As soon as he saw Jim, he spared him the trouble and stated simply, "No news." The younger man’s face fell. Simms laid his hand on his shoulder briefly, then faced the group. "Okay everyone, here’s the drill. It’s highly likely that Trixie walked somewhere near the office. We’re going to spread out in all directions in groups of two or three and question everyone in every house, every business, now matter how unlikely, in a one mile radius He handed out several 8 by 10 pictures he had made from Trixie’s badge picture in the FBI computer. "We’ll report back here, but call my cell phone immediately if you have anything to report. Any questions? Okay, good luck." They headed outside and the FBI agent pointed each group in a different direction. Jim felt incredibly grateful that Simms, with his many years of experience, was taking such capable charge.

Mart, Trixie’s other brother Bobby and Diana Lynch took a picture and headed off. "We won’t miss anybody," Mart promised.

Trixie’s parents, Jim’s parents and Honey and Brian took their pictures and left, their still white faces a testament to their lack of sleep.

Jim and Simms headed down the sidewalk. "How you doing, man?" Simms asked, not liking the look on Jim’s face, but not blaming him either.

Jim shook his head. "This is a nightmare," he said simply. "I’m thankful for everything you’re doing." He said no more, not trusting his voice. This was no time to start cracking up.

"Glad to do it. After we find that girl, I’m going to take her up on her dinner offer. She’ll owe me one." John forced his voice to sound capable and confident.

The two men walked on in the bright sunshine that was a cruel reminder to Jim how long Trixie was missing. His legs were leaden with exhaustion, and fear was stealing away his oxygen. Last night he had called every hospital, describing Trixie until his voice was hoarse, each time relieved she wasn’t there and yet disappointed because that meant she was still missing. He felt like his sanity was starting to slip away. Even Patch, the dog he’d had since he was 15, knew something was wrong. He kept dashing into different rooms, whining, unable to sit still. It seemed like he was wondering where Trixie was too. 

Jim listened for several hours as Agent Simms questioned people tirelessly, impressed with his professionalism—he felt completely incapable of talking calmly about Trixie. He ached to hold her; he felt like he was missing an essential part of himself like an arm or a leg. Please God, let us find something, anything, anything at all, he thought, anguished.

"Here’s the A&P—she may have needed something for the dinner," Simms said.

"Hey, yeah," Jim replied, suddenly hopeful. The two men entered the store where Simms flashed his badge to the first cashier he saw.

"John Simms, FBI. Miss, I need to talk to the Manager right away."

The cashier was stunned. "Wow, FBI? That’s Mr. Burnell, he’s right over there," she pointed to a short stocky man standing nearby. He noticed and came over immediately. "Is there a problem?" he asked pleasantly.

Simms wasted no time, showing him the picture of Trixie. "We need to show this to anyone who was on duty last night, approximately 4:30 PM or later. This person is missing and may have stopped off in here."

"Yes, she did stop in. I was here last night." Mr. Burnell replied. "I’m very good with faces," he added by way of explanation.

Jim grabbed his arm before he could stop himself. "When did you see her?" he asked urgently.

Mr. Burnell looked at him with understanding. She must be his wife or girlfriend, he thought. "Must have been pretty close to 5:00. I was almost through with my shift, and I remember her mainly because of the woman she was talking to. She seemed pretty upset as I recall."

Simms and Jim looked at each other, electrified. "Describe this woman," Simms demanded.

"Weeell now, she was a middle aged woman. Not real tall. Darkish hair, bit of gray. Very nicely dressed. She was crying a little bit."

"Did she appear to be forcing the young woman to talk to her? Was she behaving in any kind of threatening manner?" Simms asked.

"No, like I said, she just seemed upset about something. They walked to the register together and left. That’s all I remember."

"Did they leave together?" Jim demanded

Mr. Burnell considered the question, pursing his lips. Jim restrained the urge to shake the answer out of him. "I guess you could say that."

"What do you mean ‘guess’?" Jim was almost beside himself with frustration.

"Easy son. Easy." Simms said quietly.

