As they burst through the door into the diner, Hotch and Laurel heard the sirens approaching.
"I called 911 as soon as I realized what had happened." The waitress sitting on the floor next to an unconscious Missy held up her cell phone.
"She's okay, isn't she?" she continued nervously. "She's just unconscious, right?"
Hotch knelt down and reached over to check Missy's neck pulse. "She seems to be alright," he reported. "We'll have to wait for the paramedics."
Missy moaned and began moving her head.
"Just stay still," he advised her. "An ambulance is on the way."
"They blind-sided me," Missy groaned. "Laurel, I am so sorry!"
"Can you tell us what happened?" Hotch asked.
"There seemed to be a disagreement at the table," Missy was struggling to sit up. "Mr. Mercer had his arm raised as if he was going to hit Paige, so I went over to see what the problem was. When I asked what was going on, Mrs. Mercer told me that it was none of my business and that I should go away. But, Paige looked really scared, and then she asked if she could go to the restroom. I went with her and, when we came out, they were apparently standing there waiting for us. One of them hit me on the head and that is all I remember."
"I heard the little girl screaming, so I rushed back here," the waitress took up the story. "And, when I saw her lying on the floor and heard the back door slam, I knew what the Mercers had done. I immediately dialed 911."
"Everyone who was in the restaurant is still here," another waitress who Hotch remembered seeing standing behind the cash register walked over. "I told them all to sit back down and wait until the police had arrived. I've seen enough TV shows to know that the police need to talk to everyone. Even if no one thinks they saw anything, sometimes it turns out that they did."
"You both did the right thing," Hotch assured the two women. And, from what I hear of the sirens, the police should be here any minute now."
"Here we are," the first officer through the door announced. "What are we looking at here?"
"Kidnapping," Hotch said immediately. "They took a 10 year old girl by the name of Paige Mercer and she was wearing a –
"Mercer?" the officer interrupted him. "Are you saying the Mercers took this child?"
"Yes," Laurel told him. "She is their granddaughter and they were having a supervised visit with her when they attacked the woman overseeing it and knocked her unconscious."
"All the officers in town know their truck," the officer told her as he pulled out his cell phone. "Let me get the word out. And, the chief is on his way over. When he gets here you can tell us all the details."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Carl – You're the Chief of Police now?" Laurel questioned, surprised, when the man walked into the diner.
"Yeah!" he grinned back at her. "Who would have thunk it way back when we were in high school?"
"Carl is an old friend of mine," Laurel explained to Hotch. "We went to high school and then to college together."
"And, now, I understand that I am here to find your daughter," Carl went right to the point. "The Mercers took her and you have no idea of where they may be going?"
"No," Laurel was fighting to remain calm. "Carl, I haven't seen them in close to ten years. I have no idea what they have been doing lately."
"You said that Paige had an argument with them," Hotch turned to Missy, who was being examined by the paramedics. "Did she say what it was about?"
"From what Paige told me in the restroom," Missy replied. "They said they wanted her to go hunting with them and she said that she didn't want to go. That she would rather go ice skating. Then they told her how much fun it would be to shoot animals and she told them that she didn't think that murdering animals would be fun. That was when Mr. Mercer got upset."
"Hunting?" Laurel repeated. She looked over at Carl. "Is the state forest land northwest of town still open for hunting?" she asked.
"In season, yes," he replied.
"And, do some of the locals still have duck blinds and tree stands out there?" she continued.
"Technically they are illegal since that is state land," she explained to Hotch. "But, some of them have been there so long the park rangers look the other way. I actually think that by this time some of them are grandfather claused."
"Let me call the park rangers and tell them to keep an eye out," was Carl's reply. "But you know how large that forest area is." He pulled out his cell phone.
"I bet Reid could tell us," Hotch tried to joke.
"Down to the square meter," Laurel tried to smile.
"They are going to have to stay with that truck for at least a little while," Missy spoke up. "That means that they will need to stay on the fire trails, even if they are just loose sand."
"Can we get a helicopter?" Hotch asked.
"I don't know," Carl replied as he closed up his phone. "That would be the state police."
"You have a young girl in danger of bodily harm," Hotch told him. "So you are justified in calling in whatever law enforcement entity you think might be helpful. Including," Hotch took a deep breath and began digging in his pocket. "The FBI." He flipped his credentials open and showed them to Carl.
"A Fed – You're marrying a Fed?" Carl looked at Laurel in amazement.
"Yes, Sir," he turned back to Hotch, grinning. "One helicopter coming up!"