Two Roads Home

by Raney, Deborah;

  “Jesse. Call me right now.”

  The alarm in her voice made his heart rate accelerate. He didn’t wait for the rest of her message, but punched Call. She answered almost instantly. “Corinne? What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t find the girls!” She sounded frantic.

  “What do you mean you can’t find them? Where are you?”

  “I’m at Danae’s. They were playing in the backyard and . . . now we can’t find them!”

  “How long have they been missing?”

  “We got here around four-thirty, and they went out to the playhouse. They were still there . . . I don’t know . . . maybe twenty minutes ago. But when I went to get them to go home they were just . . . gone. We’ve searched everywhere.”

  “Well, they didn’t just disappear.” He tried to keep his voice steady, but already news headlines were flashing across his mind’s eye—too many of them straight off the pages of the local news in recent years. But Corinne sounded like she was near hysteria. He needed to keep his head.

  “You looked inside the house?”

  “Yes, Jesse. We looked everywhere.”

  “Well, you couldn’t have looked everywhere or you would have found them. Calm down. It doesn’t help anything for you to flip out.”

  “That is not helpful. And I’m not flipping out,” she said. “But we’ve got to find them, Jesse!”

  “I know. I know, babe . . . I’m on my way.” He grabbed his keys and jacket and headed for the parking lot. “Call me if they show up.”

  The girls couldn’t have just disappeared. There had to be a logical explanation.

  He drove like a maniac across town, making a quick call to cancel his meeting as he maneuvered through traffic. References to rush hour were usually a joke in this small city, but right now he would have given anything to clear the four lanes of traffic off the road.

  He hit a red light half a mile before Danae’s. At the same moment his phone rang. He fished the phone from his pocket, but didn’t recognize the number. He wanted to ignore it, but decided that wouldn’t be wise under the circumstances. “Hello.”

  “Mr. Pennington?”

  “Yes?”

  “This is Joan Morgan, Kaylee’s mom? I’m sorry to bother you, but I haven’t been able to reach Corinne. I was just going to let her know that we have to go to Poplar Bluff tonight, so we could easily drop Sari off on our way—if you don’t mind if she stays for dinner.”

  “Wait a minute? Sari’s with you?”

  “Um . . . yes.”

  “Do you have the other girls? Are Sadie and Simone at your house?” He didn’t think that was the plan, but he’d assumed Corinne meant all three of the girls when she said they were missing. She would have picked Sari up by now—unless he’d completely misunderstood. What was going on?

  “No . . . ” Kaylee’s mom hesitated. “Only Sari is here . . .” Her tentative tone told him he was confusing the poor woman.

  But no one was more confused than he was. “Um . . . I think that would be fine for Sari to stay for dinner. I’ll talk to Corinne and get back to you for sure, but just plan on it unless we let you know otherwise.”

  The light turned green, and he gunned it, calling Corinne as he drove on.

  Again, she picked up instantly.

  “Did you find them?”

  “No! Where could they be, Jesse? They were right in the backyard. It’s like they’ve disappeared into thin air.”

  “You’re just talking about Sadie and Simone, right? Sari’s friend’s mom just called and—”

  “Sari! Oh, no! I forgot all about her. I was supposed to go pick—”

  “No, it’s okay . . . I made arrangements.” He made a mental note to call the woman back the minute they found the girls. “Listen, I’m almost there. Talk to you in a minute.”

  He clicked off without waiting for a response. Was Corinne losing it? First she “lost” their two younger girls, and now she seemed to have completely forgotten about their oldest daughter. She was easily distracted when she was with her sisters. It drove him a little nuts, but he was used to it, and besides, the girls often played in their Aunt Danae’s backyard playhouse. They knew to stay in the yard and away from the street.

  An image flashed on the screen of his mind: the girls down by the creek behind the inn on Chicory Lane. They knew better than going near the water by themselves, too. But Corinne said Sadie had done so anyway—and then tried to lie about it. The memory gave him strange comfort. Maybe this was the same, and they’d just ventured outside Danae’s yard and gotten lost in the neighborhood.

