Chapter 35

As promised, Hope Bailey was waiting for them when they arrived at Hillcrest Elementary nearly an hour later. She stood outside the main entrance of the sprawling brick building beside a towering flagpole. Her posture was straight and tall. Blonde hair brushed her shoulders. Her simple white blouse and black slacks made her look official but also approachable. The last of the students ran to their parents' vehicles, waving goodbye to her. Josie and Gretchen's Denton PD polo shirts, and the pistols hanging from their waists, drew a few concerned looks, but Hope only smiled brightly at the stragglers as if to indicate there was nothing to see here. Once all the students were gone, she herded Josie and Gretchen inside the building. Josie adjusted her collar again to cover the bruises marring her throat. Then she focused on Hope, studying her as she led them down a long hallway that was wallpapered with children's art pieces. Hope was younger than Josie had expected. Teresa Carlson was over seventy whereas Hope looked about fifty.

Hope ushered them into a large office cheerily decorated with motivational posters. One colorful poster announced: Today is a great day to learn something new! How fitting. Carol Summers had dropped quite the bombshell on them when she revealed that Mira and April were half-sisters. Josie hoped they would learn even more before they left Hillcrest, and that it would be something that helped them locate Seth Lee and the child.

Another woman sat behind the desk separating the door from the rest of the space. "I'll be in my office," Hope told her. "Not to be disturbed except for my daughter."

The secretary nodded, staring at Josie and Gretchen as they followed Hope around her desk and through a door marked Principal. Hope's inner sanctum was less chipper than the rest of the school with a simple desk, two guest chairs, a few filing cabinets, and bookshelves filled with tomes of academic texts. The posters on her walls were geared more toward adults. Your poor planning does not constitute an emergency on my part, read one of them. Another said: Everything is hard before it is easy.

Gretchen stopped in front of that one for a moment. Glancing back at Josie, she muttered under her breath, "No shit."

Josie suppressed a laugh. Once they were all seated, Josie and Gretchen presented their credentials. Hope gave them a cursory glance and then waved them off. "Teresa vouched for you. As I told you on the phone earlier, I just want to help in any way that I can. It's been difficult, as I'm sure you can imagine. When April was missing, we could be of use by searching and distributing flyers and posting on social media, but now…I don't know what to do."

Gretchen discreetly checked her phone and then looked at Josie, giving a quick shake of her head. Turner hadn't yet sent over the records request letter. What the hell was he doing?

While Gretchen tapped in a text message to Turner, Josie asked Hope, "How long have you and Teresa been friends?"

"Oh, going on twenty years now. We were on the board of the same nonprofit. We hit it off. Never looked back. But if you're asking me whether April got the job here because of that friendship, she did not. I hired her because she was the most qualified for the position."

Clearly, that question had been raised by people in the past if Hope felt the need to head it off at the pass. But it confirmed Josie's suspicion that if there was something April didn't want her mother to find out, she'd have to keep a lid on it in this environment.

"Of course," said Gretchen. She glanced again at her phone and Josie could tell by the set of her jaw that she was still waiting for the records request letter from Turner. "You spoke at length with Detective Heather Loughlin of the state police. We've read over that file, so we won't waste your time with questions she's already asked. I'm sure you're aware that we've got a suspect in April's abduction and murder."

"Yes, I saw it on the news. Teresa called to tell me before it came out." Hope lowered her voice even though they were the only ones in the room. "Teresa might have told you this already but that man looked familiar to me. I still can't figure out if I know him from somewhere or if maybe he just reminds me of someone."

They probably wouldn't even need the records request letter. Josie plunged ahead. "Is it possible he was the parent of a child enrolled here?"

Gretchen abandoned her phone for her trusty notepad. "You may have also seen on the news that we believe Seth Lee has a child with him."

"Yes, I did see." Hope pressed both hands over her heart. "I was horrified. Teresa told me what he did to April—the way he kept her…it makes me sick to think he has a child in his custody. To answer your question, I did search our database for his name. We've had quite a few families with the last name Lee over the years, but Seth Lee was not the parent of any student here."

Neither of them had expected it to be that easy. Josie scooted forward to the edge of her seat. "Mrs. Bailey, could you check another name for us?"

Hope's fingers hovered over the keyboard. "Of course. The name of a parent?"

"Yes," Josie replied. "Mira Summers."

Hope's fingers lowered to the keys and then froze. Three lines appeared on her forehead. "Mira Summers? Wait. The woman involved in April's case? The one driving the car? The one who was just abducted?"

Gretchen tapped her pen against a blank page in her notebook. "Yes. That one. We also believe that she might have been an employee here for some time but right now, we'd like to know if she ever enrolled a child."

"An employee?" Hope muttered. "That can't be…but let me just…I'll check our student and parent database."

Josie's phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out to see a message from Turner.

RR in your email. Tell Parker to get off my ass.

Was he trying to piss Gretchen off more than usual? Nudging Gretchen's elbow, Josie said softly, "I've got it."

Gretchen rolled her eyes. "All that, and we didn't even need it."

Hope wasn't paying attention to their conversation. Her hands stopped moving. A greenish hue overtook her complexion. Swallowing hard, she turned the laptop toward them. "Mira Summers enrolled her daughter, Rosie Summers, into kindergarten almost four years ago."

Rosie. Like the flower in the drawing.