by Lyn Cote
Rand kept up with her, but his eyes had already told him the twins weren’t here. “What next?” he asked.
“Their best friends live on the next block. We can cut through here.” She took off, heading toward the back gate of the park.
Connie, you’re not thinking. He hustled after her. “Your guess,” he called to Connie’s back, “that the boys might have come to the park without permission made sense. But wouldn’t the friends’ mother phone Annie if the twins showed up at her door without their mother?”
She didn’t reply.
He hurried forward to head her off. With a burst of speed, he whipped around her and then stopped. He braced his arms against hers.
Connie bumped into him, breathing hard.
“Slow down.” He sucked in air. “Let’s think this through.”
“You’re wasting time!” She tried to brush his hands away.
“No, you are.” He continued to hold her arms loosely, protectively in his hands. In contrast to her disheveled appearance, she looked and sounded like an avenging angel.
“Connie, we’ve got to think like the twins. And you know them better than I do. I can see them slipping away to the park on a sunny summer morning. But that obviously wasn’t what happened. What would be their motive for leaving their house early on a Saturday morning when they would be missing their weekend cartoons? If we can figure that out, we’ll find them.”
Connie’s restless gaze darted around. She put a hand above her eyes as though her head were paining her. “I can’t think.”
“Take a deep breath. In and out slowly. Get focused.” He waited with his hands still on her arms, supporting her now. The insane urge to take her into his arms to comfort her popped into his mind. He brushed it away savagely. Why did this case keep throwing them together?
“This behavior—this leaving without telling their mother—isn’t typical.” She wouldn’t look at him.
“They’ve been through a lot this week,” Rand said.
“You’re right of course. They haven’t been behaving normally.” Connie grimaced with exasperation. “So how then can I predict or guess why they left home and their destination?”
“Did they say anything peculiar,” he coaxed, “or out of the ordinary last night before bed? When you saw them?”
“No….” her voice faded. He still fought pulling her closer. Giving in, she rested her hands on his arms now. Was she depending on his strength? Don’t depend on me.
She looked up into his eyes. “They did appear more worried last night than they had this whole week.”
“That’s what I mean. Think back. Did they do or say anything out of the ordinary?”
Connie frowned, staring at the cracked sidewalk. “The only thing I can think of was that they asked Gracie’s husband if he’d take them out in the afternoon like their daddy usually did on Saturdays. It wasn’t like them. They looked overeager, agitated somehow. I thought it was just nerves.”
This caught Rand’s attention. “Where did Troy usually take them on Saturdays?”
“I don’t know and I don’t think Annie does, either. I don’t think Troy took them to the same place twice. They mentioned going to the Oak Street beach once and to get ice cream downtown.” She pulled out of his hands, cutting their connection. “I didn’t pay a lot of attention. It didn’t seem like a big thing. Annie used to spend Saturday afternoon studying so Troy always takes the boys during that time. Trying to show support for her going back to school.”
Needing to have something to do with his suddenly empty hands, he rubbed his palms together as he pondered this. He sensed her growing impatience. “Did Jack tell them he’d take them?” he asked.
“No, Jack has a meeting this afternoon with an out-of-town client who was flying out again tonight.” She made a move to start walking.
Rand ventured to halt her again with his hand on her arm. “And?”
“But Jack told the twins,” she went on, “he’d take them out for ice cream when he got home from his meeting.”
Did this mean something or not? Rand couldn’t see how, but—
“Rand, we need to go to the friends’ house. Please.” She stepped around him, but still hesitated.
“Okay, let’s do it.” He waved her on. “But after you’ve talked to their mother and alerted a few others in the neighborhood, you need to come back to Annie’s with me. In light of Troy’s disappearance, unless we are lucky enough to find the twins now, we need to have the precinct put out an Amber Alert on them.”
Connie made a sound of despair, pushed past him and began jogging and muttering prayers again.
Rand loped alongside her and considered the possibility that Troy had slipped back home and lured his sons away. But why? Troy had no history of mental instability. Everyone Rand had talked to had agreed that Troy and Annie weren’t having serious marital difficulties. No one had hinted that Troy was involved with someone else. Especially not the woman running beside him.
He pushed aside the fact that this satisfied some part of him. It had nothing to do with his investigation. And that’s where his mind should focus.
Later, Rand stood in the Nielsen kitchen, Connie beside him. He held the receiver in his hand, talking to the local officer who’d just called him with news.
“A Chicago beat cop found the Nielsen twins and they’re on their way home with a patrol officer,” said Hess, the local cop who’d come with Rand last Saturday morning to break the news to Annie. “Somehow the twins got on a subway—”
“A subway? What would possess them to get on a subway alone?”
“Beats me. Anyway, a bartender saw them out the window of the sports bar where he was setting up for the day and called them inside. It’s not an area where kids should be out alone. He gave them colas and had them sit at the bar. When the beat cop checked in like usual, the bartender turned them over to him.”
“Great.” With relief, Rand turned to Connie and Annie’s family, who were grouped in Gracie’s kitchen. “The police found the boys and are bringing them home.”
Annie moaned and covered her face with her hands.
