The doors were locked. Nothing appeared disturbed. There was no note beneath the windshield or message explaining a delayed return.
He tried calling her again.
Nothing.
Finally, he contacted the authorities.
By midnight, the first search personnel had arrived.
They questioned Mahmoud about her route, clothing, equipment, and physical condition.
Did she have any medical problems?
Was she familiar with the area?
Could she have deliberately gone somewhere else?
Mahmoud answered every question as calmly as he could.
Then one officer asked whether Layan might have wanted to disappear.
Mahmoud looked at him in disbelief.
“My daughter was supposed to come home for dinner.”
The officer apologized, explaining that investigators had to consider every possibility.
But Mahmoud could barely hear him.
He kept looking toward the dark entrance of the trail.
Somewhere beyond those trees, he believed, his daughter was waiting for someone to find her.
The Search That Found Nothing
