He nodded and then turned and looked up the sidewalk once again. He shifted from one foot to the other, obviously impatient.
Several more minutes passed without them speaking. Allison took the opportunity to drink in the sight of him as he continued to keep his focus up the street.
Today he wore a long-sleeved black polo shirt with dark-colored jeans. He looked so tall, so physically fit and overwhelmingly handsome. He didn’t have his hat on, and his light brown hair gleamed in the sunlight.
She could admit to herself that she still wanted him and she knew he would welcome her into his bed once again. But, the stakes were too high now.
If they did fall back into old habits, then her heart would be as shredded as it had been ten years ago when he’d called her to tell her he needed a break from her. And with her shredded heart she would hate him and that’s the last emotion she wanted to feel for the father of her son. They had to remain civilized and smart for Cody’s sake.
She looked at her watch once again and frowned. Cody should have come home by now. This was the latest he’d ever been. A flutter of concern shot off inside her. She got up from the swing and walked over to stand next to Knox.
“He’s definitely late today,” she admitted.
“Could he have stopped off at a friend’s house?” Knox asked.
“Our number one rule when I agreed to let him walk home from school was that he come straight home from the bus stop.” The concern pressed a little tighter against her chest.
“You do realize that sometimes little boys break the rules,” Knox replied.
“He’s never broken the rule before.”
“There’s always a first time,” he countered.
Would Cody stop at a friend’s house, knowing that Knox would be here waiting for him? Even if he forgot that Knox would be here today, would Cody really risk her anger by doing something he knew was wrong?
Perhaps. He’s only nine, she reminded herself. He wasn’t fully cooked yet. “Maybe he stopped in at his friend Josh’s house and lost track of the time.”
“Where does Josh live?” The darkness in Knox’s eyes mirrored the worry that suddenly gripped Allison by the throat.
“In the next block. I’ll just go inside and call Josh’s mother.” She was vaguely aware of Knox following just behind her as she went into the kitchen and got her cell phone out of her purse.
Surely Cody was there. Maybe Josh had gotten a new video game or a brightly colored fish for his aquarium and had invited Cody in to take a look. Little boys didn’t always think about the time.
“Marianne,” she said when Josh’s mother answered the call. “It’s Allison. I was just wondering if maybe Cody stopped by after school.”
“No, he’s not here, Allison.”
“Can you ask Josh if Cody was on the bus to come home?”
“Josh woke up with a fever this morning and so I kept him home from school. He wouldn’t know if Cody was on the bus or not,” Marianne replied.
“Oh, okay, thanks, Marianne.” Allison hung up and stared at Knox, her brain attempting to work out a logical scenario. “He’s not there. Maybe he missed the bus and is still at the school,” she said. “Or maybe he got into trouble and is in the principal’s office right now.”
“Wouldn’t somebody from the school have called you if that was the case?”
“Maybe somebody tried and I didn’t hear the phone.” She picked up her cell once again, but no calls had come in while she’d been outside. She then went to the desk to check her landline. No messages and no missed calls.
Don’t panic, she told herself. If she panicked, she wouldn’t be able to think clearly. Surely Cody would walk through the door at any minute, apologizing for being late and begging her not to be mad at him.
“Let me drive up the street and see if I see him anywhere,” Knox suggested. “While I’m doing that, why don’t you call the school and see if for some reason he’s still there?”
He strode out of the kitchen and Allison dialed the number for the school office. As she waited for the phone to be answered, wild thoughts flew through her head.
What if he hadn’t been in school all day? She’d seen him out the front door that morning but there was no way for her to know if he’d actually made it to school. Surely if he’d been absent without her calling him in sick, somebody would have checked with her to see why he wasn’t in class.
For the first time ever she prayed that Cody had gotten into trouble in school, that he was now ensconced in the office waiting to learn his punishment.
“Shadow Creek Elementary.” Lauren Patten’s professional voice pulled Allison out of her thoughts.
“Lauren, it’s Allison Rafferty. Could you tell me if Cody is in the office?”
“No, I saw him get on his bus as usual this afternoon. Is there a problem?”
“He hasn’t come home from school and I thought maybe he’d gotten into trouble or something.” Allison’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Cody never gets into trouble. I’m sorry I can’t help you, Allison, but I know for sure he got on the bus to go home.”
Allison murmured a thank-you and hung up, her heart now beating so fast she was half-breathless. At that moment Knox returned and in his hand he had a bright red backpack... Cody’s backpack.
“Where did you find that?” Her chest ached as she stared first at the bag and then at him.
“In a front yard down the street.” He tossed the backpack on the sofa. His jaw ticked and his eyes were narrow slits of blue fire. “Call the sheriff. I think somebody took Cody.”
Somebody took Cody?
As his words penetrated her brain, Allison’s knees buckled and she would have hit the floor if Knox hadn’t reached out to catch her.
Somebody took Cody.
The words echoed in her brain in a horrifying refrain.
