March 17^th, 2017. 8am.

Katy sat at the table, finishing up breakfast while Tally played in the living room. She could see her from there, keep an eye on what she was doing, but Tally had some privacy. She was getting bigger.

“It’s been a long life,” she drawled to Lucia, who was sitting next to her. Lucia chuckled, raised her coffee cup and clanked it against Katy’s water.

“To our next life being shorter.”

Katy snorted, clinked her glass back, then they both drank. She kept her eyes on Tally, taking another sip of her water.

“Want some more?” Lucia stood, heading to the counter.

“Sure, thanks.” She passed Lucia the glass, standing so she could get a better look at her daughter. Tally was playing with some of the stuffed animals, mouthing words even though she wasn’t speaking. Katy wasn’t even sure they were actual words, but Lisa the therapist had said that it was a good thing, so Katy was pleased to see it.

“Here you go.” Lucia passed her the full glass of water, and Katy took a long drink. She’d been so bad at staying hydrated since Tally had come home, and that was something that was so important in Arizona.

“Did you enjoy the casserole?” Lucia asked, her gaze drifting over to where Tally was. “I was so sorry I couldn’t make it.”

“We all get sick sometimes,” Katy teased. “You just have bad timing.”

Lucia laughed, then winked. “Don’t we all.”

Katy chuckled, taking another long drink of her water. She was thirsty; she must have been more dehydrated than she thought.

“Like your timing,” Lucia said offhandedly. “With my daughter.”

Katy blinked, caught off guard. She frowned, her eyes flickering to Tally and then back to Lucia. “What?”

“With Iris.” Lucia took another calm sip of her coffee, her eyes suddenly flat in a way that sent chills down Katy’s spine. “When you killed my daughter.”

“I didn’t — what are you talking about?” Katy wanted to stand, but her body wouldn’t listen. She tried to grip the water glass tighter, but her fingers didn’t want to. The world was starting to tilt, things distorting.

“That day you were in the hospital with Iris, while I stepped out.” There was a tightness to Lucia’s face, the first hint of cruelness Katy had ever seen. “The day you didn’t do your job, the day you let her die.”

“It was a mistake,” Katy said, although she wasn’t certain the words were entirely understandable given how numb her face felt. She turned towards her daughter, alarm flooding through her. Tally. She needed to get Tally out of there. She tried to shout, tried to scream, tried to warn her, but she couldn’t.

“No need,” Lucia said with a shrug. “She’ll do anything I tell her.” There was a hint of a razor-thin smile on her face. “After all, I am her mother.”

With effort, Katy flicked her eyes back to Lucia, trying to figure out what in the hell had just happened. Why couldn’t she move? What the hell was Lucia talking about?

When Tally came into the kitchen, her eyes downcast, it clicked into place. When Tally’s eyes flickered to the picture Alex had put up for her, the one with the two figures, it hit her then, too. One of the figures was slightly smaller than the other. When Tally’s gaze flickered back to Lucia, like Katy didn’t exist, she wanted to cry. Tally had known the entire time, who had taken her.

It was one of Katy’s best friends.

“Didn’t you have an alibi?” Katy managed to mumble.

Lucia just arched an eyebrow at her. “I have no idea what you just said.”

Katy tried to scowl, tried to look angry, but her body wasn’t cooperating. The world hadn’t gone dark. She was awake, she was lucid, she just couldn’t move.

“Ketamine’s a bitch,” Lucia said amiably. “Don’t worry, it wears off eventually.” She turned to look at Tally. “Let’s get Katy off to the car now, shall we?”

Tally didn’t look at her, just mutely followed Lucia on the way to the garage. Katy couldn’t even watch them go, as paralyzed as she was. Instead she heard the sound of the garage opening, Lucia’s car coming inside, the garage door closing again. Then Lucia was back inside, finding the strength that only a deranged person could to haul Katy up and roll her into the trunk.

“It’s a shame you went to the effort of getting new stuff for the girl,” Lucia said. “She’ll never get to enjoy it.”

The trunk door shut, and Katy was left alone in the dark.

* * *

March 17^th, 2017. 1pm.

Alex parked her car outside Katy’s house, letting out a sigh and scrubbing her hand through her hair. It’d been a long morning, and it was going to be an even longer day. Her phone rang before she could get out, and she answered it through her dashboard out of habit. “Hello?”

“Alex, it’s Greg.” He sounded angry, which wasn’t good.

“What happened?” Alex put her foot back on the brake pedal, her hand on the keys in case she needed to head back to the department.

“We found Devin and Susan.” He sighed.

Alex held her breath. She could guess what was coming, just based on his reaction, but she wasn’t certain she wanted it confirmed.

“They had another girl, not Tally or the one taken a month ago.” There was a break, him talking to someone that wasn’t Alex. Paperwork, or some orders or something. “Sorry, I’m back. They’ve had this girl for a year or so, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to have Tally at the same time.”

“Do we know how they were connected?”

She could practically hear Greg shrug. “We’re looking into that. Close as we can tell, they met at a support group of some type. Started dating a few years ago or something like that.”

“Any connection to Tally or Katy?” Alex drummed her fingers on her thigh.

“Not that we can find. We’re still looking.”

“Great,” Alex drawled. She turned the car off, pressing her head to the steering wheel briefly. “Do you need me to come in?”

“Nah.” Greg dismissed that with a metaphorical wave of his hand. “Go check on Katy and Tally, would you?”

“Will do. Bye.”

Greg rang off without saying goodbye.

Alex got out of the car, hooking her bag over her shoulder. Katy’s car was in the driveway, and the kitchen light was on as if she was waiting for her. She probably was. It was lunch time, after all.