“Thank you, Father,” Connie breathed, hovering so near Rand that he felt her breath on his ear.
Annie, who’d been silent for the past few hours, began to sob.
Rand thanked Hess.
“You make any headway with your investigation in finding their dad?” Hess asked.
“Following procedure. But I haven’t turned up anything concrete.”
“Well, when you want them, I’ve got the name and badge number of the officer that picked them up. You might want to talk to him later and see if he got anything more from the bartender.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.” Rand hung up.
Annie stood up, gasping. She pressed her hand to her heart. “I can’t breathe.”
Rand crossed to her and took her wrist in his hand. Her pulse was racing.
Annie pressed her hand harder over her heart. “Chest pains,” she gasped.
The door bell rang and Jack went to answer it. The twins walked in followed by two policemen. “Hi, Mommy. We’re sorry,” Andy said, eyes downcast.
“Yeah, we just went to find Daddy,” Austin agreed, chewing his lower lip.
Annie tried to form words, but no sound issued from her. She choked, looking panicky.
“Annie, sit down.” Gracie pushed her toward the nearest chair.
Annie began to shake, gasp for air, and then gag.
Rand took her shoulders in his hands and looked into her face. “Mrs. Nielsen?”
She closed her eyes, still shaking.
“I think we need to call a doctor.” Rand was all too familiar with the signs of hysteria.
Annie swayed in the chair and began sobbing in low, deep, wrenching gasps.
Later, only Rand, Connie and the twins sat around the Nielsen table. The atmosphere in the room was strained and everyone seemed somehow stunned. Connie picked up a potato chip from Andy’s pla
te. “Come on, guys.” Her tense voice didn’t even sound like her. “Eat up. You need to give your stomach something to work on.”
“Not hungry,” Andy said.
“Me, neither,” Austin agreed.
Today, Rand had learned how to tell the twins apart—Austin had a mole on his ear; Andy didn’t.
Connie looked at the potato chip in her hand as if she wondered how it got there. She dropped it onto her own untouched plate.
Jack and Gracie had taken the hysterical Annie to the nearest emergency room. Rand needed to get the twins to tell him what they’d done before much time elapsed. In their heightened emotional state right now, he might be able to squeeze some fact from them that might give him a lead to follow to their father. This trip of theirs on the subway was too odd, too out of the ordinary, for two little boys. It must have a connection to Troy’s disappearance. Had to.
“Is Mommy going to be all right?” Andy asked.
“The doctor gave her a shot, but she’ll be home later.” Connie bit her lower lip.
“We’re sorry,” Austin said in a small voice.
“We just wanted to find Daddy,” Andy added, kicking his heels against the chair legs.
Why did you think you’d find your daddy at a sports bar in another neighborhood? Rand kept this question to himself, however. Connie wouldn’t appreciate it. That much he could predict with accuracy and it nettled him. To her, Troy Nielsen was the perfect father and husband. Why? Why did she have Nielsen on a pedestal?
“Is that all you’re going to eat?” Connie asked the twins, sounding as if she didn’t really care.
The boys nodded, looking glum.
A half-eaten sandwich sat drying on Rand’s plate, too. He didn’t have any appetite either for some reason.
“Okay, then it’s bath time.” Connie rose as though weighed down.
Rand nearly reached out to shore her up but stopped himself in time. Why did she tempt him?
“Uncle Jack said he’d take us out for ice cream,” Andy muttered, again kicking his heels against the chair legs.
The rhythmic thump-thump depressed Rand.
“That will have to wait,” Connie scolded. For a moment, life flooded back into her voice and face.
“We’re sorry,” the boys said in unison, almost in tears.
He understood Connie’s being on edge. Who could blame her? Leaning from his chair, Rand put a hand on a shoulder of each of the boys. Why did they have to learn so young how nasty life was?
“We just want our daddy back.” Andy gave a hic-cupping sob and Austin joined him.
Regret clear on her face, Connie knelt and gathered Andy into her arms. “I know. I’m sorry for snapping at you. This has been a rough week for all of us.”
Rand put an arm around Austin’s shoulders. Though touched by Connie’s tenderness, he needed to get them talking. They might just tell him something they wouldn’t say in front of the rest of their family.
“Come on, guys,” he said, “you’ve been really brave so far. You’ve got to hang on and help out your mom. We’re going to find your dad.” Rand felt dishonest saying this. I have no guarantees that you’ll ever see your dad again. But he couldn’t say that. “Now let’s go get you ready for your bath.”
“You shouldn’t have to help.” Connie rose slowly, looking at him.
“I’d like to.” Over the boys’ heads, Rand mouthed, “Let me. They’ll act better with a stranger.”
Connie nodded. She forced a grin, lifting one corner of her mouth.
“Good.” He gazed at her and gave her a wry look. “If I were a real gentleman, while you were bathing them, I’d offer to do the dishes. But I know you must love washing dishes.”
Connie threw a dishtowel at him, and then swung away immediately. Her shoulders shook and he was sure she was suppressing tears. Once again, he sensed that she was more concerned about this family than she should be. Or was that just his prejudice, his perception? Why did that irritate him? She’d said that Annie and Gracie were like a second family to her. Dissatisfaction still lay in his stomach like hardened cement.
