[14]
Quinn bolted from the vehicle as soon as Katie pulled to a stop in front of the elementary school. Officers were already on the scene. Quinn flashed his badge and stopped one of the officers. “Who’s the lead?”
“Lieutenant Grayson.” He pointed to a large African American man standing beside a command vehicle. At least six feet three inches tall with a bald head and a “get it done” expression. “That’s him.”
“Thanks.” Quinn knew Ben. He liked the man and had a high level of respect for him and his work ethic. Quinn hurried over with the ladies on his heels. “Ben.”
Ben turned, his agitated expression clearing when he spotted Quinn. “Holcombe. Heard you were off the clock for a few days.”
“I’m back on. There was a specific threat against my niece and her friends.” He pointed to the front door. “And that’s where they are. Why aren’t you evacuating?”
Ben frowned. “They should be coming out at any moment. I had to go to the door and actually go inside to request the principal’s ear. The phones are down.” He waved his cell phone. “And so is this. Do you know what we’re dealing with here?”
“No. But bring in the bomb squad and the dogs. And radios. As you’ve noticed, the cell signal’s been blocked.” As he spoke, the doors opened and children and teachers streamed from the building in a calm and orderly fashion. “They need to move faster.”
“The principal didn’t want to tell them it was the real deal,” Ben said. “He wanted to handle it like a drill.”
Quinn groaned. “That may just get them all killed. They need to move faster and farther away,” he insisted.
“Yeah, I’ll agree with you on that. What makes you think it’s a bomb?”
“Intuition.”
“So you don’t have an actual ‘I’m going to blow up the building’ statement.”
Quinn heaved a sigh of impatience tinged with fear and ran a hand over his hair. “No, not that. But I don’t need that. I’m learning this guy and I know there’s a bomb in there.”
“When they see all of us out here, they’re going to realize it’s something more than just a drill anyway,” Maddy said.
She was right. No sooner had the words left her lips than he saw teachers and students pointing. Quinn knew Alyssa’s teacher by sight and looked for her. Unbeknownst to his parents, he’d run a background check on Alyssa’s and JJ’s teachers when they started school. And he’d done it every year since. One couldn’t be too careful when it came to protecting the children.
When he couldn’t spot the woman, he frowned. But there were students evacuating all around the property, not just the area he could see. He moved closer, letting his gaze roam from student to student.
Quinn’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and froze.
You worked fast. But not fast enough. Have you found Alyssa yet? I hope she enjoys fireworks.
“Ben!”
The lieutenant spun at his yell, a harsh frown on his face. Quinn held up his phone. “It’s a bomb. Get them out of there!”
“How do you know?” Ben yelled back.
“He texted me.”
“There’s no signal. How could he text you?”
Quinn stared at his phone, then rushed over to shove it in Ben’s face.
“I don’t know. I just know he did. Now get those people away from that building. I’m going to find my niece.” He raced toward the school with Maddy on his heels. Ben’s harsh demand that he get himself back there bounced off his brain. All he could think about was getting to Alyssa and making sure every child was out of the building. He didn’t know how much time he had, he couldn’t think about that. “Everyone move! Get away from the building. This is not a drill!”
The teachers went from looking bored to shocked to frantic as his words registered. “Go, kids. Follow Mr. Dunbar’s class. Go across the street and stay together,” he heard one order. Similar commands went out. The children started moving, running.
He snagged the arm of the nearest teacher. “Where are the fourth-grade classes? Where would they go for safety during a bomb threat?” There were multiple classes of the same grade, and they were generally all in the same vicinity of the building.
She blanched at his question but pointed. “Around the back of the building. They would head to the little convenience store that’s through the small section of woods. There’s a path.”
She nodded and spun to race after her quick-moving class.
An explosion rocked the ground beneath him and he went to his knees. Screams filled the air and Quinn watched the smoke and debris billow upward from the back of the building.
Maddy had followed at a short distance. Quinn was completely focused on finding his niece and she didn’t blame him. But the explosion sent her to the ground. She landed on her wounded arm and a cry of pain escaped her. Then she scrambled to her feet to find Quinn doing the same.
He reached for her. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Are you?”
He shook his head. “Ears are ringing. I’ve got to find Alyssa.” His eyes betrayed his fear.
She grabbed his hand. “Trust that the teachers got her out, Quinn. There could be more explosions coming.”
“It’s not that. I need to make sure she’s here and not with that madman. If I wait until everything calms down and he’s got her, the trail is just that much colder. What if he snatched her, knowing I’d come looking for her?”
Comprehension dawned. “Of course. But—”
“What would you do if it was one of your nieces?”
