Maybe she could become close friends with someone who worked here—someone who could get her into Stan’s.
But what she’d done before hadn’t gotten her anything useful. And neither would being in here.
Instead, she was feeling rather desperate to plan her next move: figure out how to see Eli and check in person how he was doing...and get him out of here if all was as bad as she thought, assuming his posts on social media reflected his reality.
She had come up with that other identity there so she could at least watch him remotely, even if she couldn’t communicate with him. His sorrow at his mother’s disappearance, and then his aunt’s, had been overtaken by his apparent desperation and fear. That was why she had come. It had been an impulse. It had been a necessity.
She nearly reached the restroom—and stopped. The men’s room door had opened. Kelly thought she must be hallucinating.
Because the first person to walk through that door into the hallway was Alan.
And he was followed by her nephew, Eli.
Kelly wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. Mostly, she wanted to dash over and throw her arms around her nephew.
No, Shereen’s nephew. That’s what she had to remember.
Realizing that she had stopped walking, she started forward again. Another boy exited the men’s room and caught up with Eli. He bent his head toward Eli, who was about the same height, maybe five feet, and the two of them laughed. They passed her, and Eli, busy talking to his friend, didn’t even look at her.
That was a good thing. Not that he was likely to recognize her, with the way her appearance had been changed—including her posture, gestures and nearly everything about her. Externally, at least.
The hardest part was that she forced herself not to look at him any longer, except for allowing herself to glance at him peripherally down the hall while she strolled by.
Was that a bruise on his cheek? She wanted so much to turn and stare at his sweet young face and check it out.
But she couldn’t. Not here, and not now.
“Hi, Kelly.” It was Alan, and his voice startled her. He had stopped walking and let the kids pass by him.
“Er, hi.” She cocked her head a little and forced herself to send him a flirtatious grin. “Keeping an eye on things everywhere, aren’t you? I’m just hitting the ladies’ room before I head back to the restaurant.” She hurried past him and entered the restroom.
Fortunately it was empty, since she was suddenly breathing hard, her eyes closed, her mind swirling.
She had bumped into hurdle number three without anticipating or planning for it. She had seen Eli. But where could she go from here?
She needed to talk to him. Find out what was really going on with him. Was his father abusing him, as he’d hinted on that social media site? She was sure it had to be true. Eli had always been such a straightforward child.
And that red spot on his face. Was that proof, or her imagination, or just a harmless bruise that kids sometimes got when roughhousing with friends?
She knew where he lived, of course—assuming they hadn’t moved. Even so, he must live with his father. With Stan. And that meant Kelly couldn’t just walk up to their door, ring the bell and invite herself in for a chat.
He was thirteen years old now. She knew he still went to the same school, since Eli mentioned it online. But since she couldn’t start stalking him there, either, she had decided to begin by observing Stan first, someplace where she wouldn’t be particularly noticed. Someplace where a plan was sure to come to her.
Only now that she had seen not only Stan but Eli, too, she was stumped. And frustrated. And scared, and angry, and so many more emotions that she couldn’t put names to.
She had been so close to her sister. Had loved Andi so much. She missed her terribly.
Andi had to be dead, or she would have been in touch. And Kelly’s determination to save Eli was one way of demonstrating her love—and her despair at no longer having her sister around.
Kelly looked into the mirror above the sink, over her shoulder, as if her sister might suddenly appear there. “I’ll take care of him now, Andi,” she whispered aloud. “I promise.”
The restroom door started to open. Kelly fled into one of the stalls and locked the door, then waited until she heard the other woman leave again before she flushed, washed her hands and exited the bathroom. By then, she had calmed herself a bit.
She had realized one thing, at least. Eli had been talking to Alan when she’d first noticed them. They seemed friendly enough with each other. Did they know each other, or were they just being cordial here, in the plaza?
She had to find that out. She also needed to learn why Eli was there, on an afternoon when his father wasn’t available to meet with him because of the lunchtime council session.
As she walked slowly back down the hall, past the closed office doors, she heard nothing from the one with Stan’s name on the wall plaque outside it. If Eli had come to visit or spend time in his dad’s office, he was being quiet. Those were probably Stan’s instructions to him. He’d never liked interruptions to his work, especially from his family.
From not only Eli, but his wife, Andi, too.
Kelly gritted her teeth but forced her thoughts off her missing—dead—sister. She was here for Eli.
A couple of offices down, she thought she heard a muffled voice. It was probably a secretary talking on the phone.
As she neared the far end of the hallway where the elevators were, she noticed that one door was ajar—Councilwoman Susan Arviss’s office, according to the plaque on the outer wall. She was new, hadn’t been a council member when Shereen had left town. Her office was one of the farthest from Council President Regina Joralli’s.
Kelly heard giggles emanating from inside—like two young boys having a good time?
Would a total stranger, with no hidden agenda, peek inside while walking by? Maybe. She’d play it that way.
Or...no. She had a reason to peek inside. She’d already flirted a bit with Alan. He would be her excuse for checking out that office, even if he wasn’t there. But he’d been chatting with Eli before, when they’d both come out of the men’s room.
Suddenly, the bleak, bland government office hallway seemed to warm a bit.
Kelly stopped outside the partly open door and smiled slightly. It was a smile that she had practiced before, in front of mirrors, to ensure it looked different from Shereen’s smile.
The two boys sat at the secretary’s desk. Their attention seemed fully captured by what they were doing. It appeared that they were stuffing envelopes.
Kelly just watched for a moment. Then she saw a movement near her, to the side of the door. She startled, swallowed
