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“It’s possible she joined just to get to know your sister. That she had her eyes on Kaylee all along.”
“Oh, my God.” Priscilla blinked away tears, her pain raw.
“Could she be the woman who pushed you?”
“I don’t know, maybe? It was dark and happened so fast.”
Ellie squeezed the woman’s shoulder. “That’s okay, Priscilla.” Ellie didn’t want to push Priscilla any more for now, with her concussion, but flipped the phone around to show Jan. “How about you, Jan? Did you ever see her?”
Jan clawed her hands through her hair as she studied the picture. “I… don’t know. I don’t remember her.”
But she could have been at the park that day in Chattanooga, Ellie thought.
“Why would she take Kaylee?” Priscilla asked.
“I don’t know yet. But we’re going to find out.” She angled her head toward Jan. “Come on, we’ll drive you to the hospital to see Becky.”
“Yes, please.” Jan fluttered a hand to her chest. “She has to be okay. She has to be.”
Jan gave Priscilla a forlorn look, one filled with hope for her daughter and sympathy for Priscilla. “I have to go.”
“I know,” Priscilla said softly. “Hug her tight. I’ll say a prayer for both of you.”
Jan looked as if she was going to burst into tears. “I’ll be back. I promise. And we’ll find Kaylee, too.”
The two women traded the kind of look only a person in the same situation would understand, then Jan grabbed her purse and coat. “Let’s go. I need to see my baby.”
One Hundred Twenty-Eight
Gainesville
On the way out of town, Ellie dropped by Jan’s to pick up her mother.
“You found her?” the older woman said in a stunned whisper.
“Yes, Mama,” Jan said. “Come on, we have to go to her.”
The two women huddled together in the back seat, their emotions spilling over as Ellie drove. On the way they had a call from Hale, who had been liaising with Manning at Chattanooga PD. As the lead detective on Becky’s disappearance, he’d been all set to drive over to Gainesville too, but had agreed to let Ellie and Derrick run things for now, given the situation. The rain began again, droplets shimmering off the trees and storefronts and trickling off the awning as if the buildings were in mourning. Ellie hoped there would be happy tears when they reached Gainesville and that Becky would be stable.
A half hour later, she parked at the hospital, and the Hornsbys tugged the hoods of their coats up to ward off the deluge, sliding from the vehicle, undaunted by the cold.
Ellie followed, anxious and hoping that not only was Becky alive, but she could tell them where she’d been all this time and if Kaylee and Ava were with her.
Derrick pulled his phone as they entered. “I’m going to call the warden at the prison where Renee was sent. If she had visitors, I want to view that footage.”
“Good idea.” If their kidnapper’s face was on camera, they could run it through facial rec. Grateful he was thinking methodically while her emotions were in a tailspin, Ellie followed Jan and her mother inside. The familiar hospital smells and sounds did nothing but ratchet up her nerves.
“My daughter… Becky Hornsby…” Jan said as she clutched the edge of the nurse’s desk. “She was brought in here.”
Ellie flashed her badge. “She’s been missing for six months. I’ll need to speak to the doctor as well.”
The nurse waved them toward the waiting area. “Please have a seat and I’ll call her.”
Jan’s mother huddled beside her, her eyes red from crying as she lent her support.
The doctor, a forty-something woman named Dr.Conley, appeared with a frown. “This child was abducted?”
“Yes,” Jan said. “How is she?”
