Page 44 of Snowed Inn For Christmas

“Hey, watch out,” a woman snapped as I bumped into her.

“I’m sorry.Have you seen a little girl?She’s about this tall and has long dark brown hair and green eyes,” I said quickly, praying for someone to help us find her.

“No.But there are kids everywhere, so it’s hard to tell.What is she wearing?”

My mind raced as I struggled to remember.Why hadn’t I thought of that?There were easily over a hundred kids in the store, many who would fit her description.

“Ummm.She had on a red sweater with a heart on it, I think?”

“I’m sorry.It doesn’t ring a bell.I’ll keep an eye out for her, though,” the woman answered before returning her focus to the toys on the shelf beside her.

I took off sprinting through the store again, stopping as I heard the crackling overhead before the Christmas music was replaced with an announcement.

“Attention all employees, we have a Code Adam.Repeat, we have a Code Adam.Little girl, age five, with brown hair and green eyes.Last seen wearing a red sweater and black pants.”

The speaker stopped as people started whispering around me.I didn’t have time to stop and listen because Daisy was still missing.I took off down the aisles, calling her name as loudly as I could, praying she would hear me.

Twenty-Eight

Julie

“Where was the lastplace you saw her?”a male cop asked as I sat in the uncomfortable chair in the security office and continued answering questions.

“She was right beside me on the toy aisle.We were trying to find a doll that she wanted.My friend lifted me so I could look through the boxes on top of the shelf.I checked on her once, and she was still there.”

“How long would you say you were distracted with finding the doll?”

“I wasn’t—” I started, but then stopped, the realization crashing over me.

I had been distracted with finding the doll because it had meant so much to her that I wanted nothing more than her happiness.I had allowed myself to focus on that instead of keeping our guard up.If we had waited and asked an employee to look for us instead, Daisy would never have gone missing.

“It wasn’t more than a few minutes at most,” I sobbed, shaking my head.

“Unfortunately, things like this can happen within seconds.Is there any part of the store that Daisy might have wandered off to?Maybe there was another toy that she had seen and wanted to check out again?”

“No.She wouldn’t do that.Daisy isn’t the kind of kid who goes wandering.”