The sheriff’s words should have encouraged her, but a sick foreboding crept over Grace while he talked. Images of Johnny’s dead, frozen body hidden under a bush flashed in her mind. She’d seen enough crime shows to know that the longer someone was missing, the less chance they’d be found alive. As angry as Johnny had been, he was too much of a homebody to have stayed away so long, and there’s no way he would have gone so long without texting Darnell or Ty.
Alec gave her a soft tap on the shoulder, and she jumped. “I know that look. What’s twisting in that brain of yours?”
“He’s dead, isn’t he, Alec? We’re wasting our time. I can’t do this.”
She started toward home, but Alec grabbed her arm to stop her. “I won’t let you quit this early in the game. Look at all these people who still believe Johnny’s alive. Even in the minuscule chance he’s not, God forbid, we need to find him. We’re going to find him alive, and Johnny needs you.”
“He never wants to see me again. Ever. Those were his last words to me. Mine is not the face he wants to see.”
“He’s had time to cool off, and he’s waiting for you to rescue him like you always have. Remember that day in the PICU? You told me Johnny’s spirit cried out to you. He’s calling you now. He’s alive, Grace. I feel it. Search your heart. You’ll believe it, too.”
Alec’s words were like a punch in the gut. Johnny was her reason for existing, and Alec was right, he needed her. She’d lost sight of that in the chaos. No one else was quitting. How could she?
She gave Alec a quick hug. “I told you I can’t do this without you. Point me in the right direction.”
Alec led her to where Adam and Ryan waited with the map and the rest of their group. Steph chose to team up with a group closer to her age, thinking they could cover the more difficult areas. Adam described their search zone and lined them up to begin. Grace pushed her dark thoughts aside and focused on finding her boy.
The temperature had reached sixty-five by four o’clock. The sky was overcast, but the searchers had ditched their coats and gloves to work in shirt sleeves. Crazy Richmond weather, Grace thought as her group searched the last corner of their third grid, but the warmth was preferable to the chill. If Johnny were exposed to the elements, there’d be no risk of hypothermia.
Grace rubbed her neck and extended her arm to make sure Ryan was still within reach. He reached back for her when she tapped his forearm. The feel of his skin under her fingers was comforting. Not alone, she thought.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
“I’m exhausted. I need to take a break when we go for our next grid assignment,” she said. “How about you?”
“Tired but fine. I have a few more hours in me. I keep telling you to exercise more.”
“Not the time for a lecture, but you may be right.”
They were searching a small stand of trees a few blocks from their street. Grace pushed some undergrowth aside with a stick she’d found. Johnny was far too big to fit under that bush, but the action made her feel she was doing something productive. She heard a rustle in the bushes to her left and swung around to check it out, but Adam beat her to the bush in the direction of the sound.
“It’s a fawn trapped in some dead blackberry canes,” he said.
He freed the fawn, and it leaped away at top speed. Where is your mother? Grace thought. Is she out searching these woods for you? Or did she give up and go back to her comfy hollow?
“I think we can call this one,” Ryan said. “Let’s head back to the command center.”
Grace was hyper-vigilant while they walked back to the church. She scanned every inch of the area around her, desperately looking for the slightest clue that might point to Johnny. But it was just road and dirt and houses and trees. Her hope started to waver, but she reminded herself of what Alec had said that morning and gathered her strength. She was committed for the long haul.
She and Ryan each got a text just as they reached the church. It was from Agent Shepherd. Calling off the search. Johnny’s phone recovered twenty-five miles west on Route 60.
“What the?” Ryan said and ran for the command trailer with Grace close behind.
Sheriff Granderson was thanking the volunteers for their time and hard work, and sending them home when Grace and Ryan reached the parking lot. They found Agent Shepherd on her phone inside the trailer. She waved for them to wait and hung up. They both bombarded her with questions.
“We’ve been pinging Johnny’s phone since we found out he was missing and got nothing. Then, an hour ago, we got a response. The sheriff in Powhatan County dispatched some units to find it. They just got back to me. They’re on the way here with the phone for you to identify, but they’re pretty convinced it’s his. The deputy I spoke with said the phone had obviously been there for a day or so. All I can think of is that it got wet and dried out in the warmer weather.”
“How did his phone end up in Powhatan?” Ryan asked.
“How bad is this? Don’t lie to me, Agent Shepherd,” Grace said.
“I’d never lie to you,” Agent Shepherd said. “And please, call me Nichol. I need more information before I can answer your question. Does Johnny have any family or friends in Powhatan that you forgot to put on the list? Is there any connection to that area?”
Grace and Ryan shook their heads. “I have some colleagues that live out there, and I work in that area occasionally, but other than that, I can’t think of anyone,” Ryan said.
“Neither can I,” Grace said. “And that’s outside Johnny’s school district. I don’t know how he’d know anyone in that area unless a friend moved there that we don’t know about. So, how bad is it?”
