Cowboy Baby Daddy

by Claire Adams

  With every call, I became more worried. I began wondering if Nina had been taken rather than run away. I quickly dismissed the idea since there was no evidence of a struggle. After the last girl claimed she knew nothing about Nina’s disappearance, I called Emily and was transferred to voice mail.

  “Em, Nina’s missing,” I said. “I’ve called all her friends, and now I’m going to go out and check out the places where the kids hang out. If you can think of anything I might have missed, will you call me?”

  I waited a few seconds, wondering if I should say something else, and then hung up. I thought about driving over to Emily’s and waking her up, but I knew she had to be at school early and I didn’t want to keep her out all night chasing a daughter I should have kept an eye on.

  “Goddamn it, Nina!” I shouted at the empty house. “Your mother is going to have a shit fit about this, and will definitely blame me!”

  I thought about calling Remy, but the prospect of having to deal with her rage over the phone was more than I could handle at the moment. I was holding out hope that I’d find Nina hanging out with friends somewhere in town, and I didn’t want Remy to punish her — or me — for Nina being an irresponsible teenager.

  I grabbed some bottled water, a couple of granola bars, and pulled my coat back on before heading out to the truck. I quickly mapped out a route that would take me past all of the places where teenagers had a tendency to hang out in Waltham, then backed out of the driveway.

  At the first stop, a convenience store on the edge of the city, the kids in the parking lot said they hadn’t seen Nina since school let out earlier in the day. I asked them if they knew where she might have gone, and they shrugged as they suggested around the back of the Waltham Mall or maybe the arcade. I suspected that they knew more than they were telling me, but I had no proof, so I let it go and headed toward the center of the city.

  The Mall parking lot was deserted, and at the arcade, none of the kids hanging around playing 80’s video games had any suggestions for other possible hangout spots. I left the arcade and sat in the cab of the truck, wracking my brain for any clue that Nina might have dropped.

  All I knew was that when Emily and I had left for the game, Nina was in her room. I tried Emily again, but only got her voice mail. This time I didn’t leave a message. It was well past 2 in the morning, and I was officially worried.

  I sighed as I put the car in drive and headed for the Waltham Police Department to file a report and see if I could get some help locating my daughter.

  Remy was going to kill me.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Emily

  Way before the alarm went off the next morning, I woke up with a ginger paw resting on my cheek and a pair of green eyes staring at me.

  “Well, good morning, Mr. Zinn,” I yawned, as I reached out to pat Howard’s head. He blinked twice, then turned and hopped down off the bed and sat on the floor, staring up at me. I took a quick peek at the clock and saw that it was 4 in the morning. I looked down at Howard and sighed, “Breakfast, already?”

  Howard mewed once, then turned and swished his tail as he stalked toward the kitchen. I slid out from under the warmth of my comforter and slipped into the fuzzy robe laying on the foot of my bed. It was entirely too early to be up, but I knew that it was unlikely that I’d be able to go back to sleep even if I stayed in bed. I consoled myself with the fact that I could probably get all of the History class’ papers graded before I had to leave for school.

  In the kitchen, I started the coffee before I dished up Howard’s breakfast, and when I went to pick up his food bowl, I yelled, “Howard! What the hell?”

  Draped across the bowl was the headless body of a mouse. Howard looked at me, then looked away as he began furiously grooming his head with one paw. The mouse was fairly small, but it had obviously met a rather gruesome end. I wasn’t sure what creeped me out more, the headless mouse or the fact that I knew that where there was one, there was likely to be others.

  “Way to follow directions, buddy,” I grimaced. I lifted the small gray corpse by its tail and walked to the back door. “But seriously, Howard, this is not a good way to wake up. Next time leave it by the back door, okay?”

  I shuddered as I flung the decapitated mouse into the garbage pail just outside the back door, and quickly returned to the warmth of the kitchen. Howard had hopped up onto the counter and watched intently as I scooped out his breakfast kibble and mixed it with half a can of wet food.

