Samantha Sanderson Without a Trace

by Robin Caroll

  Sam hung up, a little unnerved with hearing his voice, but knowing he was missing. Maybe not . . . maybe he was at home. She dialed the number listed for his home.

  “Hello,” Mrs. Lee said, her voice weak over the line.

  “Mrs. Lee, this is Sam Sanderson. I met you in the office.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m wondering if you’ve found Tam yet.” Please, God, let Tam be home and safe.

  “No.” Mrs. Lee sniffed. “The police are here, looking through his room now. They’re taking his phone to go through back at the station. Although, I have no idea what they hope to find. He didn’t run away, he’s missing. They won’t listen to me. They don’t understand what a good boy my Tam is.” Her rambling was evident, even to Sam.

  She didn’t know what to say to Tam’s mother. “I’m sorry. I’m praying for him.”

  “Thank you, Sam. I need to get off the phone now.” Mrs. Lee hung up before Sam could say goodbye.

  She quickly called Makayla back. “He’s not home,” she said as a way of greeting as soon as her bestie answered. “Mrs. Lee said the police are taking his phone to go through it. They’re there looking through his room. Don’t know why.”

  “Probably to see if there are any clues about where he could be. That’s why they do it on the crime shows.”

  “Dad says those things are full of baloney.” Dad usually ranted about how ninety percent of what was in those television dramas was misleading and had nothing to do with real police work.

  “They probably are.”

  “Did you have any luck?” Sam asked.

  “I’ve checked all his social media sites and he hasn’t posted anything since last night. His last post was about being bummed that he couldn’t go visit a friend because of his dad’s stupid rules, and that wasn’t made from his mobile device, so he was most likely posting from his computer.”

  “He actually posted that his dad’s rules are stupid?” Sam was pretty outspoken herself, but she wasn’t quite brave enough to publicly post that she thought her dad’s rules were stupid. She’d be grounded for sure.

  “Yep.”

  Maybe Dad was right and she didn’t really know Tam all that well. Maybe he had been angry enough to run away.

  “Are you going to write a post for the paper’s blog?” Makayla asked.

  “I think so. Maybe someone saw him or talked to him or something.” Sam couldn’t imagine not a single person knowing what happened to him.

  “I checked the local news pages. There hasn’t been an AMBER Alert issued yet. That’s good, right?”

  “I don’t know.” The AMBER Alert Program activated urgent bulletins in many missing children cases. The alert would broadcast on television, Internet, and over cell phones to instantly spur an entire community to assist in the search for a missing child. “From the way the sheriff’s deputy acted, I think they’re treating this as Tam running away from home. I don’t think they put out AMBER Alerts for suspected runaways.”

  “After reading his last social media post, I can understand why they might think that.”

  Chewy rushed into Sam’s room and jumped on the bed. The cat shot the dog a disdainful look, then jumped to the floor, stretched, and walked out of the room. Chewy bounded into Sam’s lap and licked her face. Sam chuckled and pushed the dog off.

  Dad stuck in his head. “You forgot to let Chewy back in, and Mom just called. She’s turning into the subdivision. Time for dinner.”

  “Hang on,” she told Makayla. “Hey, Dad?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s still okay for Makayla to spend the night tomorrow, right, because her parents have that thing?”

  “Of course. Mom’s declared it pizza night, even though it’s a Thursday.”

  Sam grinned. “You know, they haven’t issued an AMBER Alert for Tam. Is that good or bad?”

  He leaned against the door jam. “Well, it can go either way. Good is more people are alerted to his disappearance so if anyone knows where he is, they can call in, which would lead to him being found sooner. Bad is it sometimes puts people in a panic for nothing when the kid is just off sulking or pouting.”

  “I heard they took his cell phone to go through.”

  Before Dad could reply, Chewy started barking and raced from the room.

  “Mom’s home. Come on,” Dad said before turning back down the hall.

  “I’ll call you after I eat,” Sam told Makayla.

  “Okay. Bye.”

