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Annie looked down at her hands. “Sorry, I’m explaining too much, aren’t I? This has nothing to do with Kylie’s disappearance.”
“When a child is missing, there is no detail too slight to beignored. Is there any chance Nate’s family would have taken your daughter? Maybe they fear they won’t be able to see her.”
Annie shook her head. “They never come to see her anyway. They’ve only been around her a handful of times since she was born. And besides, they don’t know the truth yet. Until last night, only Jon and I knew the truth. Oh, and Dr.Ben Eckright. We told Jon’s father last night, and the window was open. Sarah overheard.”
“How do you know? Did you speak with her?”
“No, but I saw her. She was running away from the open window. Our voices would have carried clearly through the screen.”
Cheng wrote with the stylus on the tablet. “So it’s your assumption she overheard.”
“Yes. I didn’t confirm it. I thought about following her and talking to her, but Jon and I had a disagreement and I was upset.”
Cheng’s dark eyes narrowed. “A disagreement?”
“His father is an attorney, and he suggested we run a DNA test to have proof Jon is Kylie’s father. When I agreed with that, Jon thought I was using it to delay telling Kylie the truth.”
“Would he have orchestrated this abduction as a way of forcing out the truth? Heisthe one who received the ransom demand.”
“Not in a million years.” Annie struggled to keep her voice even. “I know you have to look at the parents first, but Jon would never do something like that. He loves me, and he loves Kylie. I am sure Sarah has her.”
“And she harbors resentment, which raises the possibility she took your daughter.”
“Yes. She filed a false accusation against Jon as well, and she tried to get out of the charges by revealing her true identity.”
Cheng raised her brows. “Interesting. Why would she accuse Jon?”
“She had a crush on him, and he let her know he was only interested in getting back with me. She tried to plant false evidence that would implicate him in a murder I was investigating with Sheriff Kaleva. But Mason saw right through it.”
The FBI agent put down the tablet. “We need to take a good look at Sarah and all her acquaintances. Can you think of anyone else who might have taken Kylie? Or has she ever run off before?”
“She would never run away. Even going off with Sarah is very unlike her. She knows she’s only to go with someone who knows the secret wordtremolo. She knows how traumatized I was by my sister’s abduction, and she wouldn’t want to worry me. She loves Sarah, though, and she’s a trusting child. I want us to stay focused and not get sidetracked.”
“But we also don’t want to be so fixated on Sarah that we miss other clues. Let’s talk about Jon and his relationship with Kylie. Are you together? In other words, would there be any reason for him to take Kylie?”
Annie gripped her hands together at the very personal questions. “We love each other, but we’re going slowly because of Kylie. She adored Nate, and it will devastate her to find out he’s not her father. She has resented Jon for taking his place. But no, like I said, he wouldn’t do something like that even if he thought we’d never be married. He’s relocating here from Rochester, Minnesota, and we plan to build a life together.”
“I know the questions upset you, but I have to examine every possible abductor.” Cheng rose. “Could you ask Jon to come in next?”
“Of course.” Annie stepped out into the hall and went across to the war room, where she found Jon alone in the room with his head down on a table.
She touched his back. “Are you all right?”
He straightened and glanced up at her with reddened eyes. “Just praying. My head hurts a little, but it’s just where I was stitched up.”
Her heart hurt at the pain in his face. He was the one person who understood what she was going through. “Cheng wants to talk to you now. Do you feel up to it?”
He rose and embraced her for a long moment, and she clung to him, taking comfort from his love and strength. They were in this together.
“Mason said he’d be right back,” he told her. “When he gets back, see if they found out anything about Lissa.”
“I’ll do that right now. Here he comes.”
Mason paused in the doorway. “Annie, you were right. Lissa got a phone call a few minutes before Kylie went missing, and it was from a burner phone. I’ve asked Houghton PD to pick her up for questioning. I’ll let Cheng know in case she hasn’t heard from her office yet. She’ll want to be the one to question her.”
But was it soon enough? Where was Kylie now, and what was she going through?
***