"I’m sorry, I don’t have anything else to tell you. They were heading for the door together, but I don’t know what happened after that. I couldn’t tell you if they left together—I wasn’t outside with them." Mr. Burnell was a very precise man.

"Thank you. Now about other people on duty last night. We need to question them too." Simms stated.

"Of course," the store manager replied. "Beth. Lucas, Chris…" he pointed out a cashier and two stockboys.

The pair questioned everybody, but nobody could tell them what happened after they left the store. The young cashier, Beth, remembered the woman who was with Trixie. "Yeah, she was real upset, crying and all. I think your friend felt sorry for her—she was being very nice."

Jim felt like crying. Was Trixie’s good heart rewarded by…he didn’t want to think any further about what might be happening to her. Who was this woman, and what, if anything, had she done to Trixie?

"Let’s go back to the office. We need to let everyone know what’s going on," Simms said, walking rapidly to the door.

Within 15 minutes, everyone was gathered around Simms’ desk. He excused the other agents from the room abruptly. "Trixie was spotted in the A&P last night. She was talking to a middle aged woman with dark hair, some gray."

"Is that who she’s with now?" Honey exclaimed.

"It would seem likely, but it’s not for sure. Do any of you know who this could be?"

"An ex-teacher?" Brian asked, throwing out a possibility.

"Maybe the mother of one of her classmates? This seems so hopeless!" Mrs. Belden leaned against her husband, rubbing her eyes. "It could be anybody."

Jim turned to Agent Simms. "The case you’ve been working on. Trixie couldn’t give me any details but she did say she had to talk to the girl’s mother a lot. In fact, she spent a lot of time talking to her."

Agent Simms nodded. "Yes she did. And she does fit the general description. But it seems highly unlikely. Trixie almost single-handedly put her daughter’s murderer behind bars. Any mother would be grateful, I would think." He shifted the newspaper from this morning to the side of his desk and reached for his coffee cup. Jim glanced down and froze.

"Oh my God," he said picking up the paper. His eyes did not want to believe what he was seeing.

"What? What is it?" several voices asked. Jim wordlessly turned the paper to face the group, who gaped at the large picture of Penelope Waters.

"She looks just like Trixie!" Diana gasped, taking the paper from his hand and looking closer at it. The young girl in the paper stared out with big, soft eyes, her long curly hair just past her shoulders.

Mrs. Belden clutched her husband. "Any mother might be grateful, but any mother could also be out of her mind!" she said, her voice trembling. The coincidences were just too many for her not to think the worst.

John Simms paled. "And all Trixie kept saying after I told her was ‘poor Mrs. Waters’". The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. "We’re going to pay a certain person a little visit," he finished, grimly.

But would it be too late?

Meggie Hansen and Sarah Monroe, age 13, were arguing again.

"Meggie, we might get into trouble. That place is on private property, you know," Sarah said, lifting her long blonde hair up off her neck to cool it as they walked through the woods behind their house.

Meggie groaned. "Oh Sarah, why are you always such a stickler for the rules? Nobody cares about that dumb old cabin. It’s falling apart." She liked her best friend more than anyone else, but sometimes she drove her crazy.

"If it’s just a dumb old cabin, why do you want to go inside? It’s probably filled with bugs. Ugh!" Sarah complained.

"Saaaaraaaah, how are we going to be the next Muldur and Scully if you’re afraid of a few bugs? Don’t you remember what happened to them last week?" Meggie asked. "Where’s your sense of adventure?"

"I have a sense of adventure! It’s just that I like how Scully figures things out scientifically. You can be Muldur, chasing after aliens!" Sarah replied. She liked categorizing all the facts, patiently weaving together the picture of events. Her reports for school were always marked high for research.

Meggie’s dark eyes danced. "I might as well, I’m already friends with one!" She playfully bumped Sarah’s shoulder with her own. "And anyway, even Scully gets her hands dirty!"

"Oh hardy har har!" Sarah said, giving her a tiny shove back, causing her dark braid to swing off her shoulder.