  Sam rushed into the kitchen, ready to talk to Mom. As an investigative journalist, Mom sometimes thought of things in a different way. Maybe she’d have some suggestions or thoughts about Tam’s disappearance.

  She sure hoped so. By Sam’s calculations, Tam had been missing for over eight hours, at least two of them right smack dab in the middle of a horrible storm. She whispered another prayer that he was okay, wherever he was.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  —So if any of you have seen Tam Lee or know of his whereabouts, please contact the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office immediately. Help us bring home one of our own Senators. ~Sam Sanderson reporting

  Sam reread her article for the third time. It was good. Satisfied, she clicked the button to not only take the post live, but to send a copy to the Senator Speak faculty supervisor, Ms. Pape and also to Aubrey Damas. The editor would be ticked that Sam scooped her yet again, but Sam didn’t care. This was about Tam and finding him. As the hours clicked by, Sam grew more and more worried.

  Was he safe? Was he hungry? Scared? Alone? Dry?

  Sam couldn’t imagine being all alone somewhere, especially with the weather Little Rock had experienced today. Even if she’d gotten upset enough to run away, being alone wasn’t exactly an ideal situation. Surely Tam was with someone he knew and trusted.

  But what if he wasn’t?

  She stared at the list of newspaper staff members and their phone numbers sitting on her desk. Mom had asked if anyone had spoken to the friend Tam wanted to visit last night. Dad said he didn’t know.

  Luke Jensen. Sure, Sam tripped up around him because he was so incredibly cute, but this was reporting. This was about finding Tam. Sam couldn’t let her personal feelings interfere with reporting, right? A good reporter could push aside her own emotions to get to the heart of a story . . . that’s what Mom always said.

  Sam let out a quick breath, then quickly dialed Luke’s cell number before she could think of a gazillion good reasons not to have to talk to him.

  “Hello.” Even over the phone, Luke Jensen’s voice held that high-wattage smile that made butterflies swarm in Sam’s stomach.

  “Hey, Luke. It’s Sam. Sanderson. Sam Sanderson.” She swallowed the groan. Could she sound any more like an idiot?

  “I know. What’s up?” He was kind enough not to make fun of her stammering.

  “I guess you heard about Tam?”

  “Yeah. A deputy came by to talk to me just a few minutes ago.”

  “Do you have any idea where he could be?” She held her breath as she’d been holding out a secret hope that Tam was just hiding out at Luke’s.

  “No. I’d asked him to come over last night because I was working on my EAST project and needed a little help. Tam said he’d be happy to help me, and asked if he could come stay over. We had planned it all, but in the end his dad said no because it was a school night.”

  Same thing Mrs. Lee had told the deputy. Sam chewed the inside of her bottom lip. “Was he really mad that his dad wouldn’t let him go?”

  “Like I told the cop, I wouldn’t say he was all that mad. He seemed more annoyed that his dad didn’t trust him. He complained that it wasn’t like he ever got into trouble or anything, so he didn’t understand why his dad was being so strict.”

  “Mmm.” Maybe there was more to the family dynamics, like her dad had hinted.

  “But he wasn’t all angry and stuff. He said it more with a sigh than with anger. You know what I mean?”

  Boy, did she. Mom could mak
e Sam feel more like a dope when she used her disappointed tone than when she was mad. “Oh, yeah.”

  Luke laughed, but it sounded a little forced. “I guess we all know what that’s like.”

  “So, you didn’t talk to Tam after he told you he couldn’t come over?”

  “Well, after he posted on Facebook about his dad’s stupid rules, I sent him a private message and asked if he was okay. He said he was just blowing off steam and knew his dad would see it.”

  “So he posted it for his dad to see on purpose?” Wow, that really was brave for him to do that. Sam would be grounded for life.

  “He said he hoped it would make his dad realize how ridiculous and outdated the rules were.”

  Maybe so, but Sam’s dad would still ground her, and he’d make her delete the post. She might have even had to delete her Facebook page. “That’s it?”

