Memories flood forward of sitting in this room with Alice on the first day we met. Now, it’s been transformed into a temporary command center. The conference-style table has been pushed against the far wall. Multiple maps at the state, county, and town levels are pinned to the wall beside a giant whiteboard with a timeline written in red and black marker on the left with a blown-up photo of Alice and her stats in the center. On the right is a photo of Lanighan and his last known location.
She’s been missing for hours. At least three. Maybe more. Nobody knows exactly how much time passed from when she went missing to when Nellie was found.
“What’ve we got?” I ask the room at large. The familiar smell of paper and coffee does nothing to settle my stomach.
Silas’s head snaps up from where he talks with Marlowe, a sheet of paper in his hands.
“Sutton.”
“I asked what we’ve got.”
My brother approaches slowly, his face guarded. “Security cameras in the area didn’t pick up anything. K-9 lost her at the edge of the sidewalk. She likely entered a vehicle on the west side of the park.”
The west side. No houses face the west side.
“What else?”
“Traffic cams in the area didn’t pick up the Genesis G70. If it’s Lanighan, he’s using a different vehicle. We’re following up on seventeen vehicles that left town during the hour window we believe she was taken. So far, we’ve located four of them.”
“Nellie said there were two men. Any idea who the accomplice is?”
Silas chews his lip for a moment. “No.”
I settle my hands on my hips and drop my chin to my chest, fighting for control. After two breaths, I dig out my phone.
“This came through twenty minutes ago.” I pass Silas my cell. Captain leans over his shoulder and scans the screen.
“What’s this?” he asks.
“She’s a Type 1 diabetic. This is the app that monitors her glucose. If it’s transmitting data, she must have hit Wi-Fi or a cell tower.”
“Calloway,” Captain barks.
“On it, Captain.” Calloway turns back to his computer.
Silas’s eyes on me feel like a scalding ray from the sun.
“What?”
His gaze dips to my phone, then back to my face. “How long can she hold at this number?”
I sink my teeth into my bottom lip before letting it go. “I don’t know.” As I glance at my phone again, a new number loads.
312
“Calloway!” I bark. “It’s live now. Get a fucking answer on that!”
“I’ve got it.” Deputy Kramer joins our circle. “The carrier got back to our earlier request. One tower hit off County Road 84 at 3:23 p.m.”
Everyone checks their watch.
“That was twenty minutes ago,” Silas says.
“About the time my app updated. How close is that?”
Captain moves across the room to the map. “Over here.” He points to an area at least fifty miles from here.
“Jesus. What’s the radius on that hit?” I ask Kramer.