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Ellie was still shaken as she met Derrick, Captain Hale, Sheriff Waters, Shondra and Deputy Landrum at the station. She wanted to review what they had on the case before she addressed the media.
Every second counted.
“Thanks for coming, everybody,” Ellie said. She attached Ava’s photograph to the whiteboard. “Meet six-year-old Ava Truman, our missing little girl.” She took a breath, then continued, “Ava disappeared this morning somewhere between her home on Honeysuckle Lane and the bus stop a couple of blocks away. Neighbors have been canvassed and no one seems to have seen her. I found the stuffed bunny she always carries with her in the bushes at the park, which is across from the bus stop.” Ellie paused and studied the faces of her team who sat solemnly as the implications set in.
“As of now we haven’t recovered Ava’s body, so let’s work on the theory that she’s still alive. Ranger McClain found the girl’s backpack a couple of miles from the park in a ditch off the highway, which suggests she was transported in a car instead of just wandering off. Her abductor tossed the backpack, which is being sent to the lab for fingerprinting, but given the timing, she could be anywhere by now, even across state lines.”
Under Ava’s photograph, she listed the information they’d gathered. “Parents are Lara and Jasper Truman.” She reiterated Lara’s account of the morning’s events. “Midday Lara carried cupcakes to the school for the party. That’s when she discovered her daughter hadn’t gotten on the bus.”
“That’s a big time difference,” Shondra said.
Ellie nodded. “Which means Ava’s kidnapper had a four-hour jump on us.”
That realization made them all shift uncomfortably.
“Parents are separated, and Jasper Truman has a girlfriend.” She added the parents’ pictures, then attached one of Autumn under the list of possible persons of interest.
“Girlfriend works at Haints. According to her friend Chanel, Autumn didn’t like kids and wanted Jasper to leave his family for her.”
Question marks went by Jasper and Autumn’s names.
Sheriff Waters cleared his throat. “If the girlfriend didn’t like kids, why would she take the child? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe she wanted Jasper to leave his wife and child for her, and when he refused, she took the kid to get back at him,” Shondra suggested.
Bryce didn’t look convinced. “Sounds like you just want to blame the father,” he cut in.
Ellie glared at him. “I’m exploring every possibility.” Sensing he wanted to get a rise out of her, she moved on. “The Trumans had financial problems.Not sure if that plays into the situation, but their relationship was strained. Deputy Landrum interviewed one neighbor, Dottie Clark, who confirmed she’d heard the couple have some heated arguments. And Lara admitted Jasper had a temper, that she wanted him to go to anger management.”
“Dottie Clark is the one putting up fliers about neighborhood watch programs all over town,” Shondra interjected.
“And a little nutty,” Bryce said. “She’s supposedly working on starting a cat café.”
Ellie didn’t see how that was relevant. “The neighborhood watch is a good thing. Now, Special Agent Fox?”
Derrick cleared his throat. “So far, nothing suspicious on the couple’s financials except they’d accrued some serious debt. Husband filed for bankruptcy after the hospital bills piled up.”
“I talked to Lara about that,” Ellie said. “Ava had a liver transplant two years ago. That’s where the medical bills came from. Did the family have a life insurance policy on Ava?”
Derrick shook his head. “No life insurance at all, not on any of them.”
“It looks like money was not a motive,” Ellie replied. “Another problem we have is that Ava requires immunosuppressant medication daily. Whether our kidnapper knows this and can meet her needs is a major concern. I’m going to run with that on the news.”
“Poor baby,” Shondra murmured. “Even if the kidnapper doesn’t plan to kill her, if she dies without that medication, we could be dealing with murder.”
Ellie nodded. “Exactly. And all the more reason we work quickly.” She aimed a look at Bryce. “And together.”
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Captain Hale backed her up. “Sheriff, we need your deputies on this ASAP.”
“Of course,” Bryce snapped.
Derrick gave Ellie a grim look, one she recognized from having worked with him before. He must have found something.
“What is it, Agent Fox?”
Derrick exhaled. “The dark web is full of predators. I dealt with a case a while back where a father was so desperate that he actually sold his child to pay off debt.”
Ellie felt sick to her stomach at the thought. “I hate to have to say it, but let’s look at that angle.” She gestured around the table. “But do not leak that theory to the media.”