  “Yeah. I just replied with LOL, and I didn’t hear anything else from him.”

  Sam opened Facebook on her MacBook, then went to Tam’s page. The post was still up. There were seventy-two likes on the post, but no comments.

  “I’m worried about him, Sam,” Luke said, his voice not as confident and strong as usual. “The cop acted like Tam ran away or something, but that’s not like him.”

  “I know,” Sam barely whispered. No matter about Dad’s talk and the police’s theory, she just couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that Tam would run away from home. “He doesn’t even have his cell phone.”

  “Right. If Tam ran away, he would have certainly taken his cell phone. I told the cop that, but he shrugged it off. I hate that. Why do cops think we kids don’t understand things? We’re not stupid.”

  Even her dad sometimes acted like she couldn’t understand certain things. “Oh, I hear you. But if he didn’t run away, where could he be?” she asked.

  “That’s what worries me. His mom said she dropped him off at school this morning just before eight. I was there a little after eight and I never saw him.”

  “What do you think happened to him?” she asked, even as she continued to check out Tam’s page on Facebook. A couple of his friends had already started posting comments on his wall like “Where are you?”

  “I don’t know. I told the cop I didn’t have any idea, but the way he acted . . . I’m not sure he believed me,” Luke said.

  “I think they need to get the word out. The more people who know he’s missing, the better chance of someone having seen him or something. I posted an article up on the school’s blog. A few kids have already started posting on Tam’s Facebook page, but they haven’t issued an AMBER Alert on him yet.”

  “Wonder why that is?”

  “I don’t know. Dad says it’s up to the deputy handling the case.” That’s what he’d told her over supper.

  “Your dad can’t work this case?” Luke asked.

  “Not his jurisdiction, and the deputy didn’t seem to want Dad’s help.” She took note of the time at the top of her computer task bar.

  “Well, I think they need it. They need to do something.”

  “Yeah. The news is about to come on. I’m going to go watch and see if they mention Tam. Maybe they’ll issue an AMBER Alert for him.”

  “I’ll let you know if I hear anything, and you let me know if you find out anything, okay?”

  “Sure. Thanks, Luke. Bye.” Sam hung up and headed into the living room. She plopped on the couch across from the two recliners. Her dad sat in one of them.

  “Where’s Mom?” Sam asked.

  “Doing laundry. You’re watching the news?”

  “I want to see if there’s anything on about Tam.”

  Dad nodded, then turned up the volume as the music lead-in for the local news came on the air.

  Sam found herself getting more and more frustrated as the news anchor jumped from news of a bank robbery to a fire in an abandoned lot to a promo for sports. Didn’t anybody care that Tam was missing? Why weren’t they putting out an AMBER Alert? Why weren’t they organizing search parties?

  The news faded into the first commercial break.

  “Dad, why aren’t they talking about Tam’s disappearance?”

  “There are several reasons why they wouldn’t, pumpkin.”

  “Like what?” Sam knew she sounded a little snotty, but this was important.

  “If it’s believed Tam’s a runaway.”

  “Everyone’s already told the police that he didn’t run away. Why won’t they listen?”

  “It’s hard to explain. That Tam argued with his parents about not being allowed to go somewhere is a very common reason for junior high kids to take off. They usually show back up in a day or so, just long enough to save face, but not long enough to be really hungry.”

  “Tam’s not like that, Dad. His mom told the cop that, I did, even Mrs. Trees told him Tam has never been in trouble and is a good kid. And if he was going to run away from home, he wouldn’t have left his cell phone in his room.”

  “I’m not involved in the case, Sam, so I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty certain the sheriff’s office has their reasons for treating the case more as a suspected runaway than anything else.”

  The news returned, going to a feature on a local businessman winning some award, then moved on to sports, which talked about the Razorback’s track and baseball teams.

  “Dad, what if they’re wrong?”

  “What?”

  “What if the sheriff’s office is wrong? What if they treat Tam like a runaway but he doesn’t show back up in a day or so . . . what then?”

