“Yeah. Until I knocked off and drove here. At first, I was just pissed that the door was locked. And then I was told that all the children had been picked up. I figured that Leah had gotten off work early and picked her up. So I called her. She was still at work. Then I called Elaine.”

Rena had already told him the next part but he wanted to hear it again. “Walk me through that conversation,” he said.

Troy threw a hand up in the air. “I don’t know. I think I said something like ‘I’m at the day care and Emma isn’t here. Do you have her?’”

“And what did Leah’s mom say?”

“She said no. That she hadn’t seen her since she’d dropped her off this morning at the day care. That she’d walked her inside and handed her off to her teacher by the front door.”

“Did she say ‘teacher’ or was she more specific? Did she say a name?”

Troy closed his eyes briefly. “She said Ms. Wiese. That’s what the kids call her. Ms. Wiese.”

“Does Emma know your phone numbers?” He remembered drilling that into Traci’s head when she’d been about four or five.

“Mine. Maybe,” Leah said. “We’ve been working on it.”

“How about your address?”

“I think she would recognize our street and maybe some landmarks along the way to either my mom’s house or to Lakeside Learning Center. Those are the two places that she goes to most of the time.” Leah paused, then looked straight into A.L.’s eyes. “Do you think she wandered off or was she...taken?”

He’d seen two child abductions in his career. Both had been many years ago, before he’d come to Baywood. One had been a noncustodial parent that had ended well after a tense fourteen hours. The other had been much worse. The eight-year-old boy had been killed by his abductor, who was ultimately shot and killed by the police.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“We don’t have any money to speak of,” Leah said. “For a ransom.”

Ransom payments were for the movies. The sick bastards who took kids often had other plans. Not that it was common for kids to be taken by strangers. Most missing children were taken by a noncustodial spouse or other family member. “Emma is your biological daughter?” he asked.

“Yes,” both answered.

“No previous marriages for either of you?”

“No,” Troy said. Leah shook her head.

“Troy, who were you speaking with when we entered the room?” A.L. asked.

“My brother. He lives in Milwaukee.”

“Any other siblings for either of you?” Rena asked.

They both shook their heads.