Chapter 7
“We need to get out there and look for him, Knox. Maybe he fell somewhere and hit his head, or broke his leg.” Allison grabbed Knox’s forearm, her fingers icy cold and her eyes wide with alarm. “Maybe he’s lying unconscious in a yard up the street right now. We’ve got to find him.” Her voice held more than an edge of hysteria.
Knox took her by the shoulders firmly. It was obvious she was in complete denial to the idea that Cody might have been taken by somebody. “I checked the yards, Allison. He isn’t there. Can you think of any other friends he might have gone to play with?” he asked.
“I don’t know...maybe Tim. Cody has gone to his house for playdates before.” Her face was almost as white as her blouse.
“You call anyplace you think he might have possibly gone and I’m going to call the sheriff.” Knox knew without a doubt that she wasn’t going to find Cody at any friend’s house.
He’d gotten off the bus and there’s no way he would have just dropped his backpack to the ground and wandered off. Somebody had grabbed him. Knox knew it with a gut instinct. Somebody had kidnapped his son, and the faster the sheriff and his men got involved, the better the odds of finding him.
Knox should have never picked up the backpack. He’d had enough law enforcement training to know better. But the horror of seeing it on the ground had circumvented all good sense. He’d grabbed it up and held it to his chest...not a response of a trained Texas Ranger, but rather that of a desperate father.
He made the 9-1-1 call and they waited for the sheriff to arrive. He paced the floor while Allison sat on the edge of the sofa, her eyes half-glazed with fear, and there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say to take the fear away. It resonated in his gut, as well.
She grabbed the backpack and opened it. “Maybe there’s a note or something inside that might tell us where he’s gone.”
She pulled out a couple of textbooks and a notebook
. She thumbed through the notebook but apparently didn’t find anything that might tell them where Cody had gone. She set the backpack next to her and gazed at him with frightened eyes.
Minutes ticked by in agonizing silence. Knox was intensely aware that each minute was a minute lost in searching for his son. The burn of anger in his belly couldn’t compete with the taste of fear in his mouth.
What was happening? Who might be responsible for Cody’s absence? He swallowed hard against the fear, not allowing it to completely consume him.
Allison now gripped her cell phone so tightly in her hand that her fingers were white. Her home phone receiver was in her lap. He knew she was hoping for a call from somebody, from anybody, letting her know that Cody was all right and would be home soon.
Knox moved to the front window and stared outside. Where in the hell was the sheriff? They needed to form a search party immediately. They needed to get people out on the streets asking questions and hunting for Cody.
He would be out there right now, interviewing all the people who lived on the block where he’d found the backpack, if it wasn’t for the fact that Allison looked as if she was hanging on to her sanity by a thread.
“It’s got to be Chad,” she finally said, breaking the painful silence. “He said he’d screw up my life, and what better way than this?”
If Chad had taken Cody in an effort to get back at Allison, then the man better not hurt his son in any way. If he did...then Knox would kill him without blinking an eye.
“Would he have gotten into a stranger’s car?” he asked.
“Never. I’ve had all those talks with Cody. We even have a safe word in case of an emergency when somebody else might have to pick him up for any reason.”
“We need to just wait for Sheriff Jeffries,” Knox replied. “I’m sure he’ll check out Chad.” It was now almost an hour from when Cody should have been home, over twenty minutes since Knox had called 9-1-1. Didn’t anyone in this damned town care that a little boy was missing?
He was just about to make a second call when the sheriff’s car finally pulled up in the driveway. He watched as Sheriff Bud Jeffries got out of his car.
The lawman looked to be in his middle forties. A bit of scalp shone through thinning blond hair as he slowly ambled toward the front door.
Knox despised the man already. He wanted sure, determined footsteps to carry help their way. He wanted a man with a mission in his eyes...the mission to find a missing child who should have been home an hour ago.
Knox opened the door to allow him inside. “Knox Colton,” he said grimly as Allison joined them just inside the door.
“Sheriff Jeffries,” he replied.
“Sheriff, Cody didn’t come home from the bus stop,” Allison said. “And Knox found his backpack on the ground between here and the bus stop.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Somebody must have taken him. We think he’s been kidnapped.”
“Whoa, let’s not jump to conclusions here,” Bud replied with a small laugh. “How long has he been gone?”
“Almost an hour now,” Knox responded tersely.
Bud ran a hand down his shirt front, where the buttons strained across a slightly paunchy belly. “It’s a beautiful day outside. Maybe he and a couple of friends are playing together and forgot all about the time. It happens a lot.”
“Cody knows he’s supposed to come straight home from the bus stop,” Allison replied as she swiped at an errant tear that fell on her cheek.
“Ah, but sometimes boys will be boys, right?” Bud replied with a rueful smile.
Knox’s hands curled into fists at his side. Dammit, he wanted the sheriff to be as frantic as they were. He wanted the man to feel a sense of urgency. Something was wrong; otherwise Cody would be there.
