RING! RING!
I reached for the Psych office phone and glanced at the caller ID. "Hello, Chief!" I said cheerily. Gus looked up from laptop.
My eyebrows shot up when I heard what she said.
"We'll be right there!"
"What?" Gus asked as he followed me out the door.
"The Chief said that there's something very important that we have to discuss at the station."
We hopped into the Blueberry and drove to the SBPD as quick ly as possible.
When we entered the Chief's office, we foundthe Chief at her desk and in the chair before her was a woman clearly beside herself; she had a handful of tissues and was sobbing into them.
"Mr. Spencer, Mr. Guster, thank you for coming," The Chief said, looking up at us as we entered.
She gestured to the weeping woman. "This is Carol Nottingham. She came in a few moments ago asking if we could find her missing daughter."
The Chief addressed the woman. "This is Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster, our resident psychic team. They will be able to help you."
I knelt beside the chair. "Miss Nottingham - "
"It's Mrs."
"Mrs. Nottingham," I began again. "When and where did you last see your daughter?"
She wiped her nose, sniffed, then said, "My daughter's name is Maddie. She and I were out in the yard this morning. Maddie was playing on the lawn and I was tending to the garden. I needed a tool and I told Maddie to stay putand I ran to the shed to fetch it. I was only gone for for a moment, but when I returned, Maddie as gone. I looked everywhere for her."
Carol began crying again. "I never should have left her alone!" I put my hand on her arm. "Don't worry, Mrs. Nottingham. We'll find your daughter. I promise."
- 10 minutes later -
"Huh. No signs of struggle. Not even sneaker treads." I stared gloomily at the Nottingham's front lawn.
Gus looked up. "Maybe whoever took her lifted her off the ground."
I raised an eyebrow. "How do we know she was kidnapped?"
"How elese did she dissapear so fast?"
Just then, something caught my eye - crumbs, scattered here and there on the path leading out of the front gate. I turned to Carol who was watching us hopefully. "Was your daughter eating something here? A cookie, maybe?"
Carol raised ehr eyebrows. "Yes, she had a muffin. Why?"
I raised my finger to my temple.
"I'm sensing that there are crumbs from that muffin that will lead us to your daughter."
As we turned to leave the gate, I whispered to Gus: "It's just like Hansel and Gretel!"
Gus glared at me. "I hope not. That would mean that there's an evil witch waiting to cook us when we solve this."
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Will Shawn and Gus find Maddie? find out in the next chapter, coming soon!