Jesse moved every officer he could spare onto the hunt for the missing AJ Chandler. The seven year old boy had disappeared from his home sometime Sunday afternoon. Now the child had already been missing for almost twenty-four hours and concern was growing for his safety.

They brought in dogs to search the grounds of the Chandler Estate, while officers questioned the family trying to find clues to the boys whereabouts. There was no sign of the child.

He also sent officers to the bus and train stations, all hospitals and surgeries were contacted. Jesse wasn't going to leave any stone unturned.

The bus station got them a worrying lead when a ticket clerk mentioned seeing a blonde child boarding a bus to Atlanta, and that the child was travelling with a large, suspicious looking man. It took a nerve wracking three quarters of an hour before state troopers tracked down the bus. It was a false alarm though; the child in question had been a little girl going on holiday with her father.

Jesse didn't need moments like that. Not when a child was involved. Since the scare there had been no new leads.

…

Krystals was heaving as all the volunteers converged there; all ready to help in the search for AJ. The whole town had mobilised to show its support and Brot was there to act as police liaison to the army of helpers mounting their own campaign for information.

Liza and Krystal were organising teams of people to patrol the streets and the park, going door to door, handing out flyers. Adam Chandler had offered a very generous reward and everyone hoped it would help bring them one step closer to finding the child. The restaurant had become the unofficial headquarters for the hunt for AJ.

"Well there must be someplace we haven't looked yet." said Opal, "Stands to reason that boy is somewhere."

Brot was standing with her looking over a map of the town. Opal had been shading it in as areas were searched and putting pins in areas of reported sightings. There were a lot of shaded areas and not many pins.

"There is a lot of ground to cover. But there are also areas we can rule out completely" said Brot, "If AJ has run away from home then it stands to reason he would run to somewhere familiar."

"I don't like the way you said 'if'." said Krystal, coming over to join them with a tray of coffee, "AJ knows not to go off with strangers he's a smart kid."

"Yeah." said Opal, "But I thought him smart enough not to run away in the first place."

Brot took one of the proffered mugs of coffee from Krystal's tray.

"Thanks." said Brot, giving her smile. "The question is, is there anyone else AJ would go to?"

"What about David?" asked Krystal, "I haven't seen him for a few days."

"He's out of State treating Erica." said Opal.

"When did he leave?" Jesse asked, taking out his phone.

"I'm not sure…" said Opal, "Kendall?"

Kendall was by the restaurant door with a worried looking Colby, handing out stacks of flyers to the volunteers.

"Could AJ have gone with David?" Opal hollered to her.

"I don't think so." said Kendall, coming over to join them. "David left with my mother by helicopter yesterday afternoon."

Colby followed her into the huddle.

"Do you think he could really have gone with David?" Colby asked.

Everyone looked down at the map; they all knew they were grasping at straws.

"I don't know." said Krystal reluctantly. "If he was looking to be with someone he felt safe with it would make more sense for him to go to the Martins, or here… or to Bianca's" she added giving Kendall a quick look. She hadn't really had a chance to talk to Marissa since she moved out of the Martins. From what Kendall could tell her she only knew their earlier upset a few days ago had something to do with Bianca.

"What about his cabin?" said Opal nervously, "Would AJ go into the woods to see David? He wasn't to know he wouldn't be there?"

Everyone frowned as they looked down at the map, if AJ had gotten lost in the woods; that was a huge area to search.

"We'll send a couple of officers to the cabin." said Brot "And I'll try and get hold of David just in case."

He walked away from the huddle with his phone to his ear.

…

Natalia arrived at David's cabin with Officer Benson, Scott and Caleb. The cabin was empty and there was no sign of any recent activity. Natalia left Officer Benson with the vehicles as she took the others to start searching the perimeter of the woods surrounding the Cabin. Only Scot didn't want to stop and so they carried on deeper into the woods.

Scott eventually let Caleb take the lead, bowing to his greater experience at tracking.

"I don't think he came this way." said Caleb, examining the muddy path they were following.

He had said it a few times now, but Scott refused to let them stop searching, he had to find his nephew! He felt so guilty about leaving him in the clutches of JR while he was happy and settled into his new life with Madison.

Natalia touched his arm, stopping him from barging past Caleb and disappearing off into the woods alone.

"What if we are searching in the wrong place?" she said.

"They said that he had come this way." said Scott, his mouth a thin line of determination.

"They said he may have come this way but no one has said they saw him coming into the woods." added Natalia, they had been trekking through the woods for over an hour now and she hadn't come dressed for a hike.

"Well you can all go back if you want but I'm not stopping." said Scott, pulling his arm from Natalia's grasp.

Caleb stepped into his path.

"We won't leave you, but at some point you are going to have to accept he isn't here."

Scott looked at him with pleading eyes, desperately willing him to change the facts so that AJ would be found safe and close by.

"AJ is a clever kid, right?" Caleb asked in a conversational tone

"He's so smart." said Scott, a small proud smile lighting his face as he thought of his nephew.

"So would a smart kid like AJ really run away into this dangerous forest? Because from what I know of him I don't think he would."

Scott could only stare at him, Caleb's words slowly sinking in. The deeper they travelled into the forest he knew in his heart it was less and less likely that AJ had come this way.

