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I re about her disappearance at the time, but I hadn’t understood the enormity of the crime What had she ever done to warrant the evil thathed at her unexpected coed her when injury or disappoint out the sight of her face Then I looked again This was as much of her as I’d ever know, and there was no way to shield one Her parents would never have peace of mind, even if her ultimate whereabouts were discovered In some ways, I wasn’t sure what difference it would th and breadth of her life consigned to a few short years, beginning, middle, and end

I forced myself to scrutinize the account of what happened that day It all sounded so ordinary The events leading up to her vanishing carried no hint of the horror to co set in the Fitzhughs’ backyard while hera book The only sound on that summer day was the stutter of a leaf blower on the property next door A landscape company had dropped off a one-man crew She hadn’t actually seen hi his way up the drive, clearing the paves froh set her book aside and went into the kitchen, where she picked up the handsetroo visual contact with the child, but the entire yard was fenced and there was no reason to think she was at risk

The caller introduced hi a brief survey Mrs Fitzhugh agreed to answer a few questions Later she had no recollection of the caller’s name or the name of his co, but his questions were focused on the number of television sets in the house, the nuram preferences In all, no more than four minutes elapsed between the time she took the call and the ed

When she returned to the porch, she noticed Mary Claire was no longer on the swing She scanned the yard--sandbox, playhouse, shallow plastic wading pool--but Mary Claire wasn’t visible anywhere Puzzled, but not alarh called her name, but received no response She went back into the house, thinking Mary Claire ht have slipped in unseen while her attention was focused on the interview questions When it became clear Mary Claire wasn’t in the house, her mother returned to the yard and circled the peri the shrubbery near the back fence She peered into the playhouse, which was eh the gate, still calling Mary Claire’s name, more alarmed as every minute passed Frantic, she ran next door and knocked at the neighbor’s house, but no one was ho to call her husband and then phone the police As she climbed the back steps, she spotted the note that had apparently been left on the side table and consequently fluttered to the floor The e was block-printed and brief The kidnapper said her daughter was safe in his keeping and would be returned unhare for twenty-five thousand dollars in cash If the Fitzhughs made any attempt whatever to contact the police or the FBI, the kidnappers would know and Mary Claire would forfeit her life

All of this becae four days after the child had been taken In the interim, the FBI questioned Mary Claire’s parents, hite-faced and stunned After the news broke, neighbors, friends, and acquaintances were interviewed, many of them more than once The case attracted its share of national attention because it involved the only child of a prominent Santa Teresa couple After the first splash, however, the coverage becaested that the FBI had cut off the streaent was referred to by naators at the local level The Santa Teresa Police Department’s community relations officer issued a state the public that the investigation was ongoing and that every effort was being made to identify the suspects and recover the child

As with any major crime, certain critical details ithheld fro out the off-kilter citizen, driven by a need to confess There was no further reference to suspects or persons of interest, though detectives istered sex offenders, and anyone else whose cris of the child in places all across the country There were also countless calls reporting suspicious behavior on the part of strangers, who’d done no harh had been swept into the Inky Void and there was no co back