Chapter 40

While Gretchen drove them back to Denton, Josie pulled up the photo of the drawing they'd found in April Carlson's hand at the accident scene and studied it again, this time from a completely different perspective. What did the rings represent? Some kind of hole? A silo, maybe? Rebecca had said that Seth sometimes took work on farms. There were plenty in and around Denton. But if it had been a silo, wouldn't Rosie have just drawn that?

"I didn't think that kid was going to let us leave," Gretchen remarked. "Teryn."

"She's curious," Josie replied. "And damn smart."

What were the brown lines? Dirt?

"Josie."

"Yeah."

What were the small brown circles?

"Maybe if we figure out how things got from Hillcrest to there"—she reached over and tapped Josie's phone screen—"we might have a better chance of figuring out where ‘there' is."

With a sigh, Josie dropped the phone into her lap. It felt like she was going to lose her voice soon but she needed to talk things out with Gretchen. "Assuming Rosie is still in this place. Seth might have moved her by now."

"Or he's holding Mira there now. Let's focus."

Josie's phone buzzed. "That's a text from Noah."

She read it off to Gretchen, leaving out the "I love you" and heart emojis at the end. "‘No luck finding the florist that delivered flowers to Mira Summers's house, but I found a botanist to look at those clumps of fibers found on April Carlson's clothes. He's a professor at the university. Dr. Hensley Brooks. He's in California at a conference right now but should be back in town within the next day or two. I sent his assistant some photos. She'll set up a meeting with him as soon as he gets back.'"

"That's something, I guess," Gretchen said.

Josie typed in a thank you followed by some mushy stuff and even mushier emojis. Massaging her shoulder, she said, "Let's get back to what you were saying. Getting from Hillcrest to the point we're at now. Seth agrees to let Mira put Rosie into school like a normal child as long as she is also there to keep an eye on things and, evidently, monitor Rosie's food intake."

"Right," Gretchen said. "God knows what else. April finds out what Mira's doing. Monitoring Rosie's food intake on Seth's behalf and tailoring it to his specifications. Taking food away from her at lunchtime in front of the rest of the children. Depriving her of nutrition based on delusions."

Josie watched the lights of Hillcrest disappear. Soon, they were pulling onto the interstate. "As a teacher, April would have had an obligation to report her concerns about Rosie's health and well-being under the care of her parents to the Department of Human Services. She was a mandatory reporter. That was why April kept using the word ‘mandatory' repeatedly in the argument with Mira."

Gretchen said, "April wasn't saying lunch was mandatory. She was saying it was mandatory that she report Mira and Seth to DHS."

No wonder Mira had begged April, "please don't." She must have known that Seth would pull Rosie out of school immediately at the slightest hint that DHS might get involved.

Josie said, "Would the school have a record of it if April made a complaint to DHS?"

Gretchen shook her head. "I don't think so. We dealt with this stuff a lot when I was with Philly PD. Schools don't keep records of any reports made by faculty to DHS. Teachers aren't even required to tell their superiors if they've contacted DHS. Those reports are anonymous unless the teacher chooses to give their information. A few times I caught cases where I wish the teachers had given their names because when cases went to trial, we could have used their testimony, but most of the time teachers don't go on record for fear of retaliation from angry parents or other family members."

"If Seth found out that a complaint had been made to DHS against him and Mira, he would have immediately blamed April, don't you think?"

Gretchen said, "That's what I'm thinking, but more importantly, he would have taken Rosie and left."

Josie tipped her head back against the headrest. The overpowering exhaustion of the case was back, making her limbs feel heavy. "Rosie stopped attending Hillcrest Elementary right before Mira moved from here to Denton. Mira wasn't following her man, she was looking for her daughter."