Alex knocked and then unlocked the door, surprised when it opened into silence. “Hello?” Her voice was cautious, apprehensive. Tally was quiet by herself, yes, but Katy was almost always chattering or had some music on. Maybe they were upstairs.

Still, she put her hand on her gun as she got further into the house, her whole body on high alert. There was no one in the living room, the side rooms. Carefully she started upstairs. No one in the bedrooms, either.

She went back down to the kitchen, saw that the faucet was still dripping. It hadn’t calcified, so it couldn’t have been going for long. Dread coiled low in her middle. She was smart, she knew what it meant when someone was gone and their car was still there.

Especially when their daughter had recently been found after having been kidnapped three years ago.

She dialed Greg’s number immediately, knowing he’d pass it onto the supervisor. “Yeah?” Greg answered, sounding harried.

“Katy and Tally are missing,” Alex said shortly.

She heard the sharp inhale on the other end of the phone. “What?”

“I got home, her car’s still here but there’s no sign of them.” She took another look around the kitchen, spotted a glass and a coffee cup on the table. It didn’t mean anything, it could have been Tally and Katy drinking. “I think they were taken from inside.” The fact that there were no signs of a struggle pointed to that. It would have been easy enough to use Tally as leverage over her mother.

Her blood felt like it was cold. Maybe it was too soon to be tossing around words like love, but Alex loved both Katy and her daughter, and would easily put her life on the line for them. They were her family, and she would do whatever it took to keep them both safe. Her phone clicked off after Greg’s promise of sending resources over immediately, CSI units and everything. As much as that made the cop part of her feel better, she knew the results wouldn’t come back soon enough to help, especially not if whoever took them now planned to kill them.

Logically it made sense it was the same person who’d taken Tally. Had Tally escaped, and not been released? Or had she been released intentionally, in order to lure Katy? Why had there been so much time between then and now?

Alex took gloves from her pocket and put them on. Her prints and DNA were all over the house, she knew that much, but she wasn’t going to risk contaminating things any further. Then she grabbed her phone, dialing Eleanor and tucking it between her ear and shoulder.

Katy had left Eleanor and Lucia’s numbers as emergency contacts, in the hope no one would ever need them. Alex hated that she did.

“Hello?” Eleanor sounded wary, as if she didn’t recognize the number. She probably didn’t.

“Eleanor, this is Alex - Agent Mitchell?” She tripped over her own name. She’d had the luxury of going by her first name for the majority of her time here. It made her feel more normal.

“Oh.” Eleanor sounded relaxed, then confused again. “Why are you calling?”

“You wouldn’t happen to have seen Katy or Tally today, have you?” Alex tried to keep her voice as neutral as possible.

“No.” Eleanor’s breath hitched. “Did something happen?”

“They’re not home,” Alex said, not sure how damning that was on its own. “And Katy’s car is still here.”

“She wouldn’t have left the house with Tally, not unless she had that car,” Eleanor said immediately. “She wasn’t going to take her anywhere near the park.”

Alex couldn’t blame her for that.

“I’ll be there in twenty.” Eleanor hung up.

“Well okay then,” Alex murmured, somewhat amused. She dialed Lucia, and frowned when it went to voicemail. Maybe she was busy, maybe she was at work. She’d have to ask Eleanor, who probably had the number, since Alex didn’t.

There was a knock on the door, drawing Alex’s attention. Couldn’t have been Eleanor. It was probably Greg.

She headed towards the front of the house, covertly peeking out of the window and confirming Greg standing there. She unlocked it and opened it, relieved when she saw him standing there with his sergeant — O’Malley was her name. “Eleanor is on the way but I haven’t been able to get in touch with Lucia.”

Greg nodded. “Met both of them. Nice ladies. Lucia’s probably working.” His eyes swept the kitchen. “We’ve got a forensics team on the way.”

“Will that help?” Alex asked grimly. She knew the odds as well as Greg did.

He looked at her, eyes bleak. “It can’t hurt,” he said.

Alex gave him that. Then her phone rang, drawing her attention. “Hello?” The caller ID told her it was Eleanor.

“Alex?” There was something in Eleanor’s voice that Alex didn’t like, something that settled under her skin and stayed there.

“You okay?” Alex asked cautiously. She’d seen and read that both Eleanor and Lucia had alibis, but maybe they were wrong.

“Lucia didn’t go to work today.” Eleanor’s swallow could be heard over the phone. “She hasn’t had a job since the day after Tally was found, apparently.”

“What?” Alex lifted her head, raising a hand to catch Greg’s attention.

“I called her work.” Eleanor exhaled in a rush. “I can’t imagine she’d do anything like this. We’ve been friends forever, she loved Tally.”

“Thanks for letting us know.” Alex smiled, so as to reassure even though Eleanor couldn’t see it.

Eleanor hung up without saying goodbye, something Alex understood in the situation.

“What was that?” Greg stood a foot or so away, hands on his hips as half his attention remained on the crime scene investigators.

“Eleanor called,” Alex said, mulling over the information. “Lucia didn’t show up for work today. She actually quit around the time Tally reappeared.”

Greg’s eyebrows raised. “That’s convenient timing.”

“Isn’t it.” Alex bit her lip, considering. “Can you spare a unit for Lucia’s house?”

“Of course.” Greg headed out of the house, calling for the female sergeant that had been there the day Tally was found.

Alex followed, giving the house a quick sweep before she went out the door.

“They’ll meet you there,” Greg said, nodding once.

“Greg —” Alex stopped him. He looked at her, curious. “Check Tally’s room. I want to see if anything is missing.”

He nodded, then headed inside.

Alex headed to her car, her heart racing. This was personal now.