Shayne gets out of the Range Rover, my dog Muppet bounding down out of the back seat behind her. I give her a pleading look for help. She reaches her arms out for Sierra and takes her from me.
“I sure do. She is with an old friend of hers from school who is very sick and needs her help for a little while, so I came over to get you and take you over to Camillia’s house where Lucy is waiting for you to come and play.”
Sierra hesitates for a moment as if she is trying to believe what Shayne is telling her.
“But why are the police inside?” Sierra questions.
“There was a fire at one of the houses I am building honey, so they came over to talk to me. That’s where I was when I drove up and Trevor was with me.”
Sierra’s eyes get really big as she looks at me and even though I cringe inside for the loss of Trevor and Melody’s home, I thank God I have it as an excuse for why the police are here.
“Fires are scary, Daddy. I don’t like fires.”
“I don’t like them either, baby girl, but I do need to get in the house and talk to the police, so why don’t we all go inside? You and Aunt Shayne can get your stuff together and you can go play with Lucy while Daddy talks to the police, okay?”
I reach up and wipe a wayward tear off of her face and my heart breaks even more as I look into my little butterfly’s eyes.
“Everything is going to be fine, Butterfly. Now come on, okay? No more crying. You go have fun today.”
“Okay, Daddy no more crying, but if Mommy calls you, will you please have her call me? I just want her to know I’m sorry about her friend.”
I close my eyes and exhale as Shayne takes Sierra into the house and hopefully gets her out of here before I fucking lose my mind.
************
“Are you sure you’re not missing anything else, Miss Madison?” Detective Ryan asks Shelby politely.
“I am positive. I have told you everything. Now instead of standing here grilling my ass, you need to be out there looking for my sister. Her ex-husband is a crazy fucker and I am absolutely terrified for her.”
Shelby breaks down crying for the second time since I walked into my house full of cops doing all kinds of investigating around the house. Somehow Joel broke in through the garage service door. The thought of him being that close to Sierra again makes me clench my fist.
“Just one more question, Miss Madison. Do you know anyone who might know where Joel would take your sister?”
Shelby lifts her head from the table.
“No. As far as I know he doesn’t know anyone around here.”
“You say he is estranged from his family, is that correct?”
Shelby nods her head.
“Would you mind calling them and asking them if they have heard from him at all, please?”
“I…I...um, sure. But I know if they had, they would have called us by now. Erin talked to his mother a few weeks ago when she first heard from Joel.”
“Please, Miss Madison. Just call them.”
Shelby rises from her chair and reaches for Erin’s cell phone and with shaky hands she picks it up and goes to swipe the screen when Antonio places his hand over the top of hers and retrieves the phone from her hand.
“Let me call them for you, Shelby,” Antonio says in a soft and sympathetic voice.
“Are you sure?” she whispers.
Antonio nods and asks for Joel’s mother’s name and walks away as he puts the phone up to his ear. A few minutes later he walks back in.
“Emily says she hasn’t heard from him since she talked to him after he got out of prison. She is very upset as we can all imagine, and she asks that we keep her informed.”
“We can do that, but our first priority is to find Erin and bring her back here safe,” Detective Ryan explains. “Luke and Antonio; let us do our jobs. Stay here until we notify you, do I make myself clear?” the Detective continues as he puts his notepad back into his shirt pocket and makes his way to the door.
“Yeah, okay, man.” Antonio holds his hands up as if to surrender.
“FUCK THAT!” yells Shelby. “I am not going to just sit here while my sister is out there God knows where. I am going to go look for her. You can’t expect us to just sit here with our thumbs up our asses.” Shelby turns towards Antonio. “Let me go get dressed and then you and I are going to go look for her.” She stomps out of the room and heads toward the stairs.
“Jesus Christ, Luke. I am going out of my fucking mind here not knowing where she is.” I scrub my hands up and down my face.
“We’re going with you guys. Shelby is right, we can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
Luke tries to reason with me.