Adults were supposed to make sure that things like this didn’t happen to kids.

“Go home. Get some sleep,” he said.

“You’re not going home,” Rena accused.

He shrugged. “I may see where they’re at with the search.”

Rena sighed. “I’ll go with you.”

Five

A.L. felt as if somebody had rubbed sandpaper across his eyes. At midnight, all non-law-enforcement volunteers had been sent home. He and Rena had stayed on, ultimately covering miles before it had started to rain about three and the search had been suspended. A.L. had hit his bed around three thirty and his alarm had rung at six. A hot shower and a bucket of coffee later, he was now upright and going over his notes from the previous day. Rena was at her desk, on her phone. Her voice was low and she was turned in her chair, likely in an effort to have a little privacy in a shared office space where there was no real hope for that.

When she hung up, he watched her face. Her jaw was tight and her face flushed with color. He didn’t ask. If she wanted to tell him, she would.

“Coffee?” he asked, holding up his cup.

She shook her head. Looked at the watch on her wrist. “Search team has been out for fifteen minutes.”

Yeah, pretty much once there was adequate daylight. “Almost twenty-four hours,” he said. Way too damn long for a five-year-old to be unaccounted for.

Now Rena was staring at her computer screen. “Confirmation that houses and vehicles of Kara Wiese, Troy and Leah Whitman, and Elaine Broadstreet have been searched. Also, the supervisor of Sam Wiese, Kara’s husband, has verified that he was at work as expected.”

“And there was no five-year-old hidden in his employee locker?”

Rena rolled her eyes. “I guess not. Is that where your head is going? That Kara Wiese is the one who is lying?”

“As opposed to the grandmother? Hell, I don’t know,” A.L. said. “We need to talk with the other teachers.” Alice might have talked with all of them the day before but now they would have to wade deeper.

“I think we should start with Claire Potter,” Rena said. “She’s in the same room as Kara Wiese.” Rena looked at her watch. “It’s pretty early. Maybe we should wait a little while.”

“Not waiting. Who’s the other teacher?”

“Tanya Knight. And the cook, Benita Garza.”

“Okay. I saw Ferguson on my way in. Faster pulled him off the scene. The FBI said they could handle it. So he’s an available resource if we need him. I’d say we see if he can do those two interviews this morning. After we talk to Claire Potter, I want to go see Milo at Milo’s Motors.”

“To verify that Elaine Broadstreet was at work yesterday?” Rena asked.