The Promise by Patrick Hurley Page A

honored and the two of them sat down to review what they had discovered up to that point.
     
                  “Let’s see what we know so far, Mike. Maybe we’re missing something here,” mused the Chief.
     
                  “Okay, boss. Here’s what we have. A girl, the daughter of a very rich man, walks around the library in the middle of the day among hundreds of other students and disappears into thin air, like the earth just swallowed her up.
     
    No one saw anything.
     
    We have two physical clues from that day, a strand of her hair intertwined with a strand of black hair and an unclasped crow locket lying on the ground.
     
    We have the testimony of her mother who thinks a group of girls from Allison’s high school, named, “The Promise,” may have had something to do with her disappearance and the rest of what we have is rumor, gossip, hearsay or speculation.
     
    That’s it.”
     
                  Chief Parker put his head in his hands, “In all my years, I have never seen anything like this. Usually in a case of kidnapping or when someone vanishes there is something to work with in the case, a ransom note, a political agenda, a relative with some key information, physical evidence, something.
     
    But, in this case, we are grabbing air, like she never even existed that day. I would give anything for someone to call us, Allison, one of her friends who knows what happened, even the kidnapper. This is most frustrating.”
     
                  Gallagher shook his head. “It’s bad, sir. But, I believe something will turn up when we least expect it. We need to keep working hard and when that happens, luck happens.
     
    Hey, I’m Irish. I get lucky. Besides, I have Mick the Wonder mascot. He’s with us.”
     
    With that, the detective lifted up a green and white stuffed leprechaun. Gallagher swung him from side to side.
     
    He began talking to his little friend, “Mick, we need you right now. Can you produce a clue for us to give this investigation some luck of the Irish!”
     
                  His boss smiled. At this point, any humor was appreciated. After all a girl’s life was hanging in the balance. Mick was a welcome relief even if the Chief didn’t take it seriously.
     
    He quickly returned to the issue at hand.
     
                  “Does this ‘feel’ like a kidnapping or a personally, calculated disappearance?”
     
    Gallagher smiled wryly and said, “I think we can rule out eloping. She only had one guy she was interested in, Justin Shaw.
     
    He’s here. She’s not. I don’t think they got married.
     
    Secondly, I don’t think she is the type who would run away. She loves her dad too much. I don’t think she would disappear to help a friend and not tell her family or Justin.
     
    This girl is too responsible.
     
    This doesn’t feel like a ploy, she’s too honest of a person to go this long and put others through this. I don’t think her dad and her are pulling off some scam here, either. He seems genuinely angry.
     
    So, it appears we have a kidnapping for a myriad of reasons or, worse.”
     
                  Chief Parker nodded his assent, “I agree with you, Mike. With a week gone by, the kidnapping for money theory gets slimmer and slimmer. We would have heard by the perpetrator by now if a ransom was the issue.”
     
                  “That really leaves only one main possibility, Chief.”
     
                  “Yes, it does. Allison Taylor may be the victim of a sex crime. I hate to even think about it.”
     
                  Gallagher put his head down. As a father who had lost his daughter this case was hitting too close to home for him and he was struggling with it.
     
                  “Mike, I have been notified by the FBI they are sending a profiler our way. I’d use Elie but she is up to her neck at the school. I checked with