“Allison has checked with all his friends. He isn’t with any of them. As she told you, I found his backpack on the ground between here and the bus stop. Cody would have never left his backpack anywhere,” Knox replied evenly. “You need to get some men out here and set up a search.”
Bud’s brown eyes narrowed slightly. “I don’t take my orders from a Colton.”
Knox stepped back in surprise and his blood boiled, but he maintained his control with tremendous effort. After all, they needed this man and his resources right now.
“Then consider me just an ordinary taxpayer,” Knox replied curtly.
Bud took a step back from him and grimaced, as if aware that he might have crossed a line.
“You need to check out Chad,” Allison said. “I showed you the horrible texts he sent to me. He swore he’d make me pay for firing him.” A sob escaped her and Knox placed an arm around her shoulder.
“We’ve got a child missing under suspicious circumstances, given that his backpack was on the ground where it shouldn’t have been,” Knox said.
“Ms. Rafferty, was your son upset with you for any reason when he left for school this morning?”
Allison stared at him as if in disbelief. “No, Cody wasn’t upset with me or anything else in his life. He’s a happy boy and if you think he ran away, then you’re dead wrong. He didn’t run away,” she replied.
“Time is passing by with no answers. For God’s sake, do something,” Knox said in open frustration.
Bud frowned. “I’ll get a couple of deputies out here to canvass the area and I’ll head over to Chad’s to check him out. In the meantime, let me know if you hear from Cody. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he showed up here anytime after having a bit of an adventure with a friend.”
“He’s not taking this seriously,” Allison said once Jeffries had left the house. The tears she’d obviously tried to hold back since they had called 9-1-1 now fell in earnest down her cheeks. “Where’s our son, Knox? Where can he be?”
He grabbed her to him and she buried her head in his chest as she cried. “We’ll find him, Allison. I promise we’ll find him and bring him home safe and sound.”
As she continued to weep, he hoped and prayed that he hadn’t just made a promise he couldn’t keep.
* * *
“We questioned everyone who was home between here and the bus stop,” Deputy Wendall Kincaid explained.
“Nobody we spoke to saw anything suspicious and none of them saw Cody,” Deputy Jim Baker added. “But most people had no reason to be looking out the window at the time the bus stopped.”
Allison stared at them wordlessly, willing them to say something different, wanting desperately for one of them to tell her that Cody was safe and sound in the back of their patrol car. “So what happens now?” she finally asked.
“Do you know your son’s school bus driver?” Wendall asked.
“We already called her,” Knox said. “She told us that Cody was on the bus and got off at his stop as usual this afternoon. He was walking down the sidewalk toward home when she pulled away.”
“And when he went to school this morning, he didn’t say anything that might indicate to you that he planned to stop somewhere after school?” Wendall looked at Allison.
She searched her mind frantically to remember everything that had happened that morning before school. She’d fixed Cody pancakes for breakfast and they’d laughed at her attempt to make them in the shape of horses. He’d told her he had a math test that day but he was confident he’d ace it. It had been one of their routine, normal morning conversations.
“Nothing,” she replied desperately. “Cody knew that Knox would be waiting here for him this afternoon and he was looking forward to spending time with him.”
“Have either of you spoken to Sheriff Jeffries? He was going to check out Chad Watkins, who has made some threats against Allison,” Knox asked.
“We haven’t been in contact with him since he radioed us and told us to get over here,” Wendall replied.
“So what happen
s now?” Allison asked again. “Can’t you get more deputies to look for him? Maybe you should check with the Billings brothers. They’ve been giving me a lot of trouble lately.”
Her brain was frozen with a horrifying disbelief that this was happening. It was past dinnertime. Cody should be sitting in a restaurant with his father celebrating their newfound relationship. Or he should be here and she’d make grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with chicken noodle soup...one of his favorites.
“I’m sure Sheriff Jeffries is going to put more men on this, but in the meantime maybe you should contact some of your own friends to search for him,” Jim said sympathetically.
“We’re going to go back and knock on more doors and see if we can find somebody who might have seen Cody after he got off the bus,” Wendall added.
Allison stumbled backward to the sofa and sat as Knox walked with the two deputies out the front door. She was in a horrible nightmare and the only thing that would wake her up was the sound of Cody’s voice, the sight of him right here where he belonged.
She wanted to run outside. She needed to race up and down the streets and knock on doors, calling his name until he answered her, and yet she was afraid to leave here in case somebody brought him home or he called her to come and get him.
Kidnapped. Was that really what had happened to him? The word had no place in her reality. If Chad had taken him to teach her a lesson, then what was it she was supposed to learn? And when would he bring him back?
Tears once again burned hot at her eyes, but she consciously swallowed against them. She couldn’t fall apart right now. Her son needed her to be strong.
She jumped up off the sofa as Knox came back inside. “I don’t know how seriously the sheriff is taking it, but those two deputies seem to be taking it very seriously,” he said.
“Wendall has a boy a year younger than Cody,” she replied. “And Jim has two little girls.” Both of them were parents. They’d know what she was going through. They’d do everything they could to get Cody back for her.
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