TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. — They come for all manner of reasons -- some with concrete clues about the freckled nine-year-old girl's whereabouts, others with nothing more than a hunch.

But still they come.

Almost one month after Cedrika Provencher disappeared, a mobile police command centre parked outside a strip mall in Trois-Rivieres continues to receive a steady flow of tipsters.

"I couldn't sleep,'' one woman says as she leaves the command centre after telling police about a mysterious car she spotted near a golf course. "The car just struck me as strange.''

Information such as this makes up the bulk of the 3,000 tips police have received so far in the case. Yet among the tips they got last week were several credible sightings of Cedrika with a man in eastern Quebec's Gaspe region.

Police say witnesses have told them the girl was helping a man look for a lost dog.

Between 40 and 50 police investigators -- up from 15 over the weekend -- will be working the case on Monday, the French-language newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported.

The increase is needed to cover an anticipated jump in the workload, said provincial police spokesman Francois Dore, who declined to discuss details of the boost.

The news has breathed new hope into a case that is costing other youngsters their innocence and freedom in this city, midway between Montreal and Quebec City.

Playgrounds in Trois-Rivieres are barren despite the summer vacation winding down, and when schoolchildren return to classes later this week they will be met by psychologists and child safety videos.

"It's an event that has taken on national proportions,'' says Michel Morin, the head of the local school board. "It has created an effect of insecurity.''

That feeling of insecurity is perhaps felt most by parents, many of whom admit their perceptions have changed since Cedrika vanished on July 31 after she didn't come home from a bike ride.

"I'm worried all the time,'' said Chantal Migneault while shopping for school supplies with her 11-year-old daughter. "Every time my little one goes out I tell her to run away screaming if someone approaches you.''

Her daughter, Marie-Pierre Boisvert, confirms that a palpable fear has also taken hold of many her age.

"I told my Mom that I was scared that if they don't catch him (Cedrika's suspected abductor), he'll get me,'' she says.

However Cedrika's father, Martin Provencher, hopes the playgrounds of Trois-Rivieres don't stay empty for too long. He underlines the importance of parents letting their children have fun despite the circumstances.

"We can't avoid going out, we just have to be more vigilant,'' he says from the old bank his family is using to co-ordinate a massive search effort that parallels the police investigation.

"We have to use this opportunity to make children aware of what can happen.''

Provencher has been tireless in his efforts to keep his daughter's case in the public's eye. He works between 15- and 20-hour days participating in and co-ordinating local searches for Cedrika.

The case has been an emotional roller-coaster for his family. Clothes found in a wooded area eventually turned out not to be Cedrika's; police were criticized for not circulating her picture at U.S. border points; there were rumours that a couple may have been behind her abduction.

But Provencher's relentless optimism through it all appeared to be finally justified with reports that she was seen alive.

"Since the beginning everyone has held onto the hope of finding her alive, so it's good to finally hear some good news,'' he says as the children of search volunteers play among a litany of topographical maps.

Police say witnesses in the Gaspe had spotted Cedrika in a restaurant with a man but waited a day before reporting the sighting to authorities.

The residents of Trois-Rivieres -- sleepless, anxious -- are unlikely to show the same hesitation.

"Let's hope it comes to something,'' says the woman behind the mysterious car tip.

Her car has a poster of Cedrika's smiling face taped to the back window.