  “I’m surprised you’re still hungry,” I said, as I set the bowl down in front of him and watched as he dived in. I poured myself a mug of coffee and took it into the living room, where I sat on the couch, flipped open the file of History papers I’d left on the coffee table, and picked up where I’d left off.

  I’d worked my way through half of them by the time my alarm went off, and when I went to shut it off, I remembered that I hadn’t checked my phone. I pulled it off the charger and looked at the screen. There was an Amber Alert with Nina’s name on it and three calls from Blake, but only one message. I listened to it, and before it was half over, I was dialing Blake’s number.

  “Hello?” Blake answered groggily.

  “Blake, it’s Emily,” I said breathlessly. “What the hell’s going on? Did you find Nina?”

  “Oh, Em, hey,” he said, as he tried to get his bearings. “No, I drove around for a couple of hours, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.”

  “I’m assuming the police issued the Amber Alert,” I said.

  “Yeah, they said it’s unlikely she’s been kidnapped, but the alert would mean that people would be actively looking for her,” he said.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t answer my phone,” I said. “I should have left it on.”

  “How were you supposed to know that Nina would run away?” he sighed.

  “Do you really think she ran away?” I asked.

  “You saw how pissed she was at me last night before we left,” he replied. “She can be a hothead when she’s mad.”

  “Indeed,” I mused, as I tried to think of all the places where high school kids hung out. “Did you try the back of the Mall?”

  “Yep, and the arcade, that dump of a convenience store over on Lincoln, and the high school parking lot,” he said wearily. “No luck.”

  “What about her phone? Did you try to find it?” I asked.

  “The cops did a search of her number and tried to use the Find My Phone feature, but apparently she turned it off,” he said.

  “You want me to come over?” I asked.

  “Nah, you’ve got school, and I’ve got to get to the station,” he said.

  “Blake, your daughter is missing,” I said softly. “I’m sure they’d give you a day off, if you asked.”

  “So I can do what? Sit around the house and be pissed at myself for going out last night and pissed at her for being so goddamn irresponsible?” he shouted into the phone. “No thanks!”

  “You don’t have to yell at me,” I said quietly. “I’m just trying to help.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  I waited for him to speak again, but as the silence lengthened, I began to wonder if he’d hung up.

  “Blake?”

  “I can’t believe I’m such an idiot,” he said. I could hear the emotion in his voice. “I should have stayed home with her and talked it out.”

  “You had no way of knowing she would leave the house,” I reminded him.

  “But I knew she was upset!” he yelled. “What the hell kind of parent am I that I leave my child alone when she’s upset?”

  “The same kind of parent as everyone else,” I said. “She’s a teenager. They’re moody little beasts sometimes. You can’t stop living your life simply because they get upset. You had no way of knowing she was going to do this.”

  “Her mother is going to remind me that I should have known,” he grumbled. “She’s going to have my ass when she gets back.”

  “
Deal with it when it happens,” I said. “For now, we need to focus on finding Nina.”

  “What if we don’t?” he said quietly. “What if something terrible happened to her and I wasn’t there to protect her?”

  “Do not go down that road right now, Blake,” I warned. “It’s way too early to think that way, and it won’t do you or Nina any good.”

  “I know, that’s why I need to go to work,” he said. “I need to keep busy, or else I’ll go crazy.”

  “Okay, well, I’ll grill the kids in Nina’s classes and see if I can come up with anything on her whereabouts,” I said. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “Emily…” Blake said, letting my name hang in the air between us.

  “No, do not think that,” I said, in my most stern teacher voice. “I won’t allow it. We will find her.”

  “I hope you’re right,” he sighed.

  “I am. Of course, I am,” I said, projecting a confidence that I didn’t entirely feel. I told him I’d call later, and hung up hoping that I hadn’t made a promise I couldn’t keep.

