrtens on his heels.
When they left, the room fell silent, apart from Frannie’s shuddering breaths.
I dropped to my knees in front of her. “I’m so sorry.”
She stared at me blankly, as if everything inside her was numb. “I don’t care. I just want my baby back.”
I flinched, even though I knew she hadn’t meant anything by the words. “We’ll get her.”
“Excuse me.”
I spun around. Officer Mehrtens stood behind me, a piece of damp paper extended toward me, pinched between her thumb and forefinger.
“This was on Summer’s window,” she said.
My gut tightened. It was the same handwriting as what had been on the rock thrown through my window.
DOES THIS SCARE YOU?