  A minute later, he turned into Dallas and Danae’s neighborhood, winding his way through streets where tricycles and skateboards littered every other driveway and children played on front porches.

  He started to crank the steering wheel to turn onto the cul-de-sac where Corinne’s sister lived, but something made him look down the street running the opposite direction.

  He did a double take. What in the—

  * * *

  “Where is he?” Corinne wrung her hands and resisted the urge to call Jesse again.

  Danae and Landyn had gone back inside to search the house once more. But they’d already searched from top to bottom, even to the point of looking under mattresses and inside the laundry hamper. But there was no way the girls could have come in without her and her sisters hearing.

  Hot tears stung her eyes. “Oh, God, help us! Help us find them.” It had only been thirty minutes, but she was about ready to call the police. If they didn’t find the girls by the time Jesse got here, she would. And she’d have to be honest about how distracted she’d been because of the encounter with Michaela. She should have checked on them more often. Sadie was only four. It was one thing to let them play outside if Sari was with them. But even in Danae’s safe, fenced-in backyard, it hadn’t been wise to let the two little ones play alone.

  Landyn came out the front door, purse on her arm. “Corinne, I hate to do this, but Chase called and the babies are awake. I didn’t leave any formula for him and besides, I’m about to bust.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “I understand. You go.”

  “Call me the minute you find them.”

  “I will.”

  “I’ll be praying.” Landyn jogged to her car and pulled away from the curb without looking back.

  “Sure,” she whispered. Corinne understood her sister needing to get back to her nursing babies, and yet resentment stabbed at her. How could Landyn just walk away when for all they knew something unspeakable had happened to Sadie and Simone?

  She felt another wave of hysteria coming on and shot up another prayer. She could not fall apart. She had to keep looking. Like Jesse’d said, the girls had to be out there somewhere. Tonight they’d be shaking their heads at the whole ordeal—and likely doling out some serious consequences for two disobedient little girls. She grabbed onto that thought as if it were a lifeline.

  13

  Jesse pulled the car to the curb and threw open the door. “Sadie!”

  He scrambled across a manicured lawn, not caring if he’d trampled someone’s prize rose bush in his race to get to his daughters. What in the world they were doing out here, at least two blocks from Danae’s home, he couldn’t fathom. And they had to have crossed the wide street to get to where they were.

  A teenager roared through the intersection on a motorcycle without looking one way, let alone both, and a sick feeling roiled in his gut. “Sadie!” Jesse yelled again.

  Corinne had to be beside herself by now. He should call her, but he was afraid his little Houdinis would escape again if he didn’t capture them and get them in the car.

  He sprinted toward the girls. As he came up behind them, huffing and out of breath, he realized Sadie was talking to her sister. He slowed to listen.

  “We gots to get back to Aunt Danae’s house ’cause Mommy said we should stay in the fence.”

  Simone toddled beside her, sucking her thumb.<
br />
  “Sadie.”

  She let loose of Simone’s hand and turned. “Daddy! Are you going to Aunt Danae’s house with us?”

  He scooped Simone into his arms. Her shoes were muddy and untied, but she seemed fine. He knelt to look Sadie in the eyes. “What are you and Simone doing out here?”

  “We just— Simone, quit kickin’ Daddy’s pants. You’re gonna get them all dirty.”

  “Sadie? Did you hear me? What are you girls doing out here?” The cocktail of terror and relief made his voice sharp, and seeing tears spring to his daughter’s eyes, he forced a calm he didn’t feel into his voice. “How did you get here?” He looked around, trying to judge how far they must have walked from Danae’s.

  Sadie followed his line of sight. “That nice lady took us for a ride. We were just walkin’ back.”

  “What nice lady?”

  “That lady. You know, from the grocery store.”

  “No, I don’t know. What lady are you talking about?”

  “That pretty lady that was at the grocery store. ’Cept Mommy doesn’t like her. But she’s nice and we went for a ride with her, and then she . . . dropped us off. Yeah, she dropped us off.”

