Vanished. Margaret Daley

shoulders hunched.

      When she was gone, J.T. came closer to Madison and sat in the chair next to the couch. For some reason her presence helped him feel as though he wasn’t totally alone in this. They had worked well last year on the murder case and she was very good at her job. That thought comforted him. “So you left the state police to join the FBI. Where’s the rest of the team?”

      “They’re coming. Probably twenty minutes behind me. I think I broke a few speed limits getting here.” She tossed a wry half grin then sobered. “I know what you must—”

      “Who’s the agent in charge?” He couldn’t take her pity and sympathy at the moment. He wasn’t that strong.

      “Matthew Hendricks. He’s good at finding people. That’s why the Chicago office is handling this instead of the small one in Central City.”

      Susan came into the living room with a mug. “I talked Kim into eating the ham sandwich I had for her earlier.” She handed the coffee to Madison. “Can I get you anything else?”

      “No, thanks.” Madison sipped her coffee. “This is just what I needed.”

      “J.T., we’ve almost got everything packed up to move down to the station. We should be ready to leave in a few minutes.” His secretary started back toward the kitchen. “Glad you’re here, Madison.”

      Madison flipped open her cell phone. “I’ll call Matthew and let him know to meet us at the sheriff’s office on Lake Shore Drive.”

      While J.T. listened to her talk to the agent in charge, a restless energy hummed through him. He shot to his feet and began to pace. When she finished her call, he stopped in front of her, hands stuffed into his pants’ pockets. He remembered her efficiency and professionalism and was glad to see a familiar face.

      She took several more sips of her coffee, then placed it on the coaster on the table in front of her. “Okay. That should keep me going. Show me where Ashley was last seen.”

      “Kim saw her on the swing last, probably right before she was—kidnapped.” The word stuck in his throat. Thinking about that shook him to his core. He could have lost both daughters today. Kim had been so close—an unlocked door away. He couldn’t get that realization out of his mind.

      “What time was that?”

      “Kim saw her at about five-thirty. I came home at six-thirty.” He recited the facts he’d learned earlier from his daughter as though this was just another case. If he let his emotions rule him, he would fall apart. He couldn’t afford that. Not when Ashley’s life depended on him keeping a level head.

      “So she disappeared some time between five-thirty and six-thirty. We can start building a time frame.”

      J.T. headed for the front door. “Let’s go around to the back this way. If Susan has finally managed to get Kim to eat something, I don’t want us to interfere by going through the kitchen.”

      Madison stepped out onto the small porch first. “Any evidence at the scene?”

      “We found one of Ashley’s shoes in the grass under a swing.” When he followed her, he saw a news crew from Central City setting up in the street behind the barricade his deputies had erected to keep people away from the scene. He had been to hundreds of crime scenes in his career as a law enforcement officer, but never at his own home.

      “A tennis shoe? They don’t come off easily.” Madison strode toward the wooden gate at the side of the house and pushed aside the yellow tape slashed across it.

      “No, a slip-on, so in a struggle it could have come off.”

      “But Kim didn’t hear anything?”

      “No. She said she checked on Ashley when she first went outside to play, then she moved back to the couch across the room to talk on the phone.”

      Madison stared into space, a good minute of silence passing. “Still, if there had been much of a struggle, she should have heard something.”

      “I particularly asked Kim about that. There wasn’t anything unusual. All she heard was a dog barking two houses down.”

      “Which way.”

      J.T. pointed east. “That way. The Morgans. They have an American Eskimo.”

      “Maybe the abductor came that way and stirred up the dog. I’ll check on that when I interview them.”

      “I already did. Or rather, I discovered neither Jill nor Ross Morgan were home at that time. Some of the people on the street work in Central City and hadn’t gotten home yet.”

      “Convenient time to take someone.”

      He massaged the taut muscles in his neck. “Yes, my thinking exactly.”

      “Do you mind if I interview Kim later? Maybe she’ll remember something she’s forgotten in the trauma of finding out her sister is missing.”

      “Sure. I know the drill. We’ll do anything to bring Ashley back.”

      “Has the scene been processed?” She hung back, not going more than a few feet inside the gate.

      J.T. came up behind her. “Yes, the crime scene unit from Central City finished about an hour ago.”

      “That was fast.”

      “I know the police chief, and I wanted them to start when they at least had some daylight. There wasn’t much we found except the shoe and a set of footprints behind there.” He indicated the group of trees and bushes along the chain-link fence at the back of the yard. “Most of the area is grassy except for a small spot.”

      “What size?”

      “Cowboy boots, size ten. It rained enough earlier today that it would have washed away any previous prints.”

      “Did you take a casting?”

      He nodded, then realized she couldn’t see his answer because she was facing away from him, surveying the yard. “Yes. Ashley had a fort in the bushes. She played there a lot. In fact, when I first came out that was where I thought she was hiding.” He gestured toward the largest one that served as Ashley’s fort, then toward a chain-link gate not five feet away from it. “There are two ways into the yard.”

      “So if someone took Ashley, he probably used the back one.”

      “That’s what I’d do. Less chance of being seen since the woods are directly behind my property.” A few raindrops spattered him. “Great, more rain.”

      “Which doesn’t help.” Madison held her hand out flat as if gauging the intensity of the rain.

      J.T. took a step toward the gate. “We fingerprinted the swing set and anything else we could.”

      “Both gate handles?”

      “Yes,” he answered in a tight voice as she walked past him. “I know my job. My deputies know their job.”

      She turned then and stared up at him. “I know, but I still need to ask. You don’t want any mistakes in this case. Especially this one. You know how important the crime scene can be.” She again scanned the yard. “Even with the lights on, it’ll be hard to see anything tonight, especially if it starts raining harder. I’ll come back tomorrow. Did your next-door neighbors see anything?” Madison headed back around front, her short brown hair beginning to get wet.

      J.T. hurried his steps. “Nothing. One wasn’t even home at the time and the other one is an older lady with a hearing problem. She was watching TV on the far side of the house from four until I knocked on her door at a little before seven.”

      “So you interviewed all the neighbors on your street?”

      J.T. opened his front door and let Madison go into his house first. “There was only one neighbor I didn’t talk to. I figured if anyone saw something it would be a neighbor, but no one did.”