The Guardian

dumpster. When she stepped back to close the gate she gasped. She put her hand to her mouth, not believing what she had just seen.
    A young girl, about eight or ten years old had just came from across the parking lot, walked in front of the white van and just like that, a man reached out, grabbed her, slammed the door shut, and sat there.
    She wasn’t quite sure what to do. Perhaps it was the girl’s father. The van hadn’t gone screaming out of the parking lot. It didn’t seem to be in any big hurry. She started to leave but couldn’t take her eyes off the van. She paced a bit, starting to walk away. Then going back, looking. The van sat there. Then, just as calmly as you please, it drove off, pulled out onto Jones, and headed south.
    Gladys had walked back to her apartment, confused. She really didn’t know what to do. She lived alone and she didn’t want any trouble. Minding her own business was what she did best. She would wait and watch the news. If something came up she would tell someone. Anyway, it was probably nothing.
    While she watched TV that evening, she didn’t see anything on the news. It was still bothering her that she hadn’t done something. She felt that maybe she should have yelled at the van or something. Maybe somebody else saw it too and they would call it in.
    She went to bed early that night. She was trying not to think about what she had seen. All night long, she tossed and turned. Sleep was not coming easy to her. Gladys was a very intuitive person. She knew that her gut was telling her something wasn’t quite right and that she should listen to it once in awhile. However, for some reason she never did. She eventually fell asleep, restless as it was.
    The next morning, after little if any sleep, she got up and made her coffee. She fed her kitties, and turned on the news.
    What she heard almost floored her. The anchor woman was telling of a young girl, ten years old, long, brown hair who had disappeared coming home from the library. Gladys dropped the cup she was holding. Her hand covering her mouth, tears filled her eyes. “Oh my God, what have I done?”
    Chapter 51
    “I can’t fucking believe this” Laura was so pissed she was seeing red.
    “Calm down.” John said as they walked to the interview room.
    “How the hell can I calm down? This woman actually watches the perp grab the girl, goes to bed, has a good nights sleep and then because she sees something on the news she decides to call. You calm down!”
    “I’m not hysterical, you are. But you’re right she should have called. Even if it turned out bogus. For some reason the mentality in this stupid town is mind your own business, don’t get involved. Because of it we may have another victim on our hands.”
    Once outside the interview room, Laura composed herself, forcing herself to be all polite and professional.
    They walked in and sat at the table across from Gladys Meyers.
    “Ms Meyers, I’m Lieutenant Halloway and this is Detective Griffin. We’re investigating this case. We were told that you may have some information that could possibly help us find the two girls that have disappeared.”
    “Well, I just hope so. I mean, I just feel awful. My God, you have no idea how badly I feel.” She said
    “You should feel worse than bad,” Laura thought, but didn’t say it aloud.
    Instead she said, “Well, we know, and we’re sorry you have to go through this. If you could just please tell us what you saw. And please take your time. Try not to leave anything out.”
    “Can we get you something, coffee, soda, water?” John asked.
    “No, no thank you, I’m fine.” Gladys said. She was not sounding fine at all.
    “Okay. How about just starting from where you first saw the van.”
    Gladys started with the details of her daily trash removal. She told about her cats, the little black one was such a pest and the big grey one was so laid back. Laura had to get her back on track a couple of times. Once she got to the part where she was at the dumpster, she got very serious.
    She closed her eyes, looking down at the ground as if she were running a rerun of the whole thing in her mind. She explained how she had noticed the white van just sitting there with the side door open. Then she went on to explain how when she looked back, all of a sudden the man grabbed the girl and pulled her inside.
    “And you didn’t think that maybe you should call someone at that point?” Laura pushed.
    “Oh yes, I did, but he