  “What is her name?”

  Sadie shrugged.

  “Okay . . . let’s get in the car. We’ll talk about this later.”

  Sadie seemed relieved to end the conversation, but Jesse didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.

  He glanced at his watch. He had a meeting back at the office in half an hour. He hoped Corinne could shed some light on how on earth his little girls had ended up almost three blocks away without her knowledge.

  * * *

  Corinne made one last trek around the outside of Danae’s house. But it was futile. They hadn’t turned up so much as a clue, and as the seconds ticked off the clock, she began to lose hope.

  Danae was inside calling the neighbors on each side of them and across the street to see if they’d happened to see the girls. If they didn’t find them by the time Jesse got here, she was going to call the police. Maybe she should have called earlier, but she’d been so sure the girls would turn up any minute. It had been more than thirty minutes now. And where was Jesse? He’d said he was almost there, but that had been close to ten minutes ago.

  She tried to comfort herself with memories of people she knew who’d lost their children briefly in the supermarket or at the park. She didn’t think any of those moms had gotten scared enough to call the police, but she wasn’t sure.

  Mom often told a story about how Tim and Link had scaled the climbing tree one summer and perched among the upper branches. While the entire family called their names and practically tore the property apart looking for them, her brothers had kept silent, hiding, and enjoying the little drama they’d created.

  Tim and Link had been older than Sadie and Simone were now, but Sadie just might pull a stunt like that. But she could only get so far with Simone in tow. Still, the thought made her look up into the branches of the oak tree in Danae’s front yard.

  Nothing. They had to do something. They couldn’t keep searching the same places over and over without—

  A familiar horn blared from the street. Corinne looked up to see Jesse rolling into the cul-de-sac. As he got closer, she saw movement in the backseat of his car. And when he opened his car door, smiling broadly, the relief that flooded her nearly took her to her knees.

  Thank God! Thank you, Jesus. She ran down the driveway to his car and ripped open the back door. “You found them! Where have you been, Sadie?”

  “Mommy, Daddy brought us home.”

  “I know he did.” She straightened and looked over the roof of the car at Jesse. “Where were they?”

  “Let’s get in the house and we’ll talk.” Jesse’s tone said somebody was in trouble.

  She nodded and went around to unbuckle Simone from the backseat. Danae met them on the driveway and immediately called Landyn to let her know the girls had been found. Still talking to Landyn, she carried her cell phone into the kitchen, leaving Corinne and Jesse on the driveway with the girls.

  “What’s the deal?” Corinne asked, grateful for a chance to talk to Jesse out of her sister’s hearing. She lifted Simone and hitched her up on one hip.

  Jesse gave her a look before squatting down on the concrete drive. He pulled Sadie close. “Tell Mommy what you told me.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Sadie, look at me.” He took her face between his palms. “This is important. Tell us why you weren’t in Aunt Danae’s yard when Mom came looking for you.”

  She glanced up at Corinne with a look Corinne couldn’t decipher, but guessed was guilt.

  Sadie turned back to Jesse. “I already told you. That lady took us for a ride.”

  “What lady?” Jesse shot Corinne a just-listen-to-this look.

  “I told you, Daddy—the lady in the grocery store.”

  Corinne set Simone down on the drive and knelt beside Jesse. “What lady, Sadie?”

  Sadie couldn’t seem to look either of them in the eye. “That lady you were talkin’ to. That pretty one.”

  “Which lady? The clerk?” Fear slithered up her spine and coiled in the center of her chest. It couldn’t be. Could it?

  Jesse frowned and looked to her for answers. She rose, not sure her legs would hold her. “We saw your . . . coworker at Schnucks this morning.”

  Jesse frowned like he didn’t get her meaning, but then she saw understanding slip into his expression. “Sadie, are you saying Michae—that lady—came to Aunt Danae’s house and took you girls? In her car?”

  Feeling physically ill, Corinne knelt to be eye level with Sadie again. “Are you sure she came here, Sadie? You saw her?”

