Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MEMPHIS
In just minutes the street had filled with police cruisers. Winn pulled in last, getting out of an unmarked SUV, and rushed over to where we stood. Her officers followed, crowding in close to form a blockade around us.
My entire body trembled as I stood tucked into Knox’s side.
Winn took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “Tell me everything. From the beginning.”
The idea of saying the words—she took my son—made my throat close. Like he knew I wouldn’t be able to do it, Knox held me tighter and spoke for me.
He told her how we’d come to pick up Drake.
How we’d gone to Jill’s house only to find it empty.
How we’d both raced for the center, panicked and frantic, and demanded information from the owner and other caregivers—there hadn’t been much to share.
No one in the building, not the women in the office or the girl in the nursery, had a clue where Jill would take Drake.
All we knew was that Jill had left with him, promising to return soon. And then she’d disappeared.
With every word Knox spoke, the tremors in my limbs amplified until I was sure that if not for his arm around my back, I would have buckled to the icy sidewalk.
Winn soaked in his statement like a sponge, listening without comment until he was finished.
Then she began issuing orders to her officers.
“Get Jill’s information. Start with her car.
Description. License plate. Make and model.
Push an AMBER Alert immediately. Then run her plates and get it out around town.
Dig into her phone after that. See if we can track her to a cell tower. ”
“You got it, Chief.” One of the men took off running for the center’s front doors.
“Search her house,” Winn ordered two other officers.
They rushed off and only seconds later, I flinched at the boom of a door being kicked in.
“Has this ever happened before?” Winn asked.
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Once. She took Drake with her to run home. But she was only gone for a few minutes. I told her she couldn’t do that again.”
“What’s her relationship with Drake?” Winn asked.
“She loves him. She acts like she loves him.” Maybe she loved him too much. My head was spinning. My legs began to crumble.
“Breathe.” Knox held me tighter. “Breathe, Memphis.”
I filled my lungs, the sting in my nose bringing a new set of tears. “Do you think she might have taken him? That she wants to keep him?”
“This is most likely just a miscommunication,” Winn said. “Maybe she had to run to the store or something. You were here early today, right?”
I nodded. “Yes. I usually don’t get here until after five.”
“Okay.” Winn squeezed my hand again and locked her gaze with Knox. The message passed wordlessly between them made my stomach knot tighter. There was dread there. Fear. And sympathy.
He was holding it together for me, but I wasn’t the only one who stood shaking, numb from the cold and panic.
“Why don’t you both wait in the car?” she suggested. “I need to ask more questions and make some calls.”
“Come on, honey.” Knox escorted me to the car, our steps slow because he must have known I didn’t trust my feet. He helped me into the passenger seat, then rounded the hood for the driver’s side. The moment the door was closed, he pulled out his phone and put it on speaker.
Harrison answered on the first ring. “Hi, Knox.”
“Dad.”
One word and Harrison heard the tremble in Knox’s voice. “What’s wrong?”
“We came to get Drake from daycare. He’s gone. Jill, the woman who watches him, took him.”
“Oh, God.” Harrison sucked in a sharp breath. “Call Winn.”
“Already did. They’re pushing an AMBER Alert.”
“I’ll make some calls too.” Without another word, Harrison ended the call.
Knox’s fingers flew across the screen, pulling up another contact. Again, he left it on speaker.
“Thank you for calling The Eloise Inn. How can I help you?” Eloise answered.
“Eloise. It’s Knox.” He repeated the same message and when Eloise gasped on the line, I had to squeeze my eyes shut to keep from crying.
“What can I do?” Eloise asked.
“Help us get the word out. The more people looking for them, the better.”
“On it.”
Knox sighed and stared at his phone, like he wanted to make more calls but couldn’t find the strength to repeat the truth again.
“Is this a bad dream?” I whispered.
He set the phone on his thigh and looked to me, his own eyes full of unshed tears. “It has to be.”
“What if we don’t find him?”
“Don’t go there.” He took my hand, gripping it so fiercely that it hurt my knuckles. But I clung to the pain, clung to him, so that I stayed here, in this car, and didn’t take a step down an unthinkable road. “We’ll find him.”
“We’ll find him.” There was no confidence in my voice. Only fear.
The two of us sat together in the cold car, watching as Winn and her team rushed back and forth between the daycare center and Jill’s house. A crowd was gathering outside the daycare’s doors.
The two women from the office had come outside, both bundled in coats.