"But we have to find him."

"We will," said Natalia. "But we won't do that looking in the wrong place."

"I for one am not giving up until I know that boy is safe and home in his mother's arms." said Caleb.

"Neither am I." said Natalia.

They stood in a silent circle waiting for Scott's next words.

"Maybe we should head back." he said sadly. "I just wish I knew where he was."

The group turned to trudge back to civilisation; all of them hoping that AJ was close to being found.

…

Ryan had been paired up with Cara and Madison as they patrolled the far corner of the park. Talking to every person who would stop; handing out flyers to every passer-by.

Ryan was a little worried about Cara being on her feet for so long, she was looking very pregnant although she still had another few months before the baby was due.

"Do you want to sit down?" he asked.

"It is a little wearing on the feet." she said, rubbing her tummy.

Ryan led her to a nearby bench. It was already occupied by as a man reading the newspaper.

Ryan looked around for his other team mate to signal to her that Cara was taking a break. Madison was a few yards up the path, she nodded in response before returning to chat to a couple of joggers.

Just then an old woman walked past with her dog, a little Yorkshire Terrier. Ryan moved to intercept her.

"I'm sorry to stop you, but I'm hoping you can help us. We are looking for a missing child." He said handing out a flyer.

The woman took the flyer but was then distracted by her dog, who started barking at Ryan. Looking embarrassed she fumbled into her handbag in order to put the flyer somewhere safe whilst trying to control her dog as well, making Ryan dropped more flyers in the confusion.

The man with the newspaper bent down to help pick them up.

"Is this the missing kid?" he asked, then he read further down the flyer. "And there's a reward!?"

The guy sat back on the bench.

"You know I think I saw this boy in the park yesterday."

"In the park?" asked Cara, "What time was that?"

"About 2pm. I had just finished my lunch break…"

"You work on Sundays?" asked Ryan.

"Yeah, at the museum."

"Whereabouts was it exactly that you saw him?" asked Cara.

"Here, heading that way." He said pointing up the path away from the street. "I always have my lunch on this bench. It's nice to read the paper and watch the world go by."

Ryan nodded.

"Are you sure it's the same kid?"

"Could be." The man said with a shrug. "So, this thousand dollars..?"

"If your information helps us find him then you will get the reward."

…

Bianca may be confined to her bed, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to do all she could to find AJ. Luckily her sister didn't need much persuading. The helpline number on the flyers had been forwarded to Bianca's phone. The police had briefed her on the kinds of information they needed and it was good to feel useful. Unfortunately she hadn't had many calls and most of the ones she had received were from the press. Luckily she was well experienced with deflecting calls from pushy reporters and she now had a stock answer down pat.

"I'm sorry I have no information I can share with you, but any assistance your paper/programme can offer in helping to locate the missing child would be most gratefully accepted!"

It seemed to be doing the trick.

In between answering the phone Bianca was on her laptop, keeping up to date in the preparations for the Miranda Centre Fundraiser. As she was trapped in the bed, she knew she had to at least do something useful.

Bianca's phone rang.

"Hello, AJ Chandler help line." she said.

"Is this the number to call about the missing little boy." asked a nervous voice over the line. It was a little old lady.

"Yes it is." said Bianca, picking up her notebook from the bedside table. "Can I take your details."

"Look firstly I don't want to take the money." said the lady in flustered tones.

"That is your choice." said Bianca kindly, "But any information you can give us about the whereabouts of AJ would be most gratefully received."

"Yes, well, that nice couple in the park gave me a flyer. It looked like they were expecting a little baby of their own soon, such a beautiful thing... and it's so sad when children go missing… Only when they stopped me I didn't get a proper look at the photo, I thought it was a little girl with all that hair… Also at the time, I was too distracted by Gregory making a fuss… Gregory's my terrier, Yorkshire terrier…"

Bianca smiled and ever patient waited for the endearingly scatty old woman to get to the point.

"It's just I've been wracking my brain and I think that actually I did see him on Sunday – the little boy."

"Go on."

"Well I was taking Gregory for our regular afternoon walk only yesterday we went along the path past the kiddy train ride in the park instead of round the pond because… well because there was a family feeding the ducks and Gregory tends to go a little crazy around any kind of bird so I didn't want to disturb them… Well we were walking and this little boy went past with a giant red rucksack on his back and I remembering thinking – 'what they make these poor little kids carry to school these days!' – and then I remembered that it was Sunday and that he couldn't be going to school… so I thought maybe he was going camping…"

"And this was in the park?" said Bianca, interrupting.

"Yes."

"Do you happen to know which direction he was heading?"

"It was away from me and I was heading towards the square… is it a square? The bit all walled in with the nice flagstones. I like to sit on the benches in there it's very peaceful."

"So he was heading into the park."

"Yes I'm certain."

…

Brot's phone rang, he went into the corner to answer it.

"Well!" said Colby, Opal, Krystal and Kendall in unison when he returned.

"We have had another sighting of AJ in the park." said Brot, pointing to the map. "They are sending the dog team straight over there."

"Maybe we need to start thinking about organising search parties." said Opal.

They couldn't help but notice how close that area of park was to the forest.

…