"Pleeeease let’s go to the cabin; just for one minute. I’ve just gotta know what’s in there!" Meggie wheedled.

Sarah sighed. She knew her best friend well enough to know that she wasn’t going to give up. "Oh all right. But you have to go to the new Freddie Prinz Jr. movie with me then."

"Deal." Meggie replied. The Matrix was really more her style, but she guessed she could stand a couple of hours of ‘boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back’. "Let’s go!"

***

Trixie slowly opened her eyes, amazed that she had actually managed to sleep for a few hours. The cabin was dark and quiet, but she could tell the sun was shining outside. She tried to stretch, crying out as her calves cramped painfully. She could no longer feel her hands. "Oh God, what am I going to do? I want to go home!" she whimpered aloud, her eyes filling with tears. She took in a shaky, impatient breath. "That’s enough of that. I’ve got to be calm and think. Think," Trixie said. She needed a drink of water badly. She again tried to work her feet loose, and was filled with savage hope as she felt the ropes give way on one side. "Please…" she breathed, moving her feet side to side. She had to hurry—she sensed Mrs. Waters would be arriving any minute. Suddenly she froze, hearing voices and footsteps.

"Oh I’ll go in first!" Trixie heard, then the door opened and a dark head peeked through. Dark eyes met her own, wide with shock, a gasp escaping her mouth.

"What’s wrong, Meggie?" A second voice asked.

"There’s somebody tied up in here!" The first girl said. She rushed up to Trixie and babbled, "You’re that missing FBI intern, aren’t you?" She started untying the ropes that bound Trixie’s feet to the end of the cot. The second girl stood in the doorway, her mouth open in horror.

"Girls, get out of here. Run; call the police," Trixie said urgently.

"Let us untie you, get you out of here!" the dark haired girl exclaimed.

Trixie shook her head. "She could be back any second. She’s dangerous. Go! Go now!" She made her voice as authoritative as possible. If anything happened to these young girls, she would never forgive herself. "RUN!" she screamed, and to her immense relief they turned and fled.

Trixie’s heart pounded loudly, she held her breath and strained to listen for several moments, finally relaxing when she realized they had gotten away. It wasn’t a moment too soon. Her whole body froze as she recognized Mrs. Waters’ footsteps making their way to the cabin.

Mrs. Waters walked through the door and over to the cot, her eyes dead. Trixie’s stomach turned to ice at her expression. She’s going to kill me, Trixie thought in a moment of absolute clarity. She has completely lost all touch with reality.

Mrs. Waters stood at her side, staring down. Her hands pulled at the sides of her hair restlessly, her face slack and expressionless. Trixie could hardly believe this was the same charming, worried woman she had interviewed just weeks before. "I’ve done everything I can. Everything. I don’t know what to do. Don’t know what to do." Her voice was dark and toneless.

"You don’t need to do anything. Why don’t you go back to the house and lie down? You’ve already done so much already," Trixie tried, hoping to placate the deranged woman.

Mrs. Waters smiled a strange and terrible smile, freezing Trixie’s blood. "You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d like me to leave you alone so you can be with your professor. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to! She showed me what he wrote. She showed me! And you liked it, didn’t you?" her voice rose in pitch. She sank down on the side of the bed and caressed Trixie’s cheek. "You know there’s only one thing we can do, don’t you?" she asked, almost kindly.

Trixie was too frightened to respond. She closed her eyes and thought about her sweet Jim, her family, friends. She knew she would never see them again.

"We can start all over. Don’t be scared, my darling girl. It’s the only way. You’ll see," Mrs. Waters’ voice was soothing.

Trixie tensed, waiting for the worst, but to her surprise, Mrs. Waters left the room. She went limp, feeling the fight completely drain out of her. I just can’t take anymore. I can’t! she wept to herself. The constant fear had left her utterly exhausted. 

I’m sure those girls have called the police by now. Maybe they’re already on their way! she suddenly thought, feeling a little energy creep back into her body. Suddenly she tensed as she smelled an unmistakable odor. "Oh my God," she croaked helplessly. The cabin was on fire!