PART 2 It was Maisie. Mark’s 3-year-old daughter. Kayla had buckled her into Darlene’s car just ten minutes earlier, because Darlene was supposed to take her for “a fun grandma weekend.”

PRAY FOR MAISIE — Our Little Fighter.

$3,200 raised.

A photo of Maisie sitting in a hospital bed, a bandage on her arm. The beanie on her head.

“She took Maisie to urgent care last weekend,” Kayla said. “She said Maisie had a fever. She said she’d handle it.”

Mark sat down on the curb and put his face in his hands.

The police found Darlene two hours later at a children’s emergency room in Chattanooga.

She was at the front desk filling out a form.

Under “Child’s name,” she had written Maisie D. Hayes.

Under “Reason for visit,” she had written “seizures, recurring.”

Maisie had never had a seizure in her life.

The detective who interviewed Darlene told us later that she didn’t even cry.

She owed $112,000 in credit card debt and back taxes from a boutique she had run into the ground. Collectors had been calling her house in Maryville every day since spring.