The cop said, “Are you sure no one else could have picked her up?”
“No!” I shouted. “What kind of place would let anybody come get her? There are only three people that are allowed to pick her up—myself, Velma Fenty, and Rodrick Brown. None of them have her!”
The same daycare staff member that told me my child was missing came over after the cop called her. He asked her a couple questions about the safety precautions they used to make sure kids didn’t fall into the wrong hands. According to policy, anybody coming to pick up a child had to sign off. Nobody signed for Kylie.
Then the lady told us some news that stirred me to the core.
“One of the children mentioned that they saw Kylie leave out the back with a man. I’m not sure how accurate a 5-year-old can be, but I don’t want to leave it out if it helps.”
I instantly responded, “What did the man look like?”
“He said the man had a light skin color and was tall. But to a 5-year-old, everybody’s tall, right?”
The cop started to open his mouth to ask her a question but I cut him off. “Where is the boy?” I asked hurriedly.
She led us to the back of the seated children and pointed to a Black boy with a stylish design in his head, fingering for him to come over. He got up and walked over in a casual pace. He blinked at us all, just an innocent child. But to me he could possibly be my daughter’s savior.
“What complexion was he, baby?” I questioned. “Was he light like this woman here?” I asked, touching the staff member’s arm next to me, a white woman with a pasty skin tone. “Or was his complexion more like mine?”
The boy scrunched his face, thinking hard as his eyes jumped between us both.
Me and the staff member’s skin color were close. I hadn’t had much sun lately, other than the pool party, so my hue was on the lighter side. But clearly our tones were different. I still had color, more of a warm yellow. The staff member had almost no color, nearly pure white. And up her forearms her skin was dotted with tiny sun spots, which made her skin look even whiter.
The boy pointed to me.
“Okay, I have another question,” I said. “What did his hair look like? Was it black and cut low?”
“I don’t know. He had on a hat,” the boy said.
I breathed out my nose. “You said he was tall. Was he my height, or a lot taller like this officer here.”
The cop straightened up to his full height of 5’11”. I was four inches shorter than him.
The boy’s eyebrows dipped in concentration, then he turned and said, “That tall,” pointing to Gideon, who had just walked in the room with Rodrick.
Gideon was maybe 6’3”.
Around the same height as Ladykiller.
I squatted down and grabbed the boy by his arms, looking deeply into his eyes. I had one more question that would tell me if Ladykiller took my child.
“When you saw the man and my daughter leaving out the back door, was he carrying her? Did she scream?”
“No,” the boy replied, shaking his head. “She was smiling. She was holding the man’s hand.”
-
Tyesha816 shared a photo
Tyesha816: My daughter is missing and the police won’t report it until 24 hours!!!! Fuck the KCPD!! Please, if you see this little girl, inbox me!!! Please!!!
August 18th, 9:06 p.m.
CHAPTER 13
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t look for your daughter,” said Detective Rosan, as we stood outside the daycare center near his black Dodge Charger, the red strobe on his dash spinning round and round. He had a kind, honest face and clean white teeth—though one at the bottom was chipped. The black leather bomber jacket he wore gave me the impression that he was about business. “I just said we won’t report it until another 24 hours. We don’t want to get everybody worked up for nothing. She might be at a family member’s house, or a friend’s house. We can’t rule that out yet.”
“The hell we can’t!” I yelled. “I called everybody before you got here. Nobody I know has her. I’m trying to tell you who took my daughter. It was Ladykiller! Go arrest him!”
Rodrick was standing behind me squeezing my upper arms gently. Then his thumbs went to the middle of my back and massaged my spine. Though there was no easing the tension in my body, it did feel good. Gideon was perched on the daycare’s wall not too far from where we stood. He was in earshot for sure. And he was staring at me with intense, grievous eyes. I couldn’t help but wonder if he felt he should be standing here with me and not Rodrick.
“We have somebody checking into the Ladykiller story,” said the detective, patting the air with his hand as if to tell me to lower my voice. “I’m trying to help you. I have a daughter too and I don’t know what I’d do if she came up missing.”
“I don’t wanna hear that. I wanna hear that you found my daughter! And standing around here asking me questions isn’t making that happen!”
Rodrick’s thumbs pressed harder.
“Can I talk to you two privately for a minute?” Rosan asked.
I was fuming, but me and Rodrick walked over to the side of the building with him, the only area that wasn’t crowded with police officers and nosy news people standing around.
He put a hand on each of our shoulders and dipped his head to look into our eyes. “I’m going to find your daughter, okay? There are certain procedures that we have to go through first. But I’m going to overlook all of them and get this search started. Tell me more about this Ladykiller person you’re talking about.”
I started by telling him about how often Ladykiller commented on my status updates. The detective’s face showed doubt, so I made it a point to tell him that Ladykiller’s presence on my page was abnormal. It wasn’t until I explained to him how crazy Ladykiller was—the “chance” meeting at the gym and at my job, the possible sighting at my house, my daughter pronouncing Ladykiller’s name when she said she saw him at the mall—that the detective’s eyes started to glow with belief and shock.
My phone chimed once in my pocket and I pulled it out. I had just received a text from Gideon.
Gideon: Come back to the front real quick
Excusing myself, I raced over to where Gideon was sitting. He pointed at the screen of his phone, then gave it to me for me to read.
“I knew he posted on yo page a lot,” Gideon said, “but I didn’t know it was that serious.”
“This is The Site,” I said with surprise. “I thought you didn’t have a page.”
“I don’t. But when you said you thought Ladykiller took Kylie, I logged in to see who he was. Look what he posted.”
It was the comments feed from my status update about the KCPD not helping me find Kylie. I started reading.
God’s Angel: I’m praying for you and your daughter!
Trillyoung Sav: If yo daughter was white, they would’ve found her by now
Fedbound Marley: You and your daughter are in my prayers too
Atlanta Baby: I can’t believe anybody would take that precious little girl!
Velma Fenty: My granddaughter is coming home. We’ll go out and search ourselves, fuck them.
Bobby Mason: Me and my frat brothers will help you with the search party
Deja Michelle: i know you still might be mad at me but kylie is still my goddaughter and i’m praying for you and her text me if you need anything
Holly Carter: God will bring your daughter home. Trust and believe. I’m praying hard.