  He ran a hand over the whisker stubble on his chin, scratching. “Then they’ll have to look at things from a different angle.”

  “But they’ve wasted the day by not doing anything!”

  “It’s complicated, Sam.”

  “But that’s what it will be, right? Wasting a day or so waiting for a runaway to come back, only when he doesn’t, they have to scramble to figure out what really happened to him, right?”

  “I’m sure they’re working every angle they can. Police work isn’t all cut and dried. A lot of time, it’s gut instinct and looking at every detail a dozen different ways.” Dad smiled. “I bet they’re doing more than you think.”

  Sam shrugged. But what if they weren’t? What if the police weren’t doing a thing besides waiting for Tam to come home?

  What if he was scared or hurt? What if he had been kidnapped and the Lees just hadn’t received the ransom note yet?

  Sam couldn’t sit still. She headed to her room as soon as the news went into the final weather forecast. She didn’t know what she could do, but knew she needed to do something. Anything.

  Which, as far as she could tell, was more than the sheriff’s office was doing.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Since you were so quick to write an article and get it posted yesterday, you can cover this morning’s assembly on Tam’s disappearance, Samantha.” Aubrey’s snooty voice carried across the cafeteria before school.

  The smell of breakfast remnants filled the closed room, even though the serving line had just closed.

  “Assembly?” Sam ignored Aubrey’s snide tone and the use of her full name that Aubrey did just to annoy her.

  “Yes. Mrs. Trees is having an assembly about Tam this morning. Ms. Pape sent me a text about it this morning.” Aubrey smirked, gloating. She just loved knowing stuff before Sam did. “So I’m assigning you to cover it.”

  Sure enough, the school’s custodial staff had started setting up the microphone on the cafeteria stage.

  “Okay.” Sam nodded at Aubrey, not caring that the editor thought it was a ho-hum assignment.

  Aubrey turned and sauntered across the cafeteria toward her clique of friends.

  Sam shook her head, disregarding her. “At least someone’s going to talk about Tam disappearing without a trace,” she said. The local news this morning hadn’t announced the issuance of an AMBER Alert for him. Sam thought that very strange and even her dad said he
’d thought there’d be some mention of his disappearance on the news, unless Tam had already returned home. With an assembly about his disappearance, that sliver of hope was gone.

  Sam had asked her father about a Morgan Nick alert, which started in Arkansas back in 1995 when a girl named Morgan was abducted. Now it was an alert that went out over the broadcasting system. Dad had explained that Morgan Nick alerts were only issued when an abduction was confirmed or if the missing child had a mental or physical disability.

  Bella Kelly, a fellow cheerleader, sat across from Sam and Makayla. “Yeah, my dad’s coming this morning to report on the assembly and Tam’s disappearance.” Bella’s dad was a prominent newscaster for the local FOX affiliate.

  Sam nodded, grateful at least there would finally be something on the news about Tam. She had checked Tam’s Facebook page this morning and there was no new post from him. She’d overheard her Dad saying on the phone this morning that the Lees hadn’t heard from Tam yet. Sam could imagine how worried her own parents would be if she were missing.

  Then again, if she were missing, Dad would have the entire Little Rock Police Department out searching for her. The church would get involved . . . hey, that was a thought: what church did the Lees belong to? Maybe they could start a search or something.

  “Do you know what church Tam goes to?” Sam asked Makayla.

  “No, why?”

  Sam shrugged. “I just wondered if maybe his church was organizing a search or something for him.” The longer he was missing with nothing being done, the angrier Sam got. “It’s about time someone started doing something, you know?”

  Makayla nodded as the first bell rang. The noise level almost exploded as kids stood and shuffled and talked louder.

  Mrs. Trees popped the microphone with her index finger, filling the cafeteria with three quick boops over the speakers. Everyone stopped moving and talking. “Students, if you would, please hurry along to your homeroom class. Instead of activity period this morning, you’ll be coming back to the cafeteria for an assembly. Thank you.”

  The racket erupted again as everyone rushed to spill out of the cafeteria.