A.L. and Rena walked back in. “317 Brookline Drive has been searched. Emma isn’t there. Neither is your sister. I need you to call her and find out where the hell they are.”

He could tell the news shook Kara. Her hands fumbled with her phone.

“Put it on Speaker,” he said. “And don’t warn her about the police.”

It rang three times. “Hey, sis,” a woman answered. “I was just about to text you.”

“Why?”

“I just dropped the kid off like we discussed. She should be walking out of the cornfield in ten minutes.”

“You were supposed to do this at noon.”

“I know, but she was getting cranky and crying and I just couldn’t stand it a minute longer. So she gets back a couple hours earlier. People will be happy. I’m heading home.”

A.L. motioned for her to end the call.

“Okay, Catherine. I’ll talk to you later.” Kara hung up before her sister could respond.

“What was the fucking plan, Kara? Where was she getting dropped off? What cornfield?” A.L. demanded.

“The cornfield that backs up to the learning center playground. Catherine was to get her started on a row and tell her to keep walking in a straight line. My job was to make sure somebody saw her when she emerged.”

A five-year-old was alone in a ready-to-harvest field, where the corn easily stretched a foot or more above her head. It would be very easy for her to get disoriented. To lose her way.

They’d pick up the sister later. She’d said she was heading home. Now the priority had to be finding Emma. He’d get another officer to babysit these two. “You stay here,” he said, looking at Kara and her lawyer. Then he focused solely on Kara. “You better hope we find Emma and that nothing bad has happened to her.”

Twenty-Four

He pushed back from the table and was out the door. Rena was on his heels. They ran to the parking lot and got in his SUV. Then he drove fast. While he did that, Rena was on the phone, giving updates, getting officers mobilized to search the immediate area of the learning center.

“Do Troy and Leah know?” A.L. asked when she finished.

“Yeah. They’re aware that 317 Brookline was searched and found empty and that Emma may be walking on her own. I suspect we’ll see them at the learning center.”

He didn’t want to have to look at them if they lost Emma at this point. He knew there was no guarantee that she was still in that field. Two minutes after Catherine had left her, she might have gotten scared and backtracked and could now be wandering anywhere.