She grimaced, then nodded. “All right, let’s go.”
“No way. Not you.”
“I’m not letting you go alone. So do you want to stand here and argue or go find your niece before another bomb goes off?”
She thought she heard him growl, then he spun on his heel and headed for the back of the building. Maddy went after him. Now that there was a confirmed explosive, she knew every precaution would be taken to make sure no lives were lost in the rescue/recovery effort. Her heart clenched. Had everyone made it out? She stayed right with Quinn, trying not to imagine if some children had still been in that part of the building. “Please, God,” she whispered. “Don’t let anyone die.”
He veered off for the woods in the direction the other teacher had indicated. They easily found the trail and Quinn hurried down it. Within seconds, they were in the parking lot of the convenience store.
Students were huddled together, pale and shaken, scared. Some were crying and holding one another. Others simply stared in the direction of the school. Maddy found her heart breaking for their terror and her anger boiled. She so wanted to catch the monster responsible for all of this. News crews pulled to the curb as she scanned the faces for a little familiar one.
“How did they get here so fast?” he muttered.
Maddy pursed her lips. “There’s no way someone called.” She looked at her phone. “I still don’t have a signal even this far away.”
“Alyssa?” Quinn spun in a circle. “I don’t see her.”
He looked at the nearest child. “Where’s Alyssa Green?”
The little girl’s eyes went wide and she backed up a step. “I don’t know.”
Maddy pushed Quinn out of the way. “You’re scaring her.”
“Sorry.” He stepped back, then dropped to his knees in front of the child and showed her his badge. “I didn’t mean to scare you, honey. I’m looking for my niece. Do you know Alyssa Green?”
“Yes.”
“Did she come out of the building with you?”
“No. She wasn’t in the class when we came out.”
Quinn’s eyes shut and Maddy saw a ripple pass through him. She leaned over. “Where is she, sweetheart?”
“Who are you? Why are you talking to her?”
Maddy turned to find a woman in her early thirties hovering behind them. Dark hair framed her face, making her already pale complexion look positively ghostly. “I’m the substitute teacher.” She wrung her hands. “You shouldn’t be talking to the children.”
Quinn showed his badge again. “I need to know where Alyssa Green is.”
The woman raised a hand to her mouth and twisted her head in all directions. “I . . . I don’t know. I just . . . this is my first day subbing and I’m just following the rules. I don’t know the children yet.”
“Who would know her?”
“Her.” Maddy followed the woman’s pointing finger. “She’s one of the other fourth-grade teachers.”
Quinn moved to the woman and she turned. He flashed his badge. “I’m looking for Alyssa Green. Is she here?”
“I saw her this morning just before school started. She should be with her class.”
“She’s not here,” Quinn whispered.
“Oh wait,” the teacher said. “She takes speech, right?”
He paused. “Yes. She’s working on a lisp. Why?”
“It’s possible she was with the speech teacher when we had to evacuate. I think she has it at the same time as one of my students.”
“How do I find out for sure?”
She raised a hand to her head as though trying to force her brain to work. “The speech teacher, Mrs. Bolin. She’s here, but I have no idea where.” She glanced at the row of too-quiet children. “Ginger, the little girl in the blue shirt, she’s the one who has speech with Alyssa.”
Quinn’s gaze followed her pointing finger. “And Ginger is here, but Alyssa is not.”
Maddy could feel his rising fear for his niece. She had to admit she was starting to feel a bit panicked herself.
A woman raced past her, followed by a man in a suit. “Krissy!”
“Patrick!”
“Elly!”
So not only had the news crews arrived, but so had parents. They streamed as one to the children, terror written on their faces.
“You can’t just take her, I need to see ID, please,” one teacher hollered. Children rushed to their parents, grabbing them around their waists. But still no sign of Alyssa.
“He’s got her,” Quinn said, his voice low and hoarse.
“You don’t know that,” Maddy said. “Ask Ginger where she is and we’ll find her.”
Quinn turned in a circle. “In this chaos?” He lifted his phone. “I’m going to text Katie and Haley Alyssa’s picture and tell them to search for her,” he told Maddy.
“That would be a great idea if there was a signal.”
He froze for a second, then put his phone away. His thoughtful look captured her attention.
“What is it?” she asked.
“He texted me.”
“What?”
“There wasn’t a signal, but I got his text.”
She bit her lip. “He can control it. He can turn it off and on at will.”
“Right, and it’s off at this moment, so that means we search some more,” he said.
“Quinn!”
He spun and blanched. “Mom?”
