Mrs. Lee talks to me for a few more minutes, and then I comfort her the best that I can which isn’t much seeing how I’m freaked out. I tell her to let me know if she hears anything else. I walk slowly back to the car where Maisie has been waiting anxiously.
Maisie is staring at me when I reach the car door and open it. “Finally! I was going out of my mind with worry, and then I saw that officer walk out, so I ducked down because I wasn’t sure what the heck to do.”
Her crazy reaction puts a smile on my face, even though my eyes are filling with tears. I try to push the emotions of everything away from this terrible day. “You always know just what to say, Maisie.”
Chapter 7
After going over the talk with the officer, and Mrs. Lee on the way home with Maisie, we finally pull into her driveway. We decide to go hang out at my house, since my dad is working late again.
When we get inside, I grab the phone and call August. He comes over, and we discuss back and forth what could have happened with Neven, but the possibilities are endless.
They leave when my dad gets home, and I tell him what is going on with Neven. He doesn’t seem worried about it from the outside, but I know how well Dad can hide what he’s feeling. He doesn’t want to say it, but he is apprehensive about it.
I go to bed and fall asleep crying to myself. I try to muffle it out with my pillow and blankets pulled up covering my whole face.
I’m not sure what time I wake up, but I call Maisie and tell her that I won’t be going to school. I stay in bed the entire day and let myself think about what could have happened with Nev, and my thoughts aren’t looking good.
August calls me at lunch time, and I tell him that I will see him tomorrow. He sounds concerned, but I tell him I need one day to be alone, and he understands. He always does.
Later that afternoon there is a knock at the door. I check through the peephole before opening the door, and it’s Maisie. I swing open the door. She must have gotten home and rushed right over. Her normally perfectly, straight hair is all over the place. Not that the run over here takes more than a few seconds.
“How are you doing?” she blurts.
“Oh, you know. A day full of nothing is like a day at the circus.”
Maisie slides past me to the fridge and pulls out several slices of cheese to eat. “It very well could have been compared to my day in my own personal hell.”
My eyebrows rise all the way to my hairline. “Is that negativity I hear? It can’t be negativity coming from the queen of all things positive.”
“Yeah, whatever. You weren’t there to deal with David all day. He’s worried, I’m worried, we’re all worried, but I had to continue comforting him through third period. August left early during lunch, and David came and sat with me, and that human specimen has drained all things positive from my very soul.”
“Wow. So, I take it you aren’t into David then?”
She tilts her head to the side and contemplates. “Um. No, thanks. Anyway, David talked to Neven’s mom, and she is even more panicked because there is still no sign of Neven.”
I sit next to Maisie on one of the brown, wooden barstools, where she is unfolding another piece of plastic from a cheese slice. She takes the slices and folds them both into a square before she sticks the entire thing into her mouth.
“I keep replaying the day over in my head, and I still don’t understand what could have happened.”
She pats my shoulder. “We have to kind of freeze how we are feeling until we for sure find something out.”
I don’t say anything, but that is exactly what I’m going to do.
Maisie stays a little while longer to chat, and then walks back to her house. After she leaves, I call August and talk to him on the phone for a while. I tell him that I’ll see him tomorrow at school.
Several hours pass, and there is another knock at the door. I look at the clock, and it’s a little before eight. Dad is working until nine tonight, so he won’t be home until later. I check out the peephole, and it’s Maisie again.
I unlock the door and open it for her. “Back already?”
“Yes!” She squeezes past me through the door and turns around. When I get a good look at her, she is wearing black from head to toe. She has on black leggings tucked into black boots with a black baby doll style dress. It has a collar, and the dress is lined with black buttons down the center. Her sleeves have lace circling them.
Her attire is accented by a lacy, solid black eye patch with what looks like black silky material trimming. This patch is calm for her. Her other eye has been made up with black eyeshadow that is perfectly blended and brings out her solo, blue eye. I guess black isn’t a dark color for today.
“Are we going to rob a bank tonight?”
She snorts at that. “No, silly. Remember I start my job tonight at the Glass Vault.”
I totally let that slip my mind and forgot about all that. Now I’m even more worried than I was before. I must be a real adult now with all the stress that is coming in and going out of me.
“Are you sure you don’t want to skip it tonight?”
She pauses. “If you don’t want me to go, Perrie, I won’t go.”
There is sadness in her voice, and I can tell she wants this job. Maybe it will be a good distraction for her. I personally wish I had applied for this job position and had the diversion right now myself.
I let out a sigh. “No, I know you want to go, but please promise me you’ll be careful. I mean, seriously, don’t stop for anyone. Drive straight there and straight home.”
“Deal. I do need your help getting the car backed out of the driveway. I’ll put the car in neutral, and we can roll it on the street a few houses down before I start the car.”
“Wait, what? You still didn’t tell your parents you got this job?” I blurt out.
She puts her hands on both cheeks and speaks with an innocent tone. “No, but tomorrow I promise I will tell them. I want to get a feel for the place first. If it’s not going to work out, I don’t want to get my hopes up. It’s not like I’m going out partying. I just want a job.”