  After each class I taught that day, I kept the girls after and grilled them about Nina’s whereabouts. They all gave me the teenage shrug before saying that they knew nothing about her or where she’d gone. I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I knew that badgering them wasn’t going to produce any better results.

  “All right, ladies,” I said to the groups of Nina’s friends who’d I’d retained after History class. “If you have nothing to report, that’s fine, but please keep in mind that if Nina is actually in danger, and we find out you did know something about where she was, you can be charged as an accessory to a crime.”

  I had no idea if that was true or not, but I knew that if any of the girls was at all wavering, that might push them over the edge and give us a clue as to Nina’s whereabouts. The girls filed out of the room, assuring me that if they found out anything, they’d let me or the principal know. I knew it was a long shot because I still clearly remembered how much information I had withheld from my own parents when I was their age, but I figured it was better to try than to not try.

  After school, as I was cleaning up my desk, the classroom door opened and Emma Langdorf slipped into the room. She quickly moved away from the door and pressed her back against the wall as she looked sideways to make sure no one had followed her.

  “Miss Fowler?” she whispered softly.

  “Emma? What is it?” I said, looking up from my desk.

  “Shhh, please don’t give me away,” she pleaded.

  “Okay, but you have to tell me what’s going on,” I said, looking back down at my desk and shuffling papers so that anyone walking by wouldn’t know that I was having a conversation.

  “Miss Fowler, I think I know where Nina is,” Emma whispered urgently. “No one wants to rat her out, but I think she’s got a boyfriend over at Waltham College.”

  “Why do you think that?” I asked, not looking at her.

  “She’s been texting a boy for a long time,” Emma said. “She wouldn’t tell any of us who it was, but I saw her phone last week, and someone had texted her a picture of the library and another building, and told her that they’d meet her there on Valentine’s Day.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t know who it was,” I said, wondering how much of Emma’s story was truth and how much was a desire to be part of the drama.

  “I don’t know who it was,” she said. “I just saw her phone, and at the top of the screen, it said The Boy. I think that’s the guy from the college, but I don’t know for sure.”

  “Emma, why didn’t you tell the police?”

  “I don’t want the other girls to think I’m a rat!” she cried softly. “They’d never forgive me if they knew I was telling you this, but I’m worried about Nina. I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”

  “Okay, I’ll let the police know, but you’re going to have to talk to them if they need more information,” I warned.

  “Can you tell them to come to my house, not school?” she pleaded. “Please, Miss Fowler! Don’t let the other girls know I told you anything!”

  “I’ll do my best, Emma, but this is out of my hands,” I said, feeling both sympathetic to her plight and pissed as hell that she’d sat on such important information for so long out of fear of being outcast.

  “I have to go,” she said as she peered out the window on the door, quickly pulled the door open, and scampered out into the hall.

  I dug my phone out of my purse and called Blake. He didn’t answer, so I left him a message and went to find the police officer who’d been questioning kids all day.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Blake

  I pulled into the station parking lot just before Tony came roaring down the road. He screeched to a halt and then slowly pulled into the space next to me with a huge grin on his face. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before grabbing my bag and exiting the truck.

  “Good morning, old man!” Tony said, as he slapped me on the back.

  “What’s gotten into you?” I said, shooting him a warning look. “Your wife let you back in the house or something?”

  “Better than that, she agreed that we need to have more sex,” he grinned. “Last night was the first of what I hope are many more nights of hot and spicy horizontal mambo sessions!”

  “What are you — in high school or something?” I said disgustedly.

  “Who pissed in your cornflakes, G?” Tony asked, dropping his voice.

  “Fuck you,” I muttered, as I marched into the station and went to store my gear. I knew it wasn’t fair of me to be pissed at Tony, but I also knew that as my best friend, he’d take it better than some of the other guys.

  Tony followed me into the locker room and waited silently as I stored my stuff. He sat on the bench across from my locker, playing with a yo-yo. I turned and watched him toss the spinning orb and yank it back on its string a couple of times before I spoke.

