“You’re sure. No one when you’re outside? Or with friends? Or with your mother somewhere? At the store, perhaps?”
“No one,” Briana answered in a small voice.
“How about the playground where the bag was found? Someone watching—”
“Agent Burns,” Laney interrupted, “my daughter has already said no.”
“Yes!” her daughter burst out.
They both gaped at her.
Briana bounced in her seat. “There was a man in a suit.” She screwed up her mouth. “I remember ’cuz I noticed him when my friend Alicia lost her pinky ring under the slide.”
“A man in a suit.” Burns all but sprawled across the desk. “He was watching you?”
“No, not me.”
“Bree,” Laney said, “why didn’t you report this? We’re not supposed to let strangers hang around the playground. Haven’t you learned anything from the lessons Mr. Ryder’s put on about stranger awareness?” Her tone had gone shrill before she finished the sentence.
Her daughter’s lower lip quivered. “But Mommy, he didn’t have mean eyes. More like sad. And he went away as soon as the bell rang and we had to go inside.”
“What did the man look like?” The agent’s palm slapped the desktop.
Laney fried him with a glare. “You are not interrogating a criminal.”
“All right. Okay.” He lifted his hands and settled back in his chair. “Briana,” he gritted between a wooden smile, “would you kindly describe this person to me?”
The little girl shrugged. “He had a suit on, but not the same color as yours. His hair was dark, except for white spots here.” She motioned toward her temples. “And the metal pole on the fence came to here on him.” She sawed her hand back and forth across her upper abdomen.
“Very good, honey.” Laney squeezed her daughter’s arm, then looked at Burns. “The stabilizing pole is about halfway up the fence. That would make our man less than average height—five foot eight or so.”
The man grunted. “Good description, young lady. Now would you mind going with one of my agents while I talk to your mom for a little while?”
Laney shook her head. “I won’t send her with someone she doesn’t know. I want my friend Ellen to be with them.”
Burns hissed out a breath. “Make it happen, but my guy will be in charge. Unless you think one of my agents is the perp.” His sarcasm was sharp enough to scrape paint.
He retrieved a radio from his belt while Laney went to the office door and peered out. The outer area teemed with people, and Miss Aggie was busy at a swamped desk. Some of those hanging around were bus drivers. Laney glanced at the wall clock. School was overdue to be dismissed. On the other side of the area, a tall, dark-haired man waved to her, flashing a big smile. It was Pierce Mayfield, driver of the small city bus that transported several in-town children to and from school. Laney answered with a flutter of the fingers.
Pierce had been flirting with her all year and even asked her out a couple of times. So far she’d turned him down. Not that Pierce wasn’t nice. He was even pretty good-looking. His eyebrows of slightly different heights and vaguely crooked nose gave him an appealingly interesting face. He simply wasn’t a certain school principal who had already captured her attention. Of course, she might do well to give up that hopeless quest and give Pierce a chance. Ellen sure thought so. She’d been trying to get them together all year. And Laney was all for finding a good husband. Briana deserved the daddy she kept praying for…but first, her precious little girl needed to be safe.
A welcome figure stepped into the reception area. Now she didn’t have to ask Miss Aggie to call over the intercom.
“Ellen!” Laney motioned her friend over.
“Oh, girl!” Ellen swept her into big arms, and her lavender scent enveloped Laney.
For a brief instant, she allowed herself to slump into the comfort. Then she pulled away. “Can you go with this agent,” she pointed to the big fellow in a sport coat who’d come up behind Ellen, “and look after Briana?”
“Anything.” Ellen’s brown eyes poured warm honey over Laney. “We’ll hang out in my classroom.”
“Thanks. You’re the best.” Laney squeezed her friend’s hand and called for Briana. “You remember what I told you about minding anyone watching out for you.”
“I will, Mama.”
The little girl skipped off, holding Ellen’s hand and trailed by Hulk Hogan’s clone with a buzz cut.
Laney closed the office door and returned to her hot seat in front of Agent Burns.
The agent studied her with flat eyes. “What do you know about Ryder?”
“What’s that got to do with this situation?”
Burns stared at her like a hawk at a mouse.
Laney shifted in her seat and crossed her legs. “He’s a terrific school principal.”
“That’s it?”
“I’ve only been here one school term. It’s not like we hang out socially.” Not that she wouldn’t like to, but that was none of Burns’s business.
The agent twirled a paper clip between his thumb and forefinger. “Don’t place any confidence in him to figure this out for you. Leave that to the professionals.”
Laney blinked at him. What in the world was he getting at?
A knock sounded at the door.
“Come!” Burns called.
A short man walked in carrying a box about the size of a microwave oven. Laney recognized the strap of Grace’s backpack sticking out the top inside a clear plastic bag.
“This is Agent Wallace,” Burns said. “One of our Evidence Recovery Technicians. I need you to take a look at the items from your sister’s backpack and tell us if you notice anything out of place or missing.”
“O-okay,” Laney quavered. Nausea churned her insides.
Wallace began taking bagged and tagged items out of the box and laying them carefully on any available surface. First, the empty pack itself. Then papers and notebooks and pencils and erasers, a ruler, an assortment of hair pins, a shriveled and barely recognizable candy bag, a smashed calculator and several school texts and workbooks.
“That’s it?” Burns grated.
“All she wrote,” Wallace confirmed.
“I see nothing out of place.” Laney walked around and forced herself to examine every object. “Even the candy is her favorite—Reese’s Pieces.” A lump crowded into her throat and tears stung her eyes. Oh, Gracie! She swallowed the lump and took a deep breath. “What’s this dark stuff staining the
