Chapter Seventy-Six

Lena’s stomach had dropped when Dane had driven away. He’d promised her he’d be back and that they would keep going until they found her daughter…but she wasn’t so sure.

What if he didn’t come back? What if his team abandoned her? What would she do?

Molly tugged on her hand, and Lena quickly pulled her lips up into a reassuring smile. They’d been driven to the police station and were now ensconced in a comfortable interview room with Officer Lucas, the cop who’d brought them. Molly’s little sister, Hannah, had been hanging onto Lena like a baby monkey ever since she’d woken up from the gas.

Molly had finally been able to tell them their last name.

“We haven’t found any missing persons reports on Molly or Hannah Myers,” the officer said with his brows pulled together. “Why wouldn’t they have reported their kids missing?”

Lena swallowed and said, “The man who kidnapped them would have threatened their lives if the parents went to the authorities.” She turned to Molly. “Sweetie, do you remember your phone number yet?”

They’d asked the little girl twice already, and she’d just started crying. Lena decided to try a different approach when it appeared the same thing was going to happen again.

“I have an idea,” Lena said while using her free hand to make a drawing motion. The officer handed over a piece of paper and a jumbo crayon. It was brown and broken, but holding it seemed to calm Molly slightly.

“Let’s play a game,” Lena said to her. “Can you write your name for me?”

Molly nodded enthusiastically and took up most of the paper to draw her name, both “Ls” were backward, but Lena smiled and praised the little girl.

“Can you draw me a picture of your house?” she pressed, having to change to another piece of paper when she asked her to draw her school.

“I ride the bus to school. Hannah still goes to baby school.”

Lena grinned conspiratorially. “What is the name of your big-girl school?”

Without hesitation, the little girl spouted out, “Waldo Pafford Elementary.”

Officer Lucas let out a quick breath and started typing on a laptop computer. All Lena could think was how glad she was the girl didn’t go to a school with common name.

“Hinesville, Georgia,” the officer said.

“Do you girls live in Hinesville?” Lena asked excitedly. They both nodded. “Officer Lucas, can you give us a hint on that phone number?”

The younger officer looked up at her for a second, then nodded. “Let’s see. I’m going to guess your phone number starts with…” He made a show out of pretending to think really hard. “Nine-one-two?” He waited with his face scrunched up until Molly laughed and nodded.

“Good job, Officer Lucas. Can you guess the next three?”

“Hmm. Maybe…eight-seven-seven?”

Molly clapped her hands. “Yes!”

Myers was a pretty popular last name. Lena would gladly help to call every one of them in the phone book. They could wait until the next morning to contact the school and follow up that way, but it would be quicker and easier if Molly could just tell them her number. “Molly, your turn. What are the last four numbers?”

Using her fingers, she held up each number as she said them.

The officer gave her a thumbs-up and turned away with the phone.

Not being familiar with Georgia, Lena wasn’t sure how far Hinesville was from Savannah. It turned out it wasn’t far, at all.

Less than an hour later, their parents came rushing into the station. The girls screamed with excitement and ran into their open arms.

Lena hated the twinge of envy that washed over her a second before she allowed herself to be happy for the family and hopeful that she would soon be reunited with her own daughter.

“Good job,” Officer Lucas said, patting her on the shoulder.

At the parents’ request, Lena sat with them while they were questioned about what had happened. Mr. Myers explained that he had worked for Viktor only long enough to figure out what was going on. He’d contacted the local police, but they’d brushed it off as a disgruntled employee making trouble for his employer. Viktor had grabbed up his kids to make sure he didn’t push any harder to be heard.

“I tried to do the right thing,” the father said, “but if I had contacted the police, he would have killed them.”

Or worse, Lena thought, as fear stabbed through her chest.

What would Viktor do to Kenzie when he found out Lena had betrayed him?

At that exact moment, her phone rang.

She was about to find out the answer to her question.