Missing Child (17 page)

‘Locked out?’ he asked pleasantly.

Caitlin nodded.

The young man grimaced. ‘That sucks,’ he said amiably.

Caitlin sighed. ‘Yeah. I locked the keys inside.’

‘Do you have AAA?’ he asked.

Caitlin looked at him in surprise. ‘Yes, as a matter of fact.’

‘Call them,’ he said. ‘They’ll come and open it for you.’

Caitlin hesitated. ‘Oh, I don’t think so. It’s . . . not even my car.’

‘It’s not?’ the young man asked.

Caitlin hesitated. ‘It’s my brother-in-law’s car. I borrowed it.’

‘Oh. I don’t think they care about that. As long as you’re a member.’ He bent down and touched his toes several times. Then he leaned back, reaching behind him. Finally, he straightened up and shook out his legs, one at a time.

‘Really?’ she said.

‘I’m not sure. But you can try.’

She reached in her bag for her phone. ‘I think I will. Thanks.’

‘Good luck with it,’ he said, waving. He took off at a loping jog across the street and down the sun-dappled street, veering out around a young Hispanic woman walking in the opposite direction, holding the hand of a boy in a Phillies baseball cap.

Caitlin called information, got connected and prayed that she could sound calm and reasonable as she explained her problem. The guy she reached at a local garage was indifferent. He asked for her name, her membership information and her location. He told her his man would be over in fifteen minutes.

He arrived in less than ten. He double parked his tow truck and hopped out of the cab, a burly bald guy with a beard. Caitlin did not have to try too hard to appear confused and helpless. The guy gave her a clipboard with some paperwork to sign and asked to see her license. He didn’t even ask her if it were her car. The traffic on Spruce Street was having difficulty going around him, and motorists were honking and complaining loudly as they passed by. Caitlin could tell that he wanted to get out of there. He took out a simple tool and popped the lock.

‘Oh, thank you,’ said Caitlin. ‘You’re a lifesaver.’ She had put her own keys in her pocket before he arrived. She leaned into the front seat of the car and made a search of the floor, lifting the floor mats. He watched both her and the traffic which was going out around him. Then she leaned over the console and felt around the back of the passenger seat. As she did so, she pulled the toy out from between the passenger seat and the console and put it under her own arm. Exclaiming with relief, she came up with her keys.

‘Thank God,’ she said, emerging from the car. She dangled the keys for a moment in his face. ‘And I got my daughter’s pup,’ she said, indicating the toy under her arm. ‘I guess she left him in here. She’s gonna be glad to see you,’ she said, addressing Bandit. ‘Thank you so much,’ she said to the man from the service station. She slipped him a twenty. ‘You really saved my butt.’

‘No problem,’ he said. He jumped back into the cab of his truck, checked the traffic moving toward them, and then found his moment to pull away from the curb.

Caitlin closed all the car doors and stood back, aiming her keys at the car as if to lock the doors. Of course, since she was wielding keys from her own car, Dan’s car remained unlocked. Anyone could come along and steal it. Caitlin didn’t really care. She clutched Bandit and walked down the block toward her own vehicle, her heart pounding in her ears.

When she got to her car, she opened the doors and slipped into the driver’s seat, though she made no move to turn on the engine. She held the stuffed animal to her face and inhaled its familiar scent. Geordie.

Now what? she thought. Her options, when she thought about them, were not great. Part of her wanted to call the police and insist that they storm Dan’s house to look for Geordie, but she knew that as a plan that was almost laughable. She had nothing to offer the cops as a reason except for a stuffed animal which she had obtained by illegally entering Dan’s car. And it was not as if Geordie had never been in his uncle’s car with Bandit. It was those miniature boxing gloves hanging from the mirror which had made her look more closely into the car in the first place. For all she knew, Geordie might have gotten into the car at some point during his birthday party. Dan wouldn’t have locked the car in their driveway. Geordie might have climbed in, Bandit under his arm, to play with the dangling gloves, then rejoined the party excitement, leaving the pup in Dan’s car. Now that she thought about it, that explanation made a lot more sense than the notion that Dan might have been the one who abducted Geordie.

She took her phone out of her pocketbook and thought about calling Noah. Asking him if he remembered the last time he had seen Bandit in the house. But her heart sank at the thought of Noah’s reaction to her question. He would insist on an explanation, be furious at the thought that she had gone to Dan to apologize, and now was trying to implicate him somehow in Geordie’s disappearance. No, you can’t call Noah, she thought.

She held Bandit close and stared at the well-kept house across the street. She tried to imagine the worst about Dan, but it was impossible. As an uncle he was . . . dutiful. That was the word. He never forgot a birthday or a holiday, and he was fond of Geordie, almost in spite of the fact that Geordie was a kid. She remembered Haley saying that he didn’t like kids and wasn’t interested in having any of his own. It had been a sore point between them in their marriage. Caitlin tried to picture Dan as some kind of monster with a secret, grasping side, but it was an image that would not come into focus, no matter how she tried.

