She held her phone out in front of them and opened up the text. There were no words, just two pictures. One showed only Anne and Mercy. Another showed the two girls with several other young girls. In both of them, Mercy was wearing a light blue Under Armour zip-up windbreaker. It was identical to the one in Brent Halloways bag.

Well, I suppose the good news is that we can now rule Mercy Fuller out as the murderer of her parents, Kate said.

And the bad, DeMarco added, is that we have no idea where Mercy is. We dont even know if shes alive or dead.

Kate realized that this case had now become what she had dreaded from the start. They were not only on the lookout for killer…but they needed to find a fifteen-year-old girl before her abductor took things too far and killed her as well. And if history had taught her anything about these cases, it was that Mercys chances of being found alive became smaller with each minute that passed.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

By one oclock that afternoon, the town of Deton, Virginia, was overcrowded with police cars. There were more from the state sent in to assist with what was now officially being referred to as a murder and abduction case. There were plenty of officers coming in from Richmond, and Barnes had essentially committed every Deton officer to the case.

While Jones Field and all of Blood Gulch Road was being combed over by a total of fifteen officers, Kate and DeMarco were at the Deton police station. They were sitting in the conference room again, this time with Barnes, Foster, and now Brent Halloway. Barnes was currently putting the finishing touches on the last piece of tape to keep a huge area map of Deton and most of the surrounding area, including Deerfield, up on the wall. While hed done this, Foster had brought it an old whiteboard. It was clear that the station was not used to handling cases like this but Kate admired the grit and determination of the small-town police in making sure they remained as thorough as possible despite their lack of resources.

Agent Wise, this is your show, Barnes said, stepping aside from the map.

I appreciate that, she said. But can you stay right up there and draw us a line that runs from the Fuller residence to Jones Field?

Barnes grabbed a Sharpie from the table and leaned in toward the map. He drew a circle and tapped it. This is the Fuller residence, give or take a mile or so, he said. He scanned the map again and drew another circle within five seconds. And heres Jones Field.

He drew a line connecting the two. It covered a pretty good chunk of ground, a fact Kate knew would make their search even harder.

How much real estate is that? DeMarco asked.