Everyone freaked out. Including Jodie. After returning to the RV from Graham’s dejected and tired, Jodie had fallen asleep in the RV planning for the next day. The search parties were recalled when it got too dark and too cold to continue late into the night so Jodie looked over the areas that had been searched and was deciding where to move the groups next. She studied the GPS overlays of the group and planned a route for the groups that would be, in her opinion, the most effective. She also had an officer watching all the video they had copied from gas stations and convenience stores looking for strange vehicles, strange people or strange anything. She couldn’t decide what the criteria for strange was and so the officer she chose to review the video was a local one. Reggie had left at nine in the evening after making sure the entire team had been fed and there was nothing more that he could do as a supervisor. The video officer had left shortly after Reggie and before she knew it, Jodie was sitting in the RV alone with a cold cup of coffee in front of her while trying to make sense of all the data they had acquired. Jodie remembered looking at her watch a little after one in the morning and then nothing else until a banging on the RV door woke her from a sleeping state into a confused one. At first, Jodie had no idea where she was. This wasn’t her bed. Was that her drool on the table in front of her? The banging continued and she heard a tugging on the door handle and it all came back.

She wiped the side of her mouth, patted her hair and opened the door. The jerk officer from yesterday stood there, bouncing on the toes of his feet.

“She’s home!”

“What?”

Yesterday he had been a sullen, rude man who didn’t hide his prejudice very well. Today, he was smiling and for a brief second, Jodie forgot to dislike him.

“Francine’s home!”

“Holy shit!”

The officer laughed, “Holy shit is right! Walked home and rang the doorbell and well, there you go.”

Jodie fled into the washroom and cried. She hadn’t realized how much she was worrying for the little girl until then. Most of the time, she’d been focused on how to get her back while in the back of her mind the clock was ticking. They were already past the time in which most abductors had killed the child they had taken and Jodie knowing that, fearing that would be the outcome based on the statistics, was working on her and adding to her stress. She splashed water on her face and stared at her wide eyed reflection. She patted her hands dry and deciding the lines from the awkward sleep running across her forehead weren’t going away anytime soon, stepped out of the RV and walked to Francine’s house.

A large crowd of people stood out front. Officers, news people, and neighbours alike, all were smiling, united in their relief. A carafe of coffee and cups were being handed around by a husband and wife and were received gratefully by the recipients. Jodie excused herself past a group on the driveway and knocked on the door. It swung open and Jodie recognized the face of the older brother, the one who had left the front door unlocked and before she could finish saying, “I’m Detective Reye…” he wrapped her in a hug and cried into her shoulder.

Jodie walked into the kitchen. Francine was sitting on the lap of her mother while her father, Terry, played with her hair. His quivering lips and shiny eyes made Jodie think that he was touching her like that to make sure she was real. Bernice, her face a wet mess, was rocking Francine back and forth and every few seconds, she’d kiss her on the cheek. The brother walked to stand beside Terry with his hand over his mouth and his eyes continuously leaking tears. Francine held the blanket tight around her and in one hand she clutched a white piece of paper. As Jodie moved closer she saw that it had her name on it.

“Hello. I’m Detective Reyes.”

Jodie squatted in front of Francine and Bernice clutched her tighter.

Jodie pointed to the paper in Francine’s hand and said, “Detective Reyes. That’s me. I think that paper is for me.”

Francine held it out to her and Jodie removed hospital gloves from her coat pocket (she never attended to any investigation without them) and slid one on. As Jodie reached to take the note, Francine said, “The man who saved me. He gave that to me.”

Jodie, smiling said, “I’ll take good care of it.”

Jodie took the paper, stood and unfolded it. Her eyes scanned the neat block letters and when she came to the end of it, she ran out of Francine’s home.

The letter provided the address of the house where Francine had been kept. The writer stated the police should get to the house quickly. The man who had taken Francine might be dead or he might have fled from the home. The police didn’t have much time. Marshalling the crowd of officers on the front lawn, Jodie asked if any of the local officers knew the address. One of them, a tall woman with bright red hair pointed to a snow covered roof and said, “Yeah. It’s right there.”

Jodie said, “You lead, we’ll follow.”

The woman ran through Francine’s backyard and out the gate at the back. Following behind Jodie saw small foot prints in the snow. They were smudged, as though by a pencil sketch artist’s thumb and she said, “Don’t ruin those prints!”

They continued after the woman for a short distance, the snow crunching under their feet, and their breath pluming above their heads, before the officer in front stopped outside a small, chain-link fence. The beige-bricked home had a thick carpet of snow on the roof. There were no lights on, but the back door stood wide open.

Jodie, exhaling a breath not from exertion but from her spiking adrenaline, opened the gate. The tall woman officer said, “Don’t we need a warrant.”

Jodie said, “No. Someone may be dying in there. We have to go. Have someone get an ambulance rolling.”

Jodie glanced behind her. About six police officers and fifteen neighbours stood in a ragged group behind her. She pointed at the officer at the back of the group and said, “You stand by the gate, no one gets in.” Pointing at another next to him, she said, “You go to the front, keep everyone off the property, got it!”

They both nodded. In a loud voice so the crowd could hear it, “Anyone coming onto this property without my say-so is to be arrested for obstruct, got me?”

The crowd groaned and Jodie, nervous about how long it took for the note to be found and how loud this crowd was becoming outside the house said, “The rest of the officers follow me and be careful where you step.”

Jodie crossed the backyard, onto the back porch and stepped into the dark interior.