“Well, it’s not good, and honestly, it’s confusing. It’s possible Johnny threw his phone out a car window or lost it, and someone else took it and dropped it in Powhatan, but it’s time to switch the investigation from likely runaway to abduction. We’ll ratchet the search up a notch. Go back to your house. I’ll meet you there.”
Grace was too distraught to speak on their walk to the house. When she got there, one of the officers told her they’d allowed Johnny’s friends in to play video games in the basement.
“You allowed them in yesterday, so I didn’t think you’d mind. I can ask them to leave if you’d like,” he said.
She wasn’t thrilled to have the house full of Johnny’s friends, but it occurred to her they might know something about Johnny’s phone. “It’s fine,” she told the officer. “I’ll take care of it.”
She went to the basement but stopped on the bottom stair. She hadn’t been there since the argument with Johnny, and her gut tightened into a knot. She switched her gaze to the boys sprawled around the room and took a breath. Seeing their familiar faces calmed her. She took the last step and told them about Johnny’s phone.
“Does he know anyone in Powhatan?” she asked.
“My cousin lives there, and Johnny went to his house with me one time a long time ago,” Damien said. “I don’t know if he’d even remember. If he did, I doubt he’d know how to get there.”
“Go tell Agent Shepherd please, and give her his phone number and address,” Grace said. She looked at the other boys, but they shook their heads. “Did you hear anything at school?”
“No, and it’s all anyone talked about,” Darnell said. “We’re keeping the word out there for Johnny. Someone has to have seen him. He’s hard to miss.”
Grace thanked them and went upstairs just as Ryan was telling Steph, Alec, and Adam about Johnny’s phone.
Agent Shepherd came in as he finished. “We want to request Johnny’s phone records. I need your permission since he’s on your account. Otherwise, we have to get a warrant.”
“Of course,” Grace said.
“Having access to the records will tell us when his signal went dead. He or someone else may have erased his activity, although most people don’t know how to wipe phones correctly. Do you know how to unlock his phone?”
The
tracker, Grace thought as the memory of sneaking it onto his phone flashed into her mind. She rushed at Ryan and grabbed the front of his shirt.
“What are you doing, Grace?” he asked, trying to break free of her grip.
“You made me take the tracker off his phone. If you hadn’t, we would have known where he was from the minute he left here. It’s your fault, and you” She pointed at Alec. “You were all so worried about Johnny’s privacy and feelings. All I cared about was his safety. Still glad you made me get rid of it? I don’t know why I listened to you.”
She let go of his shirt but didn’t move. Alec reached out to calm her down, but she slapped her hand away. “You think you know everything, but I’m his mother. I know what’s best for him. I’ve always known. From now on, you have no say. He’s my son!”
She went to her room and slammed the door expecting Ryan to follow but was relieved when he didn’t. One of his soothing lectures was the last thing she needed.
As much as Ryan and Alec were at fault, Grace blamed herself for listening to them. Hadn’t all the years, all the challenges she’d faced taught her to trust her instincts? She’d gotten lax. She’d never make that mistake again.
She paced the room trying to quiet her shaking limbs, not from fear or shock, but from rage. She hadn’t been so angry in years. She stopped pacing at the realization that she was moving through the stages of grief. She’d hit them all in the past twenty-four hours, except for acceptance. She’d never reach that stage.
There was a tap on the door. “Go away,” she yelled.
“Grace, it’s Scott Michaels.”
She climbed off the bed and unlocked the door for him. “Sorry,” she said and rubbed her face. “I thought you were Ryan.”
She sat on the end of the bed and motioned for Scott to take the rocking chair in the corner.
“Ryan explained about the tracker,” Scott said. “In his defense, that app probably wouldn’t have helped much. Johnny’s phone had been lying on the side of the road for hours by the time you realized he was gone.”
Grace didn’t want to hear Scott defend Ryan. She was pissed and needed a scapegoat, but she said, “Makes sense.”
“Speaking of Johnny’s phone.” He leaned forward and handed it to her. “Would you mind unlocking it?”
She tapped the fingerprint sensor, and the home screen lit up. “What can his phone tell you?”
“I’ll scroll through his texts, his web search, and call history. We’ll also examine the SIM card. There might be evidence that will lead us directly to him.” While Scott searched through Johnny’s phone, he said, “The Bureau has activated the closest Child Abduction Rapid Deployment, or CARD, team. They’re an elite unit that has specialized training in recovering abducted children. They have a high success rate. I regret not activating them sooner, but I truly believed Johnny was hiding out with a friend. That’s still possible, but I hope the delay won’t prove too costly.”
“I’m not sure it would have made a difference,” Grace said. “We’ve been searching for him since we knew he was gone. What more could they have done?”
Scott left her question unanswered. “It wouldn’t have been easy for someone to force Johnny into their car unnoticed. He’s so conspicuous. He may have called someone we haven’t thought of for a ride and then ditched his phone to throw us off the trail. He’s an angry teenage boy after all.”
“I pray you’re right. What else can we do now?”
“The CARD team will arrive in the next hour. In the meantime, we’ll pull together evidence we’ve gathered and figure out where we’re going to find your boy.”
