Note: This one shot ties in with a couple of others in this selection of one shots relating to the story of Sharon's missing daughter. There will be more connected to this particular storyline in future chapters!


29. "Well, what do you want to do?"

It wasn't unusual to get a phone call about a missing child. Not in a city like Oakland. Most of the time it involved children who had stayed out beyond their curfew, teenagers who had snuck out of their bedrooms so that they could make out with their boyfriends or girlfriends somewhere and occasionally it was a domestic dispute where parents were divorced and one parent had taken the child when they were not supposed to. Most of those cases ended within hours, sometimes a day or two. Most of them weren't the type of cases that gripped a person and would rob them of their breath and leave their hearts pounding in their chest.

But sometimes, there was a case that was different and walking into the small house in a relatively quiet suburban street, the blue and red lights of his patrol car a stark contrast against the early April morning sky, Officer Louis Provenza knew instantly that he had walked into something that wasn't going to end in just a few hours.

The child's mother was an attractive brunette with piercing green eyes. She wore flannel pyjama pants and a long sleeved white top, her dark hair bound back in a messy ponytail. The dark frame of her glasses formed a sharp contrast against the paleness of her skin. He saw the panic in her face and when she heard him enter, she turned to him and he saw the full extent of her grief. He braced himself.

"My little girl!" she screamed. "They took my little girl!"

The father seemed calmer but Provenza still detected a hint of worry as he attempted to sooth his wife. "Sssh, Sharon. Maybe she just got out of bed to get some water and wandered out of the house."

"Is that possible?" he asked. "Were there any doors unlocked?"

"No!" the mother insisted. "All the doors were locked."

He nodded and let his eyes wander around the room. Neat and tidy except for today's paper and a half full glass of water on the coffee table. Children's toys were neatly stacked in the corner, tidied away with care but not in a way that meant they were hidden from sight. There was a framed picture of a little girl on the wall. She matched the age and physical description he had been given by dispatch. This was the missing child.

Provenza turned to the child's father as the mother cried uncontrollably in his arms. "Where is your daughter;s bedroom, sir?" He silently prayed that the Missing Person;s Unit woulkd turn up soon. This wasn't what he'd signed up for.

The eharbrreaking sobs of the mother echoed in his eyes as he climbed the stairs and turned to the second room on the right as per the father's instructions. He slipped his hands in a pair of latex gloves and carefully pushed against the alreadt ajar door. It creaked a little as it opened further, revealing a bright children's nursery complete with handdrawn flowers and animals on the wall. His His eyes were drawn to the crib. The blankets had been pulled back and the emptiness stared back him.

The cool gust of air touching his face made him turn to the window. The curtains danced lazily in the morning breeze and Provenza approached, careful not to touch anything as he crossed the room. On the window ledge he saw the dark coloured smudge of what looked like blood and his heart sank. No two year old could have climbed up to this window and gotten out and to reassure himself he cast a quick glance down into the backyard, praying he wouldn't find the lifeless body of a toddler. All he saw was muddy grass.

There were signs of dirt on the beige coloured carpet, something that looked like half a foot print. Another one was a little closer to the crib.

He spun around when he heard the mother's voice from the doorway behind him. "Someone took her."

He swallowed. Confirming that suspicion would only make matters worse but what else could he possibly say? That her two year old daughter had just wandered out of her bedroom and disappeared out of a house where all the other doors and windows were locked? The evidence was right here, in front of both of them, and when the woman, Sharon, met his eyes, he couldn't lie.

"It would appear so," Provenza admitted. "Mrs…" He realised he didn't know her last name.

"Raydor," she finished his sentence, her voice flat.

"Mrs Raydor, I have called for reinforcement and they will be here soon. And we will do everything we can to find your little girl. Her name is Annie, right? That was her picture I saw downstairs, in the living room?"

Sharon Raydor nodded. "I took her only a couple of weeks ago to get it done."

"So it's recent. Good. I want you to get it for me and I will make sure it gets to every officer in the state of California, every news channel and every newspaper," Provenza vowed. He crossed the room but stopped short of taking the woman's hands into his. She was no longer shaking. What had come over her seemed like a strange sense of calm, at least for the time being, as she looked around the room with almost the same detailed eye he had done.

"I normally check on her before I go to bed but she'd been crying most of the night and had only just gone to sleep by eleven pm so I didn't want to go in and risk waking her," Sharon said quietly. "If I had…"

They had no time frame. Provenza knew it was just as likely Sharon Raydor would have found her daughter still asleep in her bed if she had gone into the room. He peeled off the gloves and reached out a tentative hand, placing it on the woman's arm. Through the open window he heard the sound of sirens wailing, of cars rapidly approaching. Soon the front lawn would be full of cops, forensic investigators and news crews. All hell would break loose.

"What do I do?" Sharon whispered.

"Well, what do you want to do?" he asked, causing the young mother to look up. He felt the strong need to protect her from what was about to happen.

"Excuse me?"

"In a few moments, this whole house is going to be full of people looking for evidence and answers. For the next few days, weeks or months, this won't feel like your home," he said softly. "There will be news crews on your lawn. Is there somewhere else you'd like to go? Family maybe? Somewhere you can process this in your own time without anybody bothering you."

"I know a few people," Sharon Raydor answered and she smiled warily. "Thank you, Officer…" She went to read the name on his uniform. "Officer Provenza."

He reached into his pocket and gave her his card. "I know I'm only a patrol officer but if there is anything I can do…" He held her gaze. "Call me."

Sharon Raydor never called.