A plan is hatched somehow. The men ask questions. Henry looks back and forth between Alice and Quinn. Alice stands close to Quinn and touches her three times—once her shoulder, twice her arm by her wrist. Quinn flinches only the first and second time. She stands separate from them and says Maddie likes the woods and this is where she thinks she went but this is also where she’s spent the whole night looking for her. There is no naming of the Hudson, which is so close Quinn thinks that she can smell it, though she would not be able to say what the smell is. Soot, wet dirt, whatever fish smell like when they’re frozen under for the winter; maybe, also, what she smells is fear. Everybody’s phone is charged, the men say, and Josh and Martin will go in opposite directions in the woods on trails out toward the water; Henry will go up the mountain that’s part of a state park. Quinn and Alice will walk Main Street; most stores are still open, and they’ll look for Maddie subtly, not wanting to attract attention. They’ll climb the hill on the other side of town, will walk to the woods behind the school that also connects up, three miles straight through, to Alice and Henry’s house. The plan is that they’ll check in via text message every half hour, to report on their progress, any leads (Josh’s word), and, regardless, they’ll meet back here before dark.

Henry hands each of them a big umbrella.

“Might be a storm,” says Josh.

Quinn crosses her arms over her chest and feels Alice watch her: “Do you want . . .” Alice says, starting to take off her scarf.

“I’m fine,” Quinn says.

Kate takes Bea to pick up a few remaining extra groceries at the Food Town.

“I always forget how many eggs I need,” she said to Tess, then she looked sorry. “I’m awful,” she said. “Still fussing about my precious dinner.”

“We still have to eat,” Tess said.

Tess takes over with the children. She figures after a couple more hours in the snow they’ll be worn out enough to sit in front of the TV until this other child’s found. They’ve started their own game, and though it’s much warmer than the day before, the sky is gray and getting darker. The kids all laugh and run and pile over top of one another, and Tess tries not to think about how much time they have left until the storm. A whole half day will pass, and then she’ll bathe them all together; they’ll get dressed in the clothes Kate brought so she can get her picture; they’ll get dressed in the pajamas she sent a couple weeks ago. It was Helen who used to send the holiday pajamas, every year after Thanksgiving.