Captain Shaw stood.
“Find Colin Rusk.”
Colin Rusk was not at his listed apartment.
Officers arrived at 4:32 a.m. and found the apartment door unlocked, a mattress on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink, and three computer monitors missing from the desk. His phone was off. His car, a dark gray hatchback, was gone.
A neighbor said he had been loading bags into the car around midnight.
Another said he worked odd hours and sometimes drove a white van with magnetic signs for different service companies. Plumbing. Pool cleaning. Home network repair. Anything that made him look like he belonged near a house.
In the apartment trash, officers found packaging for a child’s snack brand and a receipt from a gas station in Corona at 1:58 a.m.
That put him moving east after the abduction.
But it was not enough.
At 5:10 a.m., Sarah received the first message.
It came to an email account she rarely used, one she had given to NorthStar when booking the installation. The subject line was blank. The message had no greeting.
Do not talk to police. Tell them she ran away. Wait for instructions.
Sarah screamed when she saw it.
Captain Shaw took the laptop from her and handed it to Priya.
“Can you trace it?”
Priya’s face remained controlled.
“I’ll coordinate with the cyber team. But assume he planned for that.”
Reed read the message twice.
Tell them she ran away.
Not pay money.
Not bring cash.
Not wait for ransom.
That bothered him.
“Why does he care what she tells police?” he asked.
Hannah said, “Because he needs more time.”
“Maybe.”
Reed looked toward Olivia’s school backpack.
“Or because this isn’t about money.”
Captain Shaw turned to Sarah.
“Did Colin ever come back after installation?”
Sarah nodded slowly.
“Once. Two weeks later. He said there was a firmware update. I didn’t call him. He just showed up. I thought the company sent him.”
“Did he go upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“Did he see Olivia?”
Sarah covered her mouth.
“She was doing homework at the kitchen table.”
Reed asked, “Did he talk to her?”
“Only for a second. He asked what she was drawing. She said a rabbit detective.”
“Rabbit detective?”
Sarah gave a broken little laugh that turned into a sob.
“She liked making up stories. She said Bunny solved crimes at night.”
Hannah looked toward the missing stuffed rabbit.
The rabbit had been on the closet floor.
Reed went back upstairs.
The stuffed rabbit was bagged carefully as evidence. Before the technician sealed it, Reed asked to look at it. It was soft, gray, one ear stitched after some old tear. Nothing obvious. Then he noticed the seam along the back looked stretched, as if something had been pushed inside and removed.
“Sarah,” he called gently from the stairs. “Did Olivia hide things in the rabbit?”
Sarah came up slowly.
“Yes,” she said. “Little notes. Rocks. Sometimes beads.”
The technician checked.
Inside the rabbit was a folded piece of paper.
Not from the kidnapper.
From Olivia.
It was written in purple marker.
If Bunny gets lost, look where the moon is upside down.
Sarah stared at it, confused and crying.
“She writes clues for her games,” she said. “Bunny detective. She hides things and makes me solve them.”
Reed looked around the bedroom.
Moon nightlight.
Moon blanket.