“Ugh, fine. Just a heads up, if they come over here asking me where you are, I’m going to tell them. Aunt Krista can see through my lies, no matter how hard I try to tell them. I swear she is a human lie detector.”
Maisie giggles. “I know! I don’t know how she does it.”
“All right let’s get that car ready. The sooner you go, the earlier you can get back and let me know what kinds of awesome things the Glass Vault has.”
We sneak next door as quietly as we can and manage to get the car on the street. There are many moments we want to bust out laughing as we roll the car down the drive, but we get it out into the street without a problem. We walk the car a few houses down before she gets in and starts the motor.
I tell her good luck and quickly go back into the house, locking the door behind me. My stomach is in tight knots. I don’t have a good feeling about this, but I push it down.
***
The next morning, I wake up with a headache when my alarm goes off. I take some Excedrin and then get dressed for school.
After I finish getting ready, I grab my stuff and walk out the door to head over to Maisie’s house. When I look over to her driveway, I notice her car isn’t there. I look toward the street to see if maybe she parked out there, she didn’t. Did she leave for school without me? Impossible.
My uncle’s car is parked in the driveway, and I know my aunt is home since she doesn’t work.
I pump my legs to their porch, ring the door several times, and then bang on the door.
Aunt Krista answers the door in her pajamas. She’s frowning, and her forehead is wrinkled with worry. I obviously woke her up. “Perrie? What’s going on? Is your dad okay?”
I nod my head yes. “Where is Maisie?” My heart is pounding in my chest.
Uncle Jaron comes to the door behind Aunt Krista. “She probably just overslept. Let me check on he
r.”
As he walks away, my aunt looks out toward the driveway and scrunches her nose when she sees the car is missing. “Did she already leave for school?”
I shake my head no. “No, I don’t think she came home last night.”
Uncle Jaron walks back to the door. “She isn’t in her room.”
“What do you mean she didn’t come home last night? She was here in the evening and went to bed really early,” Aunt Krista notes.
No. No. No. I run my hands through my hair, gripping it so hard, and I want to pull every strand from my scalp from the worry that is consuming me.
“She started a new job last night at this place called Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault over on Oak Street,” I confess.
“What are you talking about?” Aunt Krista barks.
I haven’t seen Aunt Krista this mad in a long time, and I want to curl into a dark hole and get away from this anger. The last time she was this mad was when Maisie and I accidentally broke her three-piece set of unicorn figurines when we were playing with a ball in the house. We blamed it on the dog, but she knew in a second that we were lying.
Uncle Jaron still looks calm. “Perrie, tell us exactly what happened.”
I tell them. I explain how on the way home on Monday we saw the new glass museum and how they were hiring. How Maisie emailed Quinsey, and he replied saying that she could start work on Thursday.
I also tell them how she came over last night a little before eight o’clock and that she would be starting at nine that night. I purposely leave out the fact that I helped her move the car.
Uncle Jaron puts his hand on Aunt Krista’s shoulder. “This is what we are going to do first. We are going to the school to see if Maisie’s car is there and see if maybe she went to school early for some reason and didn’t wait for Perrie. If she isn’t at the school, we’ll run by the Glass Vault she started working at.”
My uncle grabs his keys, and Aunt Krista slips on a pair of sandals. We hurry over to Uncle Jaron’s car, and I get in the backseat. My aunt is asking me a hundred questions on the way to the school, and most of them I don’t have answers to. She doesn’t understand why Maisie didn’t tell her about the job in the first place.
“She knew you guys would say no.”
Aunt Krista gives me “the look” that has me squirming. “That’s right we would have said no. There has been a lot going on with people missing and not to mention it was a school night. There would be no way we would let her work a job at nine at night, until who knows what time they would have her there.”
Uncle Jaron pulls into the school parking lot. We circle the lot twice and don’t see her car anywhere.
“Where is this place? You said on Oak Street?” Aunt Krista asks.
I’m in the middle of the backseat and lean forward while sort of hyperventilating. “Yes. It’s right off Oak Street,” I pant.
My uncle is already leaving the school parking lot, but Aunt Krista looks skeptical. “Are you sure? That doesn’t seem like a place for a museum.”
“That is what we said, but it’s there.”
The drive doesn’t take long with Uncle Jaron’s driving. When we turn on Oak Street, I tell him to slow down because we are coming up to the spot.
We pass along the beautiful tree-lined street that I don’t even pay attention to. My eyes are focused on our destination.
“Stop! This is it,” I point.
Uncle Jaron puts on the brakes. I’m pointing my finger at the location as their heads turn to look. When my eyes focus on the distance my hand falters.
Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault is not there. It’s as if nothing has ever been there at all.
Chapter 8
How could the Glass Vault be gone? There is no way. I know we didn’t imagine it being here. I swing open the door and run to the edge of the curb and stare.
