I just nodded. I couldn’t even find my voice for a second. I pointed toward the double doors of the after-school building. “She’s gone,” I managed to say. “The woman. But her paperwork is still inside.”

We walked back into the lobby together, and the officer had to hold the door for me because my knees felt like absolute jelly. The smell of floor wax and old school lunches always makes me think of my own school days, but today it just made me feel sick to my stomach.

The director, Mrs. Gable, was sitting at her desk. She looked completely petrified. Her face was pasty, and she kept tapping a yellow pencil against her coffee mug. Tap, tap, tap. It was driving me absolutely up the wall.

“Tell him,” I said, pointing at the officer. “Tell him who you let in here around my kid.”

Mrs. Gable looked up at Officer Benson, her eyes wide and watery. “It was an oversight,” she whispered. “We’ve been so short-staffed since October, and she seemed so sweet.”

“An oversight?” I shouted. I didn’t care who heard me. “You let a strange woman brush my daughter’s hair! You let her take pictures on her phone!”

Officer Benson held up his hand to quiet me down. “Let’s calm down for a second,” he said. “Show me the application, please.”

Mrs. Gable handed over the clipboard. The paper was slightly crumpled at the corner, like she had tried to stuff it away in a drawer before we came in. I stared at that name again. Janet Boyle. It still didn’t ring any bells.

But then I pointed to the emergency contact line. “That’s Greg’s number,” I told the officer. “My ex-husband. I’d know those last four digits anywhere.”

Seeing his number written out in that neat, loopy handwriting made my brain kind of go numb for a second. Greg and I had been divorced for three years. The judge took away his visitation rights after he tried to take Chloe out of state without telling me. He hadn’t seen her in eighteen months.

“Do you know this Janet woman, Mary?” the officer asked me.

“No,” I said. “But if she’s with Greg, she’s trouble. He always finds a way to get what he wants.”

Officer Benson took out his little notepad. “We’re going to call him,” he said.

He dialed the number right there in the office and put it on speakerphone. The ringing sound was so loud in that quiet room. It rang three times, and then a man’s voice picked up.

“Did you get her?” Greg asked. He sounded out of breath, excited. “Janet? Is she with you?”

I couldn’t help myself. I leaned right over the desk. “She’s not with her, Greg!” I screamed into the phone. “The police are here!”

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end, and then the line went dead. Just static.

Officer Benson frowned and hung up. “Well,” he said. “That confirms it.”