9
Johnny tossed the handheld video game Mara had given him onto the bed and got up to look out the window. It was eleven at night, but he’d slept so much during the day that he was wide awake. The stream of events from the past two days played nonstop in his brain. He’d been cut off from all the people and places familiar to him. He had moments where he wondered if that life had existed or if it had just been a bizarre dream.
It felt like the time they had stayed at a lake house with the Emersons one summer. There was a powerful thunderstorm one night and the dock broke loose. It had floated to the middle of the lake by morning. Johnny felt like he was on that dock, torn from his moorings and floating free in unknown waters. He was a kid who’d had three mothers, but he had no home.
He heard the TV downstairs, so he got his crutches and went to see what Mara was watching. She’d left him alone most of the day and hadn’t said much. He was still waiting for her to answer his questions. He’d let it go because she was so on edge most of the time, and he was afraid to set her off.
She’d told him after dinner that she was going out the next day to try to get his prescriptions refilled. It would be a relief to have the house to himself, even if it was only an hour. He needed time to figure out if he was going to stay with Mara or try to escape. If he was going to leave, he needed a plan.
He went downstairs and found Mara was asleep on the couch. He tapped her arm with his crutch to wake her. She flew off the couch and spun to face him, crouched and ready to strike.
“Easy John Wick, it’s just me,” he said.
Mara rubbed her eyes and stretched. “You startled me. I’m not used to having anyone else in the house. What time is it?”
“Eleven. I’m hungry. Do we have anything good?” He went to the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards. He found pretty meager pickings, so he tried the fridge.
Mara dropped onto the couch with a moan. “You’re hungry again? I’ll have to get used to feeding a growing teenage boy. There are frozen meals and desserts in the freezer.” Johnny found a pizza and maneuvered it to the microwave. “Need help?” she asked.
“I got it. Don’t baby me like Grace always does. Tony says I need to learn to fend for myself if I ever want to live on my own, which I do.”
She shrugged and covered up with a quilt. “Less work for me. Knock yourself out.”
Johnny cooked his pizza and managed to carry it to the recliner after a few near disasters. After a few bites, he said, “When are you going to answer my questions?”
Mara ignored him and grabbed the TV remote. “I’m too tired to get into it now. We’ll talk in the morning.”
“This morning you said we’d talk tonight. It’s tonight.”
"Fine, if it’ll get you to quit pestering me.” She turned off the TV and sat forward facing Johnny. “I didn’t come for you sooner because after we left you at the hospital, Rick made us go into hiding in Montana. He was paranoid and thought someone would link us to your disappearance. We stayed in Bozeman for two years until I couldn’t take living with Rick anymore. I’d never forgiven him for making me abandon you, and he was unstable.”
He was unstable, Johnny thought, but he didn’t interrupt her.
“I had my own near misses with the law, but I settled in Portland after being on the run for three years. I got a new identity and started a new life. I’ve been biding my time until I had all the pieces in place to bring you home. I saw Alec Emerson on TV going on about that damned book of hers. That lit the fire under me to come and rescue you from these people.”
Her story made sense, so Johnny didn’t question it. He felt the same way about Alec’s book and wished he’d never seen it. Even if it was a false reality, he could have been sleeping in his comfortable bed in a home with people who had always cared for him. Maybe ignorance was better than his new reality.
“What about the other question? How did you know about my call to Ty?”
“I’ve kept a close watch on you since I got to Richmond. I was outside the Walkers’ house when you had your argument with them. I heard the whole thing. I ran for my car and got to you before Ty’s brother. That’s it. No big mystery.”
“So you have been stalking me? Creepy.”
“How else could I know when it was safe to take you?”
“Why didn’t you just tell me who you
were and ask me to go with you? You didn’t have to drug and kidnap me.”
“I couldn’t take the risk. Would you have believed me before you knew the truth?”
She didn’t wait for him to respond but picked up the remote and flipped through the channels. She stopped when a picture of Johnny flashed on the screen. He sat forward and stared. It was from Thanksgiving a few days earlier. He was in the kitchen leaning on his crutches holding pumpkin pie with Alec laughing in the background. The sight disgusted him and overwhelmed him with longing.
“Turn it off,” he said.
“I need to hear this.” She turned up the volume.
Johnny wanted to cover his ears and run but couldn’t tear his eyes from the screen. The news anchor described a national-wide manhunt underway to find Johnny. The FBI suspected kidnapping. They showed pictures of the Walkers and Emersons huddled together comforting each other. Johnny felt guilt, sadness, and a good mix of satisfaction. The Walkers were good people who had gone through tough times raising him, but they’d lied to him. Part of him was glad that they were getting what they deserved.
Footage of a search party of hundreds of people came up, and he felt bad for his friends and other people that mattered to him. They hadn’t done anything to hurt him and didn’t deserve to worry. He was shocked that so many total strangers were nice enough to take the time to look for him. He’d wait for the right time to ask Mara if he could text his friends that he was alive and safe.
When the news switched to another story, he glanced at Mara. She was beaming.
The Complete Arms of Grace Series Page 39