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She was grateful for the tremendous response. Still…
Her phone rang. Grabbing it from her pocket with shaking fingers, she had to push three times to engage the answer button.
“Lynnie? Oh, my God, Lynnie. I just had to talk to you. Please tell me what’s going on.”
She laced her fingers through Grant’s and talked to her ex-husband, keeping an eye and ear on the detectives in the room, as well. Brandon was booked on a flight to Santa Raquel but wouldn’t be arriving for another three hours.
He was distressed, pacing the airport, he said, but determined that they would find Kara and she would be fine.
Lynn agreed. And after she hung up, she laid her head on Grant’s shoulder. It was either that or fall apart, and a mother lying supine on the floor was not going to help her toddler at all.
“We should be out there,” she told him softly as those in charge made decisions and gave orders around them.
“They want us here for now.”
She knew that. She just didn’t agree with the decision to keep her and Grant in Lila’s office, the current search headquarters, so that they could be available to anyone involved in the search at any time.
To identify a body? She tried not to think so. And was scared to death for the sweet man who’d been injured trying to save his wife’s life, as well as for her precious little curly-haired angel.
“I pray they’re together,” she said.
“If they are, Darin will keep her safe.” Grant spoke softly, and this time, he looked her in the eye.
She knew that if Darin was with Kara he would do all he could to help her. There were just too many ifs.
* * *
BEFORE MADDIE EVEN made it back, the phone rang again. Smith’s phone.
“It’s Detective Martinez,” he said to the room at large, as if the name meant something.
Grant had no idea who Martinez was but hoped he was part of the search team. And was calling with good news.
The helplessness, as he stood there with Lynn, moving from one part of the room to another, shaking his head right along with her every time Smith suggested they sit down, was diminishing what bit of control he had thus far managed to maintain.
Smith had told them it could be a long night.
The man had no idea.
Smith still had his disconnected cell phone in his hand as he approached Lynn and Grant. Her scrubs were purple today. The color of lilacs.
It was an inane thought that kept his feet on the ground.
“Martinez is in our forensics lab. She’s going over the security tapes.”
His heart was pounding. Lynn’s chin held high.
“She identified Kara on them, wearing the denim overalls and red shirt you described. She sees her running out after Maddie. Sees her stop when Maddie’s parents drive away. And she sees Dan Cleveland approach her….”
Oh, God, no. Lynn’s sharp intake of breath, her only reaction as she continued to give the detective her hard, focused stare, resonated all the way through him. Cold seeped into the room.
“He grabbed her, pulling her out of the camera’s range.”
“You talked to him, right?” Lynn asked. “Ask him where she is.”
Grant did some calculations. “He couldn’t have had her long,” he said. Based on the time stamp reported on the tape and when the man was arrested.
“He was still in the area when he was arrested,” Lynn said.
Smith nodded. “They’re talking to him now. We’ll get a call as soon as they know anything. I just wanted you two to know where we’re at.”
“Is there any sign of Darin on the tapes?” Lynn asked the question.
“We don’t know yet. Not to that point there wasn’t. Martinez stopped viewing them as soon as she saw Kara.”
“But they’re resuming looking at the footage now, right?” Grant asked.
“They’ve got a team on them at this point. If your brother is there, we’ll know soon.”
He needed to get out of the room. Get outside. Breathe air. And comb the streets for the one person he couldn’t live without.
Except that he couldn’t leave Lynn standing there all alone. She was leaning on him. And he couldn’t let her fall.
* * *
MARIA CLEVELAND’S HUSBAND buckled as soon as he was told he was caught on tape trying to snatch Kara.
