Her adrenaline surging, she pounded down the sidewalk, putting everything she had into reaching Dan before he disappeared again. Suddenly she stumbled, then tripped over a water hose. She went down hard on the sidewalk, scraping her knees. Grace didn’t give herself the luxury of checking her injuries.
“Mom!”
“I’m all right. Go! Go!” Ignoring the pain, she picked herself up, paused only long enough to remove her shoes and then started running again, limping as she went. By the time she reached the foot ferry, Grace felt as though her legs were about to collapse.
John was there, pacing back and forth. He came toward them as soon as he heard Maryellen’s shout. “He’s gone.”
“Gone?” Maryellen cried. “You said you’d stop him.”
“I tried.” John’s sober gaze refused to meet Grace’s. “I’m sorry, really sorry. He was here, and I kept an eye on him like you asked me to. About five minutes ago, a pickup drove to the curb and he climbed in and there was no way I could stop him.”
Grace fell onto a park bench, her knees throbbing and her legs trembling.
“Start at the beginning,” she pleaded, barely able to talk. The frustration and anger were almost more than she could stand. Dan was that close, taunting her, daring her to find him, mortifying her in front of the entire town.
“You’re sure it was my dad?” Maryellen asked.
John nodded. “I’m positive. I worked with him for years. I know what Dan Sherman looks like, all right.”
“How’d you get involved in this?” Grace asked her daughter.
“I just happened to take a late lunch today. I closed the gallery and decided to walk down to Java and Juice for a latte,” Maryellen said.
“I heard about Dan turning up missing and all,” John went on. “There’s been a lot of talk down at the Pelican’s Nest about what might’ve happened to him.”
The local watering hole was one of the most popular drinking spots in town. “Have you been drinking, John?”
“No, Grace! I swear it was Dan.”
“He didn’t know what to do,” Maryellen interjected, “and he was halfway to the library to get you.”
“I thought you’d want to know,” John said, looking miserable. He shoved his hands in his coverall pockets and stared at the pavement.
“That was when he saw me,” Maryellen explained.
“Your daughter said she’d get you and sent me back to keep an eye on Dan.”
“Mom, your knee!”
Blood trickled down Grace’s leg; the nylons were already soaked.
“Are you all right?” John asked.
“I’m fine. Tell me about the pickup.” Grace wanted as much information about Dan as she could get. She’d take care of her knees later.
John hung his head. “I should’ve gotten the license plate number, but it happened so fast I didn’t think to look.”
“Did you see who the driver was?” Maryellen asked.
“Sorry, no.”
Maryellen sat down next to Grace, both hands over her face, and hunched forward.
Grace placed a comforting arm on Maryellen’s back. Caught up in her own misery, she’d failed to see how upset her oldest daughter was by Dan’s disappearance. Kelly had been much more forthcoming about her emotions, and Grace had assumed Maryellen was taking the situation in stride. As far as anyone could…
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am about all this,” John Malcom said again.
“You didn’t see who was driving?” Grace asked one final time.
John shook his head. “It wasn’t anyone I recognized. Not from around here, leastways.”
“Male or female?”
John hesitated and looked away. “Female.”
Grace bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. John wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know.
Fourteen
Cecilia would forever be grateful that she hadn’t given in to the impulse to drop out of her community college classes. The day of her wedding anniversary, she’d been feeling depressed and regretful. She thought now that her desire to quit was a way of punishing herself—by taking away the very thing in life that brought her joy. She couldn’t understand why she’d wanted to do such a thing. Thankfully, Mr. Cavanaugh had been kind enough to reason with her. He hadn’t tried to pressure her or talk her out of it, but he’d been sensible and matter-of-fact.
She loved her classes, especially advanced algebra. On a Sunday afternoon when she was free to go anywhere and do anything she wanted, Cecilia chose to work on problems in her textbook. Problems that hadn’t even been assigned. That said a lot. Recently one of the other students had flippantly called Cecilia the teacher’s pet. She didn’t believe it since Mr. Cavanaugh wasn’t the sort of teacher who played favorites. But afterward Cecilia had smiled all day. Never in her life had she experienced anything like this sense of approval and success.
She enjoyed telling Ian how well she was doing. They were back to e-mailing and writing. Yesterday, she’d received a postcard from Australia. He hadn’t chosen one with a picture of the famous opera house, the outback or even the Barrier Reef. No koalas or kangaroos, either. Instead, Ian had mailed her a photograph of the night sky. It showed the Milky Way and what looked like millions upon millions of stars. His message on the back was full of praise for her high marks and the promise of a celebration once he got home.
Cathy was still keeping the news of her pregnancy from Andrew. It was all Cecilia could do not to tell Ian. Every day that Cathy remained pregnant was a triumph. She’d miscarried the first pregnancy at eight weeks, and the second at twelve. Already this pregnancy had lasted longer than the first two, but Cathy couldn’t trust that all was well—not yet, anyway. Cecilia was the only person she’d told. Not even her mother knew, and Cecilia regarded the news as sacred information.
At a little after one, she decided it was time for lunch. With the radio on in the background, she was opening a can of soup, when a news bulletin interrupted the Top 40 song that was playing.
“This is a KVI news bulletin. There’s been an explosion aboard the John F. Reynolds, the Bremerton-based aircraft carrier. Details are just coming into our newsroom now. At this early hour we have no idea as to the cause of the explosion. The possibility exists that this is the work of a terrorist group. There has been loss of life, but how many casualties and the extent of damage to the aircraft carrier is unknown at this point. We’ll keep you updated.”
Cecilia gasped and dropped the soup can. The contents spilled out over the counter, dripping onto the floor. Unrolling some paper towels, she started wiping it up when the phone rang.
“Hello,” she nearly shouted as she grabbed the receiver.
