Part 2
“Where is the room?”
“I don’t know the street.” Tessa’s breathing quickened. “Please don’t make me know the street.”
“You don’t have to. Tell me anything you remember.”
“There’s music on the other side. Really loud sometimes. And a door that goes up, like our garage, only bigger.”
Daniel contacted the officers in the hallway. His voice remained level, but the information changed everything around them. Ortiz stepped away to make another call, and someone asked station security to preserve footage from the entrances. Tessa pressed both palms against the fox.
“The man was there when we left.”
“Do you know his name?”
“Cal.”
“Did he say where he was taking the other children?”
She shook her head. “He says things, but then he does something else.”
Daniel had been preparing another question. He let it go.
“Okay.”
“He told Eli that once.”
“Who’s Eli?”
“The biggest boy. He said he was going to take him home.”
Tessa’s fingers dug into the toy.
“Then Eli came back?”
“He was crying.”
Daniel kept his face as still as he could. Outside the office, a printer started, stopped, and started again.
“Eli’s still in the room?”
Tessa nodded.
“Who else?”
She named a girl called Nora and two boys, Mason and Ben. Then she touched the fox’s repaired ear.
“And June. She’s little. She doesn’t talk when he’s there.”
Daniel repeated the names to the officers outside. He didn’t ask Tessa to tell him what had happened to Eli. There would be people who knew how to hear that account without making her carry it twice. When he returned to his place on the floor, she was looking at the open door.
“Are you going to go now?”
“Not yet.”
“You keep standing up.”
“I’m getting people looking for them.”
“Oh.”
A woman named Ruth Bennett arrived carrying a canvas bag and wearing a cardigan over plain clothes. She introduced herself to Tessa without reaching for her, then asked whether she could put a cup of water on the desk. Tessa agreed to the water. She refused the blanket Ruth offered.
“Do you want to keep your jacket on?” Ruth asked.
The girl nodded.
“That’s fine.”
Ruth pulled a chair beside the desk and sat sideways, leaving the path to the door clear. Daniel liked her immediately for that small adjustment.
Within an hour, Detective Evelyn Brooks came to the office with information from Tessa’s hometown near Roanoke. A nine-year-old girl named Tessa Ward had been missing for eleven days. Her parents had reported the disappearance, and the photograph in the report showed a child wearing a green shirt and holding the same battered fox.
Brooks showed the picture to Daniel in the hallway. He recognized the repaired ear before he looked at the face. Vance had been arrested after officers confirmed the missing-child report with Tessa’s parents.
“Her parents?” he asked.
“We’ve reached them through the detective handling the original case. They’re on their way.”
“Does Vance know the family?”
“She appears to have known people in their neighborhood. We’re checking the rest.”
Daniel looked through the office window. Ruth was sitting with her hands folded while Tessa drank from the cup in two careful swallows.
“And the other children?”
“Security found a van dropping Vance and Tessa at the side entrance. We have the plate. Units are following that up now.”
Brooks spoke without promising more than she knew. Daniel was grateful for it. He had already heard enough promises that morning from the wrong person. Inside, Ruth asked Tessa whether she wanted to hear her mother’s voice.
“You found her?”
“Yes.”
“She’s alive?”
Ruth glanced at Daniel, then back at Tessa. “Yes, honey. She’s alive.”
Tessa put the cup down so abruptly that water spilled across the desk. She stared at the little spreading puddle.
“She said they couldn’t find her.”
Daniel took a paper towel from beside the sink. He blotted the water without asking Tessa to move.
“Your parents have been looking for you.”
The girl rubbed at a wet place on her jacket cuff. “For all the days?”
“For all of them.”
Ruth arranged the call through the detective who had verified the family. When the phone rang, Tessa drew her feet beneath her chair and tucked the fox under her chin. Her mother’s voice came through the speaker.
“Tessa?”
The girl didn’t answer.
“It’s Mom. I’m here.”
Tessa’s mouth opened, then closed again. Daniel could hear another adult breathing near the phone. A man said something too quietly for him to make out, and the woman tried again.
“Dad’s with me. We’re coming to get you.”
Tessa looked at Ruth. “Do I have to talk?”
“No.”