Quinn’s mother pushed around the nearest officer and raced toward him, sick fear twisting her normally composed and still young-looking features. “Where’s Alyssa?”
“I don’t know, Mom. What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? I came to get Alyssa, of course.” She pressed her fingers to her eyes. “We need to find her.”
He gripped her bicep. “How did you hear about this?”
“I got a text that said there was a bomb at the school and that Alyssa was in danger. Where is she?”
“I don’t know, I’m working on it. Stay put while I see what I can find out.”
He walked over to the dark-eyed nine-year-old and, not wanting to make the same mistake he’d made with her classmate, squatted in front of her. “Hi, honey.”
“Hi.”
He showed her his badge. “I’m a policeman and everything’s going to be all right.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. I’m looking for my niece, though. Alyssa.”
Ginger’s eyes widened and she nodded. “We have speech together.”
Quinn heard her say the word as “togever.” “I know. Can you tell me where she is? Was she with you in class today?”
“Yes, she was there. We played a game.”
“So, where is she now?”
She shrugged her small shoulder. “I don’t know. I left before she did. Mrs. Bolin wanted to talk to her a little extra.”
Quinn dropped his head and thought. “Okay, if you look out Mrs. Bolin’s window, what do you see?”
“The playground.”
“Great. Thanks, Ginger.”
Her sweet brown eyes searched his. “Is Alyssa okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine.” She’d better be. Please, let her be fine. He wasn’t sure if God would still hear his prayers, not after the things he’d hurled at the Almighty after his sister’s death. But if God was so inclined to forgive and forget, Quinn had hopes that he’d hear his prayer and spare a little girl’s life.
Maddy pointed. “The playground is that way. Let’s head over there.”
He raced back toward the building with Maddy right behind him. Smoke choked him and debris lay in his path. But no more explosions had gone off. The bomb squad would have the robots in the building. Then the guys in the suits with the bomb-sniffing dogs would take over to clear the building.
At the playground, he stopped and looked around, saw several groups of children hovering at a safe distance from the building. He hurried toward them, his eyes roving, touching on each little face. A few had some scrapes and scratches, but they were alive.
Finally, he came to the one he was looking for. “Alyssa!”
Her gaze snapped to his and she gave him a brilliant smile. “Uncle Quinn!” She ran toward him, ignoring the protest of the nearby teacher. She launched herself into his arms and he hugged her, breathing in her sweet vanilla scent. She leaned back. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to make sure you were okay. Why weren’t you with your class?”
“I was in the hall on the way back to my room when the alarm went off. Mrs. Fraley told me to come with her. She’s the kindergarten teacher.”
Quinn’s lungs finally felt free to operate at full capacity again. “Grandma’s here looking for you too.”
The woman who must be Mrs. Fraley approached. “Who are you?”
“I’m her uncle.”
She eyed him suspiciously. Her fear and shock at the happenings of the day were stamped on her pretty features. “All right.”
Alyssa gripped his hand. “Grandma’s worried about me, huh?”
“Yes, she is.”
“So text her and tell her I’m fine.”
Quinn looked at his phone. Still no signal. “My phone’s not working right now. I want you to come with me, though, okay?”
“You have to have permission to take me.” She pointed to Mrs. Fraley, who frowned at him.
“I’m on the list to pick her up,” he told the teacher, “so it should be all right.”
“Could I see your ID?”
“Sure.” He pulled out his wallet and showed her his detective badge, then his driver’s license.
Mrs. Fraley looked at Alyssa, then back at Quinn. “I’m sure it’s fine, but I just don’t have access to the list with the names on it.”
“I know.”
She nodded. “The parents and children I know, I don’t mind sending them, but I don’t know you.”
“I understand that.” He appreciated her caution. More than she knew.
“Is there anyone here who can vouch for you?” she asked.
“I can vouch for him, Mrs. Fraley,” Alyssa said. “He’s my favorite uncle.”
Mrs. Fraley tapped her iPad. “And this thing is worthless. I can’t bring anything up. I guess the explosion knocked out the Wi-Fi.”
“It’s fine, Mrs. Fraley, Alyssa can go with him.”
Quinn turned to find Maddy standing next to Ed Harmon, principal of the school. The man was in his late forties, with dark hair and a harried expression. Quinn’s gaze met Maddy’s.
She shrugged. “I spotted him checking on everyone, explained the situation with Alyssa, and hustled him over here.”
Mrs. Fraley nodded. “Thank you. I just can’t be responsible for letting a child go with someone I shouldn’t.”
“You did the right thing,” Quinn said. “Good job.” He swung his niece into his arms. “Now, let’s get out of here so everyone else can do their jobs.”