The sun had just gone down and Erik was reading the newspaper when the doorbell rang. He opened the door to find a uniformed man holding out a badge.
“I’m Sheriff Roy Collins,” the man said. “We’re looking for a teenage girl and I hoped you might have seen her. She went missing at about six o’clock.”
“Come in, Sheriff,”
“Thank you. Call me Roy.”
Erik motioned him into the living room, where Vickie and Todd were watching TV together, and he made the introductions.
“Can I get you some coffee?” Vickie asked.
“No thank you, Ma’am. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions.”
The sheriff took a small photo from his shirt pocket and passed it to Erik. He recognized it as the young girl he’d seen earlier in the day at the Dairy Mart.
“I saw her this morning,” he said. “At the Dairy Mart.”
“Do you recall what time?”
“Well…it was this morning. Before lunch. I’d guess ten o’clock or so.”
“She was at the store until about suppertime,” the sheriff said. “You haven’t seen her since then?”
“No,” Erik said, handing the photo to Vickie. “I haven’t been outside since then. We just had supper and then were relaxing.”
Vickie looked at the photo and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Sheriff. Is there anything we can do?”
Collins shook his head sadly. “We may be organizing a search party. We think she may have wandered off into the woods.”
Todd leaned over and looked at the photo.
“I know where she is,” he said confidently.
“What? You’ve seen her?” Erik said.
“No. But I know where she is.”
“Then tell me,” Collins said, walking over to the boy. “Where is she, son?”
Todd looked at the sheriff for a long moment.
“The rock’s got her.”
“The…what?”
“The big rock in the woods. It’s got her. It tried to get me, but I got away, so it took her instead.”