Her mother heard. “You don’t have to,” she said quickly. “I’ll talk. Okay? You can just listen.”
For a few seconds she seemed unable to think of anything to say. Then she began telling Tessa about the kitchen at home. The light over the sink was still flickering. Scott had bought a replacement bulb but hadn’t put it in. Their neighbor had watered the plants, and the fern was looking much better than it ever did when she watered it herself.
Tessa made a tiny noise into the fox’s head.
“What, baby?”
“The fern’s fake.”
Her mother laughed once, a broken sound followed by a sharp breath. “You’re right. That’s the other one. I can’t think straight.”
Tessa pressed the fox harder against her mouth. Daniel looked down at Boone and worked his thumb beneath the harness strap, checking a fit he had checked before they left home.
The call stayed brief. Ruth told the parents where they would meet their daughter and promised that someone would keep them informed. Tessa listened until the connection ended, then asked for the water again. A train sounded outside.
She spilled some trying to lift the cup. Daniel reached for it, but she pulled it back.
“I can do it.”
He withdrew his hand. “Okay.”
She drank, set the cup down, and wiped her own chin with her sleeve. After a while, she looked at him.
“Will my mom ask why I went?”
“I don’t know what she’ll ask.”
Tessa picked at the fox’s ear. “I thought it was a ride.”
“You can tell her that.”
“What if she says I should’ve known?”
Daniel felt the temptation to answer for a woman he had never met. Instead, he glanced at Ruth, who leaned forward slightly.
“Would you like me to help you tell her?” she asked.
Tessa considered that. “Maybe.”
The radio at Daniel’s shoulder clicked. He stepped into the hallway to answer.
The van’s registration listed an address on the south side of Richmond. Officers sent to check it found the same van behind a small warehouse used by an upholstery business. The business occupied part of the building; storage rooms had been rented separately. A patrol unit was watching from a distance while more officers arrived.
Brooks met him by the office door. “The details fit,” she said. “Music from the next unit. A loading door. We’re going in.”
Daniel looked at Boone. He had worked with the dog for four years. Boone could search a building for a person hidden from sight, but Daniel would need to know where officers had already been and where it was safe to work. He asked Brooks to arrange that with the team on the scene.
Inside the office, Tessa saw him pick up the leash. “You’re going.”
“Yes.”
Her hand slid off Boone’s shoulder.
“I’m going to help look for the others.”
She looked at Ruth, then at the narrow opening of the door. “You said you were staying here.”
“I did say that. I meant we weren’t going out to the train. Now I need to help find the others. Ruth will go with you to the hospital so a doctor can check you, and Boone will come with me.”
Daniel crouched again. “I’ll come see you afterward if they’ll let me.”
“When?”
“I can’t tell you exactly.”
She stared at him for a long moment. He let her. Then she looked down at Boone.
“June hides,” she said. “In small places. Eli tells her to. So Cal won’t see her.”
Daniel passed that information to Brooks before they left. Tessa touched the dog once more.
“Cal says dogs bite kids.”
Daniel loosened his grip on the leash and let Boone settle beside him. The dog nudged his closed hand, then sniffed at the pocket where Daniel kept his treats.
“This one’s looking for his snack,” Daniel said.
Tessa watched him give Boone a small reward. “Does he get one for finding people?”
“Usually.”
“Give him two for June.”
Daniel nodded. “I can do that.”
She held the fox toward Boone. He sniffed it, then turned back to Daniel’s pocket.
“He doesn’t like it,” she said.
“He likes it fine. It just isn’t food.”
The corner of her mouth moved. Daniel stood before he could turn leaving into another promise. Ruth stayed beside Tessa while a hospital liaison arranged their transport. Ortiz accompanied them, and Brooks walked out with Daniel.
The drive took less than twenty minutes. Near the warehouse, Daniel turned off the main road and followed another police vehicle along a narrow service lane.
The van was backed toward an open loading bay. No children were visible. Officers had taken positions around the building, and one of them came to Daniel’s window to tell him what they knew.
A man had gone inside carrying a bundle of clothes. Nobody else had come out. Daniel got Boone from the vehicle and kept him close while they approached. From beyond the loading door, a man’s voice rose over the music coming through the wall. “Everybody in the van. Now…”
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