  Their daughter nodded.

  “What did she say to you, sweetie?” Corinne asked, working to keep her voice level as fury rushed in to crowd out her fear.

  “Wanna go for a ride? That’s what she said.”

  “And you said yes?” Corinne’s voice rose. “Sadie! You know what we’ve told you about talking to strangers. You shouldn’t even—”

  “But she wasn’t a stranger, Mommy. I saw her when we were gettin’ groceries. She talked to me and Simone, remember? She was nice. And she was pretty.”

  “I don’t care how pretty she was.” It was all Corinne could do to keep it together. “Why on earth would she do that?”

  She’d meant the question for Jesse, but Sadie shrugged and replied. “I don’t know—”

  “I wasn’t talking to you.” It came out harsher than she intended and Sadie’s face crumpled.

  Simone toddled over and looked up from one to the other, obviously confused by their strident voices. Corinne embraced a daughter with each arm. “I’m sorry, Sadie. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

  Danae came down the sidewalk from the house, and Corinne stood quickly, avoiding Jesse’s questioning look. She scooped Simone up and handed her off to Danae. “Would you mind taking the girls inside for a minute?”

  “Sure. Is everything okay?”

  “I’m not sure. I . . . need to talk to Jesse,” she whispered. “Sadie claims that Michaela Creeve put them in her car and took them for a ride.” Putting it into words like that made it sound completely crazy.

  “What!” Danae apparently thought so too. “You have got to be kidding me! You need to call the police, Corinne. She must be insane!”

  “The girls are fine. See if you can get Sadie to give you some details. I have to tell Jesse what happened at the store first.”

  “Okay,” Danae said reluctantly. “Come on, girls, let’s go inside.”

  Feeling like she was walking to the gas chamber, Corinne turned to face Jesse.

  He waited by the car with his hands tucked in his pockets. “What’s the deal?”

  “Michaela Creeve came up to me in the grocery store this afternoon. She acted like there was nothing in the world between us and was making goo-goo eyes at the girls and t
elling them how much they looked like their daddy. It was all I could do not to punch her out.”

  “She didn’t say anything about the complaint she’s filed?”

  Corinne shook her head. “Not a word. She was sickeningly nice.”

  “You didn’t say anything to her, did you?”

  “No . . . I was nice.” She rolled her eyes. “Far be it from me to say anything harsh to the woman who’s accused my husband of sexual harassment.”

  “Corinne . . .”

  “Don’t worry. I was nice. But it was hard.”

  “Wait a minute. Sadie’s saying it was Michaela who took them for a drive?”

  “Yes, I think that’s exactly what she’s saying.”

  Jesse shook his head. “Why would she do that? And then drop them off three blocks from Danae’s? That doesn’t even make sense.”

  “Does anything that woman has done make sense?”

  He released a breath. “Good point. But this is . . . over the line.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that. And I thought you said she was out of town this week.” She hadn’t meant to sound accusing, but she knew it had come out that way.

  “She was.” His eyes narrowed. “I haven’t seen her in the office all week, if that’s what you’re implying.”

  “I wasn’t implying anything. But why is she suddenly back in town . . . abducting our daughters? I think we should call the police, Jesse.”

  He raked a hand through his hair. “But what if it wasn’t her? It would look like I’m just trying to get back at her for her accusations against me.”

  “Who else could it be, Jesse? Sadie was gushing about how pretty Michaela is. She even told her that at the grocery store. And that’s exactly how she described her.”

  “We need to grill Sadie. Find out what kind of car it was. Maybe find a picture of Michaela to show her.”

  “Jesse,” she said again. “Who else could it be? It’s too weird to be a coincidence.”

  He nodded. “I guess it is. But let’s talk to Sadie again before we do anything rash. We have to be sure before we go making accusations.”

  She stared at him. Was he so determined to keep this business about Michaela under wraps that he would put his own daughters in jeopardy? If Michaela Creeve would do this, who knew what else she was capable of?