“The bodyguards helped her,” Sam said, hearing clicking noises as the pieces began to fit together. “We’ve been looking for Willie’s car on video from the wrong part of town. I’ve got to make a phone call, and then we need to go have a conversation with your friend Elle. Can you find out where she is tonight?”

“Yeah. I’ll take advantage of my lifelong friendship with her husband to get that info for you.”

“If you’d rather not, I’d be happy to call him.”

“I’ll do it.”

When she was alone, Sam took another deep breath and dialed the number Ginger had given her. The phone rang five times before a woman answered. When her eyes filled with tears, Sam closed them, determined to get through this as unemotionally as possible. “Mrs. Moreland?”

“Yes, it is.”

“This is Lieutenant Sam Holland, Metro Police Department in Washington, D.C. We’ve found your daughter.”

* * *

The next two hours would forever go down as some of the most satisfying hours of Sam’s career. Justin and Deanna Moreland arrived fifty-seven minutes after Sam called them, and their reunion with their daughter was full of tears and hugs and the kind of overwhelming joy that Sam didn’t often get to experience as a homicide detective.

Their joy brought her to tears more than once, but she made no attempt to hide them because everyone around her was in the same state. Even the formidable Agent Hill had wiped away a tear or two while watching the reunion of parents with the child they’d feared lost forever.

Ginger’s tough outer facade crumbled the second her mother walked into the room, and she couldn’t seem to stop hugging both her parents.

“I found Amber’s mother,” Hill said, drawing Sam’s attention away from the drama unfolding in the conference room. He handed her a piece of paper.

“Thanks.” Sam wiped her eyes, took a deep breath to calm her emotions and went into her office to call yet another parent who’d waited years to hear this news.

Like the Morelands before her, Alli screamed when Sam relayed the news and managed to stop crying long enough to tell Sam she was leaving right away to come to Washington.

Since she was looking at a long, late night at work, Sam called home while she had the chance.

“Hi there,” Shelby said. “How’s it going?”

“It’s turned into an amazing day around here.”

“How so?”

Sam filled her in on what’d happened at the motel and the reunions taking place between the missing kids and their heartbroken parents.

“Oh, Sam, oh my goodness! How wonderful!”

“Needless to say, I’m going to be here a while. If you need to leave, Scotty can have a sleepover at my dad’s.”