Aunt Krista jogs up and stands next to me, putting her hands on my shoulders. All I feel are those hands weighing me down. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
I pull out of her grip and turn around to face her and my uncle, who is now standing directly beside her waiting for me to answer. “Yes, I’m sure! We were here on Monday after school, and there was an old building right there with stone. On this big wooden door, it had the words: Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault,” I point at the now empty spot.
“Well, apparently, the vault is gone now,” my uncle says skeptically.
“It wasn’t a traveling carnival on wheels!” I yell.
Aunt Krista tries to put her hand on my arm again, and I pull away before she can. “Well, maybe it was? Or maybe you are just confused. Either way, we need to go to the police. We have to find out where Maisie is.”
I don’t respond. There is nothing that I can say that would make them believe me because there is no building in sight, but I know what was there, and I know what we saw. I’m angry and confused, but I will find out exactly what is going on here.
“Come on, let’s go to the police station,” Uncle Jaron sighs. He runs a hand across his forehead and has a grim expression that is forming.
I follow them back to the car, and panic is consuming my entire chest. First, Neven and now, Maisie. Who is next? What is next?
We drive to the police station, and my aunt cries the entire way there. I want to comfort her, but I can’t even comfort myself. The tears continue to slide down my face, and Uncle Jaron looks confused, yet hopeful which is an odd expression.
I look out of the window, and my mind keeps replaying and processing the day we saw Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault over and over. Maybe I am crazy?
When we finally pull up to the station and walk inside, there is a lady at the front desk. She hands Uncle Jaron a missing person’s report to fill out. After the report is completed, we’re pulled back to speak to Officer Rodriguez in her office.
She recognizes me immediately. “Hello, Perrie. I would ask how you are doing, but I know these circumstances have a way of turning that question into a disaster.”
I look at her and nod. Officer Rodriguez has her raven hair pulled back in her sleek ponytail, and she looks genuinely concerned. She takes a sip from a navy-blue coffee mug with little white birds on it.
“Have you heard anything from Neven?” I inquire.
“No, not yet, but we may have some leads that we are still considering,” she answers.
She looks over at my aunt and uncle and asks them to tell her exactly what is going on. They tell her everything that they know which isn’t much. Aunt Krista tells her how I came over this morning, and they realized that Maisie wasn’t there when they thought she had gone to bed early. Then I showed up and told them she had started a new job.
Officer Rodriguez’ attention turns to me, and her dark eyes are searching mine. I try incredibly hard not to look away from her hard stare. “It seems you are the last person to have seen Maisie. Can you tell me exactly what occurred last night?”
It doesn’t click until she says that, but I’m the last person that saw both Maisie and Neven. I have a feeling I’m going to be on the suspect list after this, but I hope that this is all just crazy talk in my head.
I rub my sweaty palms against my jeans, but they start to sweat again. So, that is just pointless. “Yes, let me start from the beginning.”
Drawing in a breath and then letting it out before I speak, I tell her the story from the beginning like I told Maisie’s parents. I start with how we took Oak Street home on Monday, how we saw this building that seemed to have come out of nowhere, and it had the words Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault on the door. I let her know how there was a job listing, and Maisie responded to the email that was listed. A man named Quinsey emailed her back and let her know that she could start working at nine on Thursday night. I mention how Maisie stopped by before work, and that was the last time I saw her.
I don’t know what to do with my hands, and now everyone in the room is staring at me, so I fold my arms across my chest and tuck my hands under. I want to
leave this office and go back home and crawl under my blankets.
Aunt Krista is still pissed that Maisie didn’t tell them about the job, but the anger quickly leaves her.
Officer Rodriguez finally speaks, “You said you went down Oak Street and saw this building?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She leans back in her chair. “I just went down Oak Street this morning, and I didn’t see a building. In fact, I go down Oak Street every day and have never seen anything except for trees. Maybe you are mistaken about the street.”
Okay, this is going nowhere. “I know. We just went by Oak Street before coming here, and there was no building, but I swear to you there was.”
Her head tilts to the side, and her index finger goes to her temple as her thumb rests on her chin. “Are you sure it wasn’t some type of trailer?”
“That is what I was thinking! It would make sense, and then maybe Maisie went there and someone took her,” Aunt Krista blurts out.
I know what I saw, and it was an actual building. That type of building would be impossible to have wheels on it. Apparently, right now no building exists. I’m not even sure what to say. I let them know the story, and that is all I can seem to do. No one is going to believe me unless this place reappears from wherever it came from.
“I’m going to look into this. I’ll search around Oak Street this morning, but for now, keep your eyes and ears open. There is always a chance that she ran away. I have seen so many cases where the family thinks their child has gone missing, but they have run away by themselves or with someone else.”
“Do you know if Maisie was talking to anyone?” Uncle Jaron turns to me and asks.
“You would know better than anyone,” Aunt Krista pipes in.
I let the wheels turn clockwise and counterclockwise in my head, and try to think about this objectively. There is no way. She never showed interest in anyone, at least that I know about.
“No, not that I know of.”
“I know we have had a lot of missing person cases, and I was thinking about how close Neven and Maisie’s disappearances are. Did they have any romantic involvement? Could there be any chance they ran away together?”
Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault Page 5