Lily
An Abigail Stone Mystery
One rainy Sunday morning 4-year old Lily Waters disappears from the family church. Her father had dropped her off at the end of the sidewalk leading to the front door of the church. Other members of the congregation saw him lift her across the parkway and set her on the sidewalk – 25 feet from the church door.
She never made it inside.
Every member attending that day was interviewed; a neighborhood search was conducted. A search of the area surrounding the community was made. There was no sign of Lily.
It appeared to be everyone’s thought that a person or persons unknown had snatched Lily. But Abigail Stone insisted it had to be someone Lily knew or she would have called out or created a fuss when she was grabbed. While everyone else felt the child was probably dead, Abigail felt that somewhere she was alive and well. So, while the police department and FBI conducted their searches, Abigail began an investigation of her own.
Abigail found that Lily’s father, Jason Waters, had been killed in Afghanistan when she was not yet two. Lily’s step-father, David Thaker, had been her father’s best friend. The boys lived next door to each other until the summer after they graduated from high school. Abigail found a news article detailing a head-on collision wherein Jason’s mother and David’s father were killed. There was a bit of scandal as Mrs. Thaker had been in Idaho with relatives at the time. Both boys joined the Marine Corps shortly after.
When Abigail discovered that Jason had been adopted when he was two, a new avenue of inquiry opened for Abigail’s searching. But it was quite by accident that the mystery was solved.