Chapter Thirty-Three
Daniel stood in the grocery store aisle, staring at the selection of frozen meals. If they left on Saturday, they’d still need food for a couple of days until then. What do kids like to eat? She’d liked pizza last night—he’d get another of those—and he added a package of hot dogs. Sliced cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches. And milk. Chips. Maybe some cookies.
He didn’t want to have to shop again. Leaving her alone at the house was risky.
When he left she’d been kneeling on the kitchen floor, petting Tucker, who was basking in the attention. “You should stay in the house while I’m gone,” he’d said. “You don’t want anyone to notice you.” He was careful to pose it as her preference, not as pressure from him.
“No,” she’d said, glancing up at him with a quick smile. “I’ll just be here, if that’s still okay.” She seemed to think he was doing her a favor by letting her stay, and he was happy to have her think that way.
She’d still be thinking of Susan’s house as home, even though she didn’t show any sign of wanting to go back there.
Get her looking forward to being on the farm.
He’d told her he’d lock the door, saying it was for her protection. He didn’t want her to think he was locking her in.
Her picture was everywhere—he’d seen a lot of posters along the street, and her photo was plastered across the newspapers in the kiosk out on the sidewalk. He couldn’t risk someone seeing her.
As long as the police didn’t come by again…
The grocery store had a clothing section. Nothing fancy, but serviceable. He searched the Girls and Women section for the things he thought she’d need, and added them to his cart.
As he made his way to the checkout, he tossed in a few odds and ends. At a rack of stationery supplies, he picked up a big pad of paper and flipped through it—blank pages, thick paper. Kelly had had drawing pads like this. Maybe Hannah would like this. He’d seen her drawing on the back of a flyer at the kitchen table this morning, sketching a picture of a dog. It was clearly Tucker. That made sense—Kelly was artistic, so Hannah would be too. He added the pad, along with some markers and pencils, to his cart.
****
Driving home, Daniel remembered Mac standing in their farmhouse kitchen long ago. Mac had come back a second time that day, after they’d insisted Hannah must have been in the car with Kelly and Jacob at the time of the crash.
“From marks in the snow, we can tell that someone else came by the accident before the snow stopped.” he told them. “There are tracks around the truck, half filled with snow. And the pickup’s back door wasn’t latched. We’re thinking someone walked around the vehicle, discovered the baby, unbuckled her, and took her away.”
Daniel had protested. “Why would someone do that? Where would they have taken her?”
“That’s the question. Nobody reported the accident before the snowplow operator found it, and no one has reported a baby. We’re checking hospitals and walk-in clinics, seeing if anyone brought in a baby girl without a health card.”
Daniel shot a look at Patricia, who was barely holding herself together.
“Another possibility—I don’t like to suggest it, but we have to consider it—is that she’s been abducted. Kidnapped.”
Patricia cried out, a sudden piercing wail. “No! Why would they do that?”
Mac glanced at her. “We don’t know. Child abductions are rare in Canada, especially abductions by a stranger. But it can happen. There are cases of someone taking a baby from a hospital nursery because they want a baby of their own, for example.”
Daniel had heard of worse possibilities, but he pushed the thoughts away. “You think someone took Hannah to keep as their own child?”
“That’s possible. Be assured, we’ll be pulling out all stops to find her.”
Mac had come back week after week to give them updates. He even brought a team to search the scene of the accident again. But there was no sign of Hannah anywhere, and the updates gradually became less frequent.
It had been a heartbreak for him and Patricia, but she’d taken it especially hard. At last now he’d be able to bring Hannah home.