Connie turned back to him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “While I clear the table,” Connie said in a controlled voice, “would you help the boys get their clean undies and pajamas?”
“Sure. We won’t be long,” he murmured.
He directed Austin and Andy to their bedroom, helped them dig in their dresser drawers for clean Spider-Man underwear and summer pj’s. The three of them trooped back through the kitchen to the bath. An old-fashioned white claw-foot tub sat squarely in front of the window.
Connie was there already leaning over turning on the taps.
“Here’s our bubble bath.” Austin handed him a blue box.
Soon, the boys were in the tub, blowing frothy suds at each other. Connie knelt on the floor beside the tub, shampooing Andy.
Rand gave her a look and mouthed, “Work with me.” After receiving her nod, he made himself as comfortable as he could on the stool lid. “So when was the last time,” Rand said, keeping his voice nonchalant, “your dad took you to that sports bar?” And what would your mother think if she knew he’d been taking you to it?
The boys exchanged looks.
Recalling baths he’d given Chuck when he’d been a kid, Rand scooped up two handfuls of suds and blew them at the twins in turn. “The bartender said that he recognized you.” This was a fib or, at least, an overstatement. The barkeep had told the beat cop that the kids had looked familiar. But he couldn’t be sure.
He felt Connie’s attention on him. But thankfully, she went on helping the boys bathe as if his questions held no interest for her.
“Daddy liked to watch the games on the big screen,” Austin admitted, resting back against the tub.
Rand nodded. “I like to do that, too. This must be a nice place.”
“Yeah,” Andy said, swirling his hands unseen in the water. “They let you eat all the peanuts and pretzels you want.”
“And Daddy bought us soda,” Austin added.
Connie seemed to be aware of the delicate operation he was engaged in, in trying to pluck any useful fact from the little ones. She continued bathing the children, but with a soft touch and without breaking into their concentration on him, letting them forget that she was there listening.
“I might want to go there myself.” Rand crossed his legs. “How did you two get there?” This had puzzled him. “That was pretty smart of you.”
Andy grinned. “We got on the subway all by ourselves.”
“Yeah,” Austin said with pride. He splashed his palms down through the suds. “We memorized all the stops. Daddy gave us a nickel for every stop we could remember in order—if we could say it before the loudspeaker said it.”
“Yeah,” Andy agreed, “we saved the money and knew how to get a ticket from the machine.”
“We did good.” Austin beamed.
“You did.” It hadn’t hurt that Saturday morning subways were sparsely populated. No motherly type had been there to see the boys and take them in hand.
Connie’s worried eyes met Rand’s. She gave him a little nod and then began to scrub Andy’s back.
Rand scooped up two handfuls of suds and topped each boy’s head with some. “But next time, don’t do it without telling your mother first. You scared her.” She doesn’t want to lose you, too.
“We won’t.” The boys spoke in unison in that disconcerting way they had.
“We thought we’d be back before anybody got up.” Andy put suds on the end of his nose.
“But we didn’t know the bar doesn’t open up till later. We never went before lunchtime.” Austin imitated his brother and they both blew the bubbles off the other’s nose.
Rand nodded with understanding, feeling his way to the next question. “Did your daddy ever meet friends at this place while you guys watched games?”
The twins sobered and exchanged glances. And they eyed Aunt Connie who concentrated on washing the
back of Austin’s neck, acting as though she wasn’t even listening.
“You know I’m trying really hard to find your daddy.” Rand didn’t look at them directly, but played with the suds. “It might help me if I could talk to more of his friends. Maybe he told somebody where he was going and he just forgot to tell your mom.”
The twins communicated worry in a silent conversation of eyes and expressions.
“Maybe we should tell him,” Andy said in a small voice.
“We promised Daddy we wouldn’t tell Mommy,” Austin said in the same tone. Again, the boy glanced at Connie.
“He’s not Mommy.” Andy nodded toward Rand. “And he’s trying to find our dad.”
“I’m not Mommy, either,” Connie said, barely above a whisper. “We need to find your daddy.”
A thinking pause. Rand bided his time, batting bubbles above the tub. Connie started scrubbing toes in silence.
“Okay.” Andy frowned.
“There was a guy,” Austin started.
“He talked mean to Daddy,” Andy said, giving a shiver. “He said Daddy better pay up.”
“Yeah,” Austin added, “they almost had a fight.”
“With fists,” Andy concluded.
“They did?” Rand tried to sound unconcerned, only mildly interested. Was this a clue or something completely unrelated to Troy’s disappearance?
“Yeah, and we didn’t like him.” Andy shut his eyes and slid under the suds.
“Daddy told us not to tell anybody about this guy. We thought maybe…” Austin held his nose and slid under the suds.
“What?” Rand felt his heart rate speed up. He finally had something to follow up on. Who was this guy? “What did you two think?” He raised his voice so that even underwater they could hear him.
Austin surfaced. “Nothin’.”
“What did the guy look like?” Rand ventured.
Austin shrugged. “Just a guy. He didn’t look funny or anything.”
“Can you think of anything else that might help me? Anything else the man said or anything your dad did?”