“What did you find out?” Dad interrupted, unable to wait on a lengthy explanation.

“I wish I had more information to give you, but these types of investigations take time, and we have to make sure we do everything by the book. There’s no room for mistakes. With that being said, the medical director cleared her for questioning, and normally we would be able to proceed with our investigation, but Kate failed the mental status exam, which puts us in a difficult position.” He spoke quickly before Dad could interrupt him again. “Part of the reason she failed the mental status exam is because it asks basic questions like day of the week and year, and she can’t answer those things correctly. But it’s not because she’s mentally incompetent—she’s been isolated from society for years, so she has no idea how much time has passed.”

“What do you mean by isolated?” Dad asked.

He shrugged. “We’re not sure yet. It could be anything from being kept on the fringes of society to physically locked away somewhere.”

“And you’re sure that’s why she doesn’t know what day it is?” Meredith asked.

I turned to Meredith and raised my eyebrows at her. What was she trying to suggest? That Mom was crazy?

“Absolutely. There are other pieces of evidence too. For example, she hasn’t received any kind of medical or dental care for at least five years. One of her back teeth was yanked out with an instrument, most likely pliers, from an infection that looks like it worked its way into her gums. She never received any care before or after delivery, so her body is pretty beat up from her pregnancy. The umbilical cord was cut with scissors or a knife. Things like that.”

Meredith leaned forward in her seat next to me. She had a weak stomach. It was one of the things we teased her about all the time.

“One of our first priorities is to get her oriented to time and her surroundings. It’s going to be nearly impossible to follow any kind of a timeline without her being grounded in the present at least somewhat. Thankfully, we have a team of experts arriving within the next few hours, and they’re skilled in handling these types of delicate situations,” he said.

Dad’s hand relaxed in mine, and some of the tension left his body. He’d always complained about the police department’s incompetency when Mom went missing. He said they weren’t equipped to handle a crime of that magnitude, and that the FBI should’ve been called in long before they were. We had gotten Dean out of the deal when the FBI finally got involved, but we would always wonder what could’ve happened if he’d gotten there sooner. At least we were going to have the best people working with us from the beginning this time.

“We’re still within the first seventy-two hours of the investigation, so our sole focus is on gathering as much evidence as we can from your mom and other sources. A few of our investigators stumbled across an old RV campground that had recently been abandoned, so our teams have expanded their search to the forests and canyons within a ten-mile radius of that campground as well as the gas station. The gas station attendant has already been interviewed, but he’ll be interviewed again once the expert team arrives. A few truckers along the route have also been identified as potential witnesses, and those interviews are happening as we speak,” Marcos said. “Drafting our media announcement is our first agenda item this morning.”