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ChapterSixteen
Damon handed off what had to be the five-thousandth flier of the night. He, Ariana, Lia, and Charles had gone to the mall to pass out the papers after it started raining.
Hopefully the weather didn’t stop the efforts of those searching. They couldn’t lose a moment, not now that the critical twenty-four hour mark had long passed. It was getting dangerously close to forty-eight hours.
His chest tightened at the thought. He’d spent enough time with his father-in-law to know how critical these early hours were when someone was missing.
But he also knew it wasn’t a death sentence. People did survive past two days.
It was just rare.
Ariana ran over. “Three more stores let me put the fliers in their window!”
“That’s great news. Soon, everyone in town will know to look for her.”
She tapped on her phone’s screen. “Lia and Charles are having just as good of luck at the other end of the mall.”
“Let’s keep it up.”
Ariana ran to a jewelry store in response.
Damon stopped a couple eating ice cream cones and offered them a flier.
The guy took it. “Her restaurant is our favorite place to eat. In fact, we met there at a party.”
He’d been hearing stories like that all night.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I hope they find Rita soon.”
“You can help by sharing one of our social media posts. The links are on the QR code.” He pointed to the square on the flier.
“I definitely will,” she said.
He thanked them, then gave another flier to a family throwing pennies into a fountain.
Before long, a woman over the loudspeaker announced the mall would be closing in ten minutes.
His heart sank. They still had so much more ground to cover.
Fifteen minutes later, he and Ariana met Lia and Charles in the parking lot where they’d left their cars.
“Should we go somewhere else?” Lia asked.
Damon checked the time. “Ari and I have an interview on Good Morning, West Coast early tomorrow. We should get some rest — unless we should cancel the interview? I’m sure they would understand.”
“You have to do it!” Lia said. “You can mention Rita and reach a wider audience. Think of all the older people who watch those shows and don’t have a single social media account.”
“That’s true,” he said, and turned to Ariana. “What do you think?”
“She’s right. We need that interview more now than ever before.”
They all exchanged hugs and went their separate ways. The Joneses to their home, and the Gillons to bar hop in order to get rid of the remaining fliers.
“Do you think all of this will help?” Ari asked.
“It can’t hurt.”
“I keep thinking that Boone has her locked away somewhere, that all of this is a waste. It isn’t like she’s wandering around with one shoe somewhere. He attacked her at work, put her in his car, and took her somewhere. Then he pushed her car into the lake.”