They made sure to keep their heads down and not glance our direction as we sat motionless, our short breaths curling into white wisps in the car.
Neither of us thought to turn on the engine, to crank the heat. We were both too stunned.
I sat and stared through the windshield, a prayer running through my mind on loop.
Find him. Find him. Please, let us find him.
“We left his stuff.” Knox’s words startled me as he burst out of the car, running to the sidewalk.
I’d grabbed Drake’s car seat and diaper bag from the nursery. When had I set them down? Before or after we’d gone to Jill’s? I couldn’t remember now. Every minute seemed fuzzy, every second like a lifetime.
A fresh wave of dizziness hit, swirling around the what-ifs that I refused to let myself think, let alone voice.
Knox picked up Drake’s things, carrying them to the backseat. Then he returned to the driver’s seat and, this time, turned the key.
“I can’t sit here,” he murmured. The heat had barely begun to flow from the vents before he was out of the car once more, this time stalking toward Winn.
She stood in Jill’s driveway, talking on the phone.
Knox walked right to her, waiting for her to end the call. The moment she put her phone away, the garage door at Jill’s opened. It was empty. Where there should have been a car, there were only shadows.
Where would she have gone? Drake didn’t have his car seat. What if she got into an accident? Had she gone into town? Maybe she’d ventured downtown for a coffee.
My hand found the door handle and I pushed it open, but before I could step outside, a blaring alarm sounded from my phone. The noise echoed through the air, not just from my phone, but from all the other people.
The AMBER Alert.
For my son.
That shrill sound slashed through my body, slicing to my heart. I clutched my chest, willing my heart to keep beating. Find him. Please, find him.
Two cars pulled into the parking lot, both at almost the exact same time. Other parents were beginning to show to pick up their own children. Their faces were clouded in confusion and sudden worry before they each rushed inside.
Except inside, they’d find their children.
While I had not.
A rush of energy lit my nerve endings into a buzz. Sitting in this car, waiting, was no longer an option. I shoved outside, wrapping my arms around my waist, and hurried to join Knox.
He saw me and swallowed hard, then held out a hand.
I took it and faced Winn. “I can’t sit here. I’m going crazy.”
“We’ve got everyone in the department looking. The alert’s out there. Let’s hope we get a call.”
“What if I just headed into town? Maybe I’ll bump into her. Maybe she went to the store or Christmas shopping. She said she’d be back before I showed up. It’s almost five.”
“It would be better if you stayed here,” Winn said. “In case we need information.”
“You could call me.” My eyes watered. “Please. Please don’t make me sit here and watch. If this was Hudson . . .”
“Okay.” She blew out a deep breath. “All right. Keep your phone close.”
“I will.” I moved to take a step, but before I could walk away, Knox’s hand shot out and clasped around my elbow.
“Wait, honey.”
“What?” I spun. “Are you coming too?”
“We need to tell Winn the whole story.”
“What whole story?” she asked.
It took me a moment to read his face. Then realization hit me and my stomach did a cartwheel.
Oliver. My parents. The woman who’d tried to blackmail them for money.
“Do you think this is related?” I asked Knox.
“I don’t know.” His forehead furrowed. “But if it is, Winn needs the truth.”
All this time, we’d waited for my parents to contact us. We’d endured their silence, hoping for the best possible outcome. Except what if that had been a mistake? What if Drake had been a target for months? What if we could have stopped this from happening?
“Memphis.” Winn placed her hand on my shoulder, pulling me out of my head. “Talk to me.”
“Last month, around Thanksgiving, my parents showed up in Quincy. Our relationship is . . . strained. They came because a woman was blackmailing them. She threatened to expose Drake’s father’s name. To tell people who his father is.”
“Who is his father?” she asked.
I looked to Knox.
Knox was Drake’s father. In all of the important parts of that label, Knox was Drake’s dad.
They just didn’t share the same DNA.
“His name is Oliver MacKay,” I said, then told her the whole story.
Winn planted her hands on her hips. “Could they have taken Drake? Oliver or his wife or her family?”
“I don’t know.” Maybe they wanted him after all. Or maybe this was Oliver’s wife’s punishment for his infidelity.
“Chances are, Jill has him,” Winn said. “You said she loves him. The daycare owner confirmed that Drake’s her favorite, by far. Given that, my hunch is that she’s probably overstepped. She took him on a walk to a park or downtown or to visit a friend.”
“But . . .” Knox voiced the doubts written on Winn’s face.