  “Nina’s missing,” I said flatly.

  “Holy shit, G! Why didn’t you call me?” Tony said, as he tucked the yo-yo in his pocket and stood up. “How long she’s been gone?”

  “Since last night,” I said. “I went to the Celtics game with Emily, and when I got home, Nina was gone.”

  “You sure she’s not at a friend’s house?” he asked, his brow furrowed in concern.

  “Yeah, I called every girl she’s friends with,” I said. “None of them know anything about where she is.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Tony protested. “Girls always know what other girls are doing!”

  “Not this time, my friend,” I shrugged.

  “Called the police?” he asked.

  “Yeah, they know,” I said. “Put out an Amber Alert this morning on the off chance that she was actually abducted, but there’s not much else they can do.”

  “Why did you come in?” Tony asked. “I mean, Chief would have given you the day off.”

  “If your daughter was missing, would you want to sit around useless while other people searched?” I asked.

  “Good point,” Tony said. “Gonna tell the other guys?”

  “I don’t know,” I sighed, as I reached up and rubbed the stubble on my cheek with one hand. “I don’t want anyone thinking I can’t do my job.”

  “They won’t think that, man,” Tony said, draping an arm around my shoulder. “They know you better than that.”

  “I don’t know where my daughter is, Tony,” I choked out the words. Tony nodded and squeezed my shoulder, but thankfully remained silent as I did my best to swallow my fear.

  “They’ll find her, G,” he said quietly. “You just have to trust that they’ll find her.”

  “Find who?” Cal asked, as he entered the locker room.

  “Shut the hell up, Rookie!” Tony yelled. “No one invited you into the conversation.”

  “Jeez, just trying to be friendly,” Cal said, as he pushed his bag into his locker and slammed it shu
t with a bang that reverberated through the tiled room.

  “My daughter is missing,” I said plainly.

  “Oh man, I’m sorry, Blake,” Cal said.

  “What the fuck? I thought you weren’t going to tell anyone!” Tony said, as he dropped his arm and backed away.

  “Yeah, well, the more people who know, the better chance we have of finding her, right?” I shrugged. “I don’t fucking know, Tony. I’ve never lost a daughter before!”

  “Fine, do whatever you want,” Tony grumbled, as he turned and walked out of the room.

  “How long she’s been missing, Blake?” Cal asked.

  “Since last night,” I said. “No idea where she went. None of her friends have seen her, and I didn’t find anything when I went to check out the hangouts in town.”

  “My brother goes to Waltham College,” Cal offered. “I could text him and ask him to keep an eye out, if you want. I mean, if you think it might help. Text me her picture, and I’ll forward it to him.”

  “The more eyes we have, the better it is,” I agreed. I pulled my phone out and texted Cal a photo of Nina I’d taken the weekend before. She was bent over a large stack of pancakes holding a fork in each fist as she prepared to dive in and eat. She was smiling and looked genuinely happy. Or had she been covering something up?

  “Got it,” Cal said. “I’ll see if my brother recognizes her.”

  “Thanks, Rookie,” I said with a small smile.

  I joined the rest of the crew in the dining area where they were passing around platters of bacon, eggs, and toast. I poured myself a cup of coffee and took a seat at the end of the table. All around me, the guys were talking and laughing.

  I’d never felt so alone in my life.

  There were no calls all morning, so we spent our time cleaning and inventorying the gear. Tony managed to keep questions from the other guys to a minimum by crowing about his renewed commitment to monogamy. This stirred the pot and gave the guys a chance to blow off steam as they told jokes about their own lack of a sex life.

  Late in the afternoon, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and found a message from Emily telling me that one of Nina’s classmates had come forward and confessed that she knew Nina had a crush on a college boy, but that she didn’t know the boy’s name. Emily said she’d try to find out more, and that she’d call me later to let me know what she’d learned.