Hazel woke up to the sound of screams. She was used to it. She knew her dad was doing something wrong, but she was too scared of him to do anything about it. She got up and got herself ready for school. When she was eating breakfast, her dad walked into the kitchen. He acted like she was invisible.
"Morning daddy," she said.
"Morning," he answered.
"What was that screaming I heard earlier?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.
He was about to go back outside when Hazel spoke again.
"At school, they were talking about a body that they found. Is that what it was? Are you hurting people?"
Just as it left her mouth, her father slapped her across the face. He hit her so hard that she fell out of her chair.
"Shut your mouth! Don't you ever talk like that again! Do you hear me?"
Hazel was trembling as she got up. Her eyes started to water.
"You'd better get to school," he said quietly," you don't want to be late."
She scrambled to get her things and run out the door.
Gideon knocked on the door of the family of the girl who had just gone missing the night before, Clara. JJ was with him, preparing to be a shoulder to cry on. The door swung open, and a boy with tears in his eyes was there.
"Hi," Gideon said," can I talk to your mom and dad?"
He called his parents to the door, and let Gideon and JJ in. Gideon started looking through the house and quickly found the girl's bedroom.
"What is he doing?" Clara's mom asked.
"In order to figure out where Clara is we need to be able to understand why someone may want to hurt her," JJ said," can you tell me what happened last night?"
"Clara and her brother were walking the dog," her dad said," and Ben came back with the dog in tears, saying someone took her."
"Is that true?" JJ asked," did you see what happened?"
"We had turned the corner, and this van pulled up. A man got out and grabbed her. I didn't want to leave, but she told me to run," he looked at his parents and said," I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," Gideon said.
JJ hadn't noticed that he was in the room until he said it.
"Did you see the man who took your sister?"
"No," he cried," I never saw him. I just turned and ran."
JJ and Gideon left the house and started driving to the sheriff's station.
"Why'd he take her?"
JJ was surprised that he was including her in the profiling.
"He has a type," JJ said," Clara fits into his victimology."
"Why grab a girl a block from her house, and leave a witness. Why didn't he grab some woman from the city?"
"Something's keeping him close?"
They pulled into the sheriff's station and got out of the car. Just as they were heading in, a girl who looked about five or six was walking by alone. She had long red hair, a dirty dress, and a bruise was on her cheek. Gideon approached her.
"Hi," he said," my name's Jason."
"I'm Hazel," she said quietly.
"Is someone coming to pick you up?"
"I usually walk home," she said," My dad's too busy to come to get me."
"How did you get that?"
He pointed to her cheek, and she covered it up.
"I fell out of my chair," Hazel said quietly.
Gideon pulled a business card out of his back pocket and handed it to her.
"If you ever need anything, you can call me," he said," and I'll come to help you."
"Okay," she said, "I need to get going. My dad will get mad if I'm late."
"Bye Hazel," Gideon said.
He watched as the girl walked down the dirt path and disappeared into the trees.
Gideon turned and walked into the sheriff's station and met with the team.
Hazel shoved the card into her backpack and walked home. When she got there, her dad was in the shed. Hazel wasn't supposed to go in the shed, because her dad said it was too dangerous, but she always wondered if that was the truth. She went inside and turned on the TV. They were talking about a girl that had gone missing. Hazel got up and went outside. The cold air whipped at her face. She stared at the shed across from the house. She could hear power tools running, and chains clanging, but even through all of that, she could still hear the faintest screams for help. At that moment, Hazel came up with a plan.