No. All that was left for her was to go home. Forget about it and go home. Geordie had left Bandit in Dan’s car during the party. That was the only possibility that made sense. Go home, she thought.

She looked across the street again. She couldn’t go home. Whether it made sense or not, she knew she couldn’t leave. Not without going over to Dan’s house and asking him to explain. If there was even the ghost of a chance that Geordie was in there, she had to pursue it. She hesitated for a moment, wondering what Dan might think of her, and what he might say to Noah about her. Then she shook her head.

She didn’t care what Dan thought of her. Or Noah. Or anybody else. In the long run it didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered. All that mattered was Geordie.

She got out of the car, still clutching Bandit, locked the doors and, looking out for the oncoming traffic, walked across the street to Dan’s house. Squeezing her hands into fists, she hesitated for a moment, and then she knocked on the door.

SEVENTEEN

D
an, wearing reading glasses and holding a bottle of beer, looked at her in disbelief. ‘Are you still here? What do you want?’ he said.

‘I want to come in,’ said Caitlin.

‘I’m busy,’ said Dan. ‘I’m working.’

‘I don’t care,’ she said. ‘I need to talk to you.’

‘Caitlin, we have nothing else to say to one another. I’ve said everything I’m going to about this. You betrayed all of us. I hear that Noah kicked you out. I wasn’t sorry to hear it.’

‘This is about Geordie,’ she said.

Dan blanched. ‘What about him?’

‘First, let me in,’ she said.

Dan looked away from her, as if considering her request. Finally, he opened the door a little more. ‘All right. Come in.’

Caitlin followed him into the vestibule and then into the living room. It was a living room with a masculine look. All the furniture was chrome, glass and leather, but the sleekness of the decor was counterbalanced by the piles of magazines and newspapers, along with a clutter of unwashed plates and coffee mugs on various surfaces. A general air of disarray pervaded the place.

Caitlin looked around for a place to sit. Dan shook his head.

‘Whoa. I didn’t tell you to make yourself comfortable,’ he said. ‘What about Geordie?’

Caitlin pulled Bandit out of her satchel and held him up by the neck. ‘This was in your car,’ she said.

Dan’s eyes widened. ‘What the . . . What are you . . .?’

‘This is Geordie’s favorite toy. I found it wedged between the console and the passenger seat in your car.’

‘Well, how did you get it? What the hell were you doing in my car? Did you . . . If you fucked with my car . . .’

She noticed that there were beads of sweat along his hairline. It was warm in the house, but not stifling. She thought he looked pale as well. Of course, it could be from anxiety about his expensive car. ‘Never mind how I got it. I want to know what it was doing in there.’

‘I don’t know,’ he cried. ‘How do I know? Maybe . . . I don’t know.’

A calm feeling had come over her at the sight of his anxiety. ‘Is Geordie with you?’ she said.

‘With me?’ He slammed the beer bottle down on the glass-topped computer desk. ‘You crazy bitch. What are you . . . Get out of my house.’

‘Just answer me,’ she said. ‘Is he here?’

‘What are you accusing me of?’ he demanded.

‘I want to know how Bandit got into your car.’

‘I don’t have to explain anything to you.’

‘Yes, you do. I’m Geordie’s . . . mother.’

‘Oh, that’s gall,’ he said. ‘Listen, lady. My sister was Geordie’s mother. That is, until your brother ran her over in his car.’

Caitlin closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. ‘Dan,’ she said, ‘you can’t make me feel any worse than I already do about Emily’s death. That’s why I came here today. To try to explain to you . . . But then I saw Bandit in your car. Now, you have something to explain to me.’

‘Let me make sure I understand this,’ said Dan. ‘Somehow you broke into my car. And now you’re accusing me . . .’

‘Stop,’ Caitlin pleaded. ‘Stop with the righteous anger. Just tell the truth. Don’t you care about Geordie?’

Dan stared at her. ‘Of course I do.’

‘Is he here? Is he here in your house?’ she asked.

‘No,’ he said. ‘Certainly not.’

‘Can I see for myself?’ she asked.

‘You know, I’m beginning to think the stress is getting to you. Are you . . . all right?’

Caitlin brandished the raggedy pup. ‘This stuffed animal was in your car. How is that possible?’

Dan shook his head. ‘Look, I don’t know, Caitlin. Maybe . . . on his birthday. That was the last time I saw Geordie. Maybe he was playing in my car. He loves my car. He likes those boxing gloves I have.’

Caitlin’s shoulders slumped.

‘Maybe he climbed in to play around . . . and he left it there. I’m sorry. I can’t think of any other way . . .’

‘Why didn’t you notice it?’ she demanded.

Dan looked around at the mess in his living room with a sigh. ‘I don’t know. I don’t sit in the passenger seat. Besides, with me, everything is not in its place,’ he admitted.

‘Can I look for myself?’ she asked.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘In your house. Can I look?’

Dan shook his head. ‘No. Now I’ve had enough. You cannot roam through my house