I picked up the doll and held the cold fabric against my palm. Mia never went anywhere without Rosie, especially not during her afternoon nap.
I ran up the remaining three steps to the front door and knocked hard against the wood. The sound was flat and did not echo inside.
“Lorraine,” I called out, my voice sounding thin in the open air. “Mia, mommy is here.”
I waited, leaning my ear against the painted wood, but heard nothing but the hum of the air conditioning unit at the side of the house.
I reached down and turned the brass doorknob. It rotated a fraction of an inch and stopped.
The heavy deadbolt above the handle was turned all the way to the right. Lorraine’s lock was an old double-cylinder design, meaning it required a physical key to lock or unlock it from either side.
I shook the handle, the metal rattling against the frame. “Lorraine, unlock the door.”
The silence from the other side of the door was absolute.
I pulled my phone out with my free hand, my fingers slipping slightly on the screen as I found Jackson’s name.
He answered on the fourth ring, the sound of an air wrench whining in the background of his auto shop. “Emily, I am right in the middle of a brake job.”
“Jackson, I am at your mother’s house,” I said, keeping my voice level. “The car is in the driveway but the front door is locked with the deadbolt. Mia’s doll is lying on the porch steps, torn.”
The wrench noise stopped, replaced by the heavy sound of Jackson wiping his hands on a rag. “She probably just took Mia to the pharmacy for her prescription. You know she gets those headaches.”
