Page 125 of Sing with Me

She found a modest dress with buttoned-up front and puffy sleeves. Was this too old-fashioned?

She berated herself for being ridiculous because the clock on the wall warned her she was going to be late for Sunday School if she didn’t hurry up.

At the end of the long five minutes, she ended up with a light pink silk blouse over a pair of white stretch trousers.

And out of the front door she went. In her car, she put on her headset—which messed up her hair—and called Diehl back as she drove to church.

After all her hard work of choosing what to wear to FaceTime Diehl, she ended up on audio only so that her hands were free to drive.

“Sorry,” Skye said. “I spilled oatmeal on my dress and had to change. I’m on my way to church. Sorry can’t FaceTime.”

“You don’t want me to see you driving?” Diehl sounded amused.

“I don’t want to be distracted in the fifteen minutes it will take me to drive to church.”

“Well, I have a progress report that you can share with our Sunday School class, although Ivan will probably do it if he’s there today.”

Our Sunday School class.

Did he sayour?

“Any progress is good. Praise the Lord.” At the red light now, Skye waited patiently for Diehl to explain.

“I’ve been up most of the night,” Diehl said. “Detective Jeong just left us after talking to Ethan, Mom, and the Bishops.”

“Ethan is talking?” That would be progress indeed.

“Yeah. He overheard Elisa talking to Romina last week, so the police are following up on that,” Diehl said. “His former nanny still lives in Atlanta. It could be a big clue.”

“Hopefully it’s not child trafficking.” Skye wished she didn’t have to mention it.

“I hope not.” Diehl went silent for what seemed to be at least half a minute. “Please pray it’s not that.”

“Why don’t we pray now?” Skye asked.

“Now?”

“Yes. Dear Heavenly Father, we turn over Elisa to You right now. You know who took her and where she is. You said that if we don’t ask, we don’t get, so I pray that You will bring Elisa home to us safely and unharmed. In Your Holy Name I pray. Amen.”

“Amen,” Diehl said. “Why didn’t they take both Elisa and Ethan? Only Elisa vanished. The police said there’s no sign of a break-in. Cara set the security alarms before she left the night before. And she unset it at six when she came back on Saturday morning.”

Skye remembered something. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about the security cameras, but had no chance yesterday.”

“You left before dinner.”

“I had a lot to prepare before my trip out of town.”

“Well, Malik found nothing. I wish I had been here the whole time. It never crossed my mind that Mom’s house would be unsafe for my kids.”

“Not unsafe, is it? If Elisa left the safe place, then she is outside the circle of safety.”

“Good point.” Diehl yawned. “I sent Ethan to bed at three in the morning, and he’s still sleeping right now.”

“How much sleep did you get?”

“I haven’t gone to bed. After Detective Jeong talked to Ethan again, he wanted to talk to the Bishops. I hung around in case he needed me for some reason. After he left, I spent the last half an hour talking to Ivan. I had to wait until dawn to call him. Didn’t want to wake my sister.”

“That’s considerate of you.” Skye pulled into the Seaside Chapel parking lot in record time due to low traffic this early in the morning. She put her car in park and continued listening.

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