3000 Miles from Graceland, Part 3

"I'm transferring you now," the operator replied hesitantly. "And, again, I'm sorry." The line clicked and the operator's voice was replaced with the silence of a held call.

Gretchen fixed her with a puzzled look. "What's going on?"

"They're transferring me,” Jenny replied through clenched teeth. The sheer volume of emergency calls suddenly struck her and her jaw relaxed slightly. “Apparently they've had something like fifty missing person calls, though."

"Fifty? That sounds like a lot."

"He said they've all come in the last hour. There might be something big happen..." she stopped talking as someone picked up on the other end.

"Detective Hanson," a very tired sounding man's voice sighed more than spoke. "What can I do for you?"

"My son," Jenny said, "He's missing, so is my neighbor's."

"How old are they?"

"Six."

"Yeah," he took a deep breath, "We've been getting a lot of calls from mothers whose children suddenly disappeared. Also..." the detective paused.

"Yes?"

"Did you or your neighbor find their clothes?"

"Yes," Jenny replied, puzzled.

"Figures." Detective Hanson paused for a moment. Jenny heard the faint sound of shuffling paper in the background. "Let me take down some information from you and your neighbor. We'll get on this as quickly as possible."

Jenny gave her information and described Kevin to the detective before passing the phone over to Gretchen, who answered the same questions. After listening to a few more instructions, she hung up the phone.

“He says they’ll do their best,” she told Jenny apologetically. “They don’t know what’s going on, though. We just need to be calm and patient.”

“Calm?” Jenny nearly exploded. “He wants us to be calm and patient? Hell, no.” She grabbed Gretchen’s arm. “C’mon, we’re going to go find our boys.”

“Maybe you should call Rod, first.”

“Oh, right.” Jenny picked her cell phone up from the counter as she led Gretchen to the door. She hadn’t even thought about her husband, but realized she needed his help. Still, there wasn’t time to waste. “I’ll call him on the way.”

She stopped suddenly as they rounded the corner to the front entryway. A woman was standing in the door, right hand poised as if to knock. Her eyes met Jenny’s and fixed her in a wide-eyed stare.

“Have you seen my Tina?” she asked.