I was jarred awake by the sound of my bedroom door opening. Dottie peered into the room. For a moment I was confused. Had I overslept? Why was she here?
But all too soon, the day’s horrors came rushing back.
“Greer? Are you awake? Phone call for you.”
I jumped out of bed, swaying with grogginess. Dottie hurried in and grabbed my arm, steadying me, then handed me the phone. I clutched it as if it were a lifeline.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Dobbins, this is Officer Boyd. Just checking in to let you know I had a look at Neill’s car. It’s been dusted for prints, but since we already know Neill and Ellie were in it, I suspect we won’t get any more information from it. There was nothing else in the car to give us a clue as to their whereabouts. Have you heard anything?”
“No, no one has called. Is there something I can be doing to help you?”
“No. Just sit tight and wait for me or Detective West to call. Let me know if you hear anything.”
I looked at my wristwatch. I hadn’t slept very long. Now that I was awake, I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again. I couldn’t sit around and do nothing. I reached for my purse.
“Where are you going?” Dottie asked.
“Over to the school. I have to talk to Ellie’s teacher.”
“I’m sure the principal and the police have already done that.” I knew Dottie wasn’t trying to keep me from staying active and involved, but that’s the way it sounded.
“I know,” I replied crossly. “It’s just that there might be something she forgot to tell them. Maybe I can get her to remember.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“Can you stay here in case Neill or the police call? I’ll have my mobile on, but the reception at the school is bad. If you hear anything from anyone, call the school and have them page me.” With that, I ran out the door.
When I got to Ellie’s school, there were two police cars in the parking lot. Maureen was back at the front desk. “Any word?” she asked anxiously as I walked in.
“No. I was hoping I could talk to Mrs. Dennis for a few minutes.”
“Sure. Let me call her down. The police have already talked to her. They’re in her classroom now.” She dialed Mrs. Dennis’s classroom and spoke fora moment. She hung up and said, “Mrs. Ravell is in the room with the officers while they’re talking to the kids, so Mrs. Dennis can come to the office now. You can go into the conference room where you talked to the police earlier and have some privacy.”
I thanked her and paced the office while I waited for Mrs. Dennis. When she arrived, she swept over and hugged me. “How are you doing, Dr. Dobbins?”
“Please call me Greer. And I’m not doing too well, as you can imagine.”
She studied my face. “I’m so sorry about all of this. I don’t know what I can tell you that I haven’t already told the police, but let’s go sit down and talk.” She led the way to the conference room, and we sat down opposite each other at the table.
“What would you like to know?” Mrs. Dennis began.
“You can tell me everything you know about Neill.”
“I’ve only talked to him a couple times,” she replied, folding her hands on the tabletop. “I think all of our conversations have been about Ellie’s progress. He seems very involved.”
I nodded.
“I’m so sorry you’re going through this,” she repeated. “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare,” she added unhelpfully. Maybe it was because we were talking about Neill, but Mrs. Dennis was starting to get on my nerves.
“Thank you,” I said. “Does Ellie ever talk about her father?”
She was silent for a moment, then said, “She has mentioned him a couple times. I think the first time she said she doesn’t see him very often, then another time she said he’s from Scotland.”
“But she never said that he tried to contact her?”
Mrs. Dennis shook her head immediately. “No. I’m sure of that.”
“Did she ever say she had plans I might not know about?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
I tried another avenue of questioning. “Has Ellie ever spoken of her family in Scotland?
She thought for a moment before answering. “She’s spoken before of ‘Granny,’ but I wasn’t sure which set of grandparents she was talking about. I don’t even know if there are two sets of grandparents.”
“There are. Ellie doesn’t really know Neill’s parents, but we’ve spoken of them before. We call Neill’s mother Granny and my mother Mimsy.” Mrs. Dennis gave me a strange look. “It’s what my mother wanted,” I explained. “What did Ellie tell you about Granny?”
“Only that Granny has cows and sheep.”
“That’s right,” I said, thinking back to the last encounter I had with my mother-in-law. “Has she ever spoken of any other family?”
Mrs. Dennis shook her head slightly. “No, I don’t think so. If I remember something, I’ll surely let you know.”
“How about her artwork?” I pressed. I knew from anecdotal research that children often revealed themselves in astonishing ways through art. “Is there any indication in the artwork she does at school that would suggest that she had a secret? That she was going on a trip? That there was something I didn’t know about?”
“I don’t think so. Her pictures are very much like the pictures of most of the other children—sunshine, trees, families holding hands. That sort of thing.”
“How many people are in Ellie’s pictures?”
“Always three—Ellie and you and her father. You are always standing on either side of her, never together.”
“That makes sense,” I said wryly.
“She has mentioned that you and her father are divorced, but she told me in a whisper, like it’s a secret. I already knew, of course,” Mrs. Dennis said.
“I know,” I sighed. “It never bothered her too much until she started school. I think she’s sad because she hears the other kids talking about their parents and she wonders why her mum and dad don’t live together. It’s actually made her sick several times since school started.”
“Poor thing,” Mrs. Dennis clucked. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.”
I thanked her and went back home, where Dottie was waiting at the kitchen table.
“Anything?” she asked.
I shook my head and sat down across from her. She put her hands over mine. We sat in silence for several minutes.
I felt like I needed to go somewhere, do something, but I was stuck waiting, not knowing what to do or where to go. I went upstairs to Ellie’s room to look around again and practically ransacked her drawers and closet, rifling through all the clothes Detective West had examined, hoping to find something we both had missed.
But eventually I had to acknowledge that we had missed nothing—there was no clue to suggest where Ellie and Neill might be.
I went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. I was drying off when the phone rang.
“This is Detective West. I’ve spoken to Dottie’s three children, the kids in Ellie’s class, and several teachers. No one seems to know anything about Ellie going somewhere. I’m not surprised. In a situation like this, the non-custodial parent would be foolish to tell the child exactly where they were headed. It’s not unheard of to tell the child they’re going somewhere, but it’s usually presented as a secret, something the child shouldn’t tell anyone, even the custodial parent. Very often it’s even touted as a surprise for the custodial parent, and the child thinks he or she is going somewhere special and that the whole family is going to be involved.”
“Do you think that’s what happened?”
“It’s beginning to look that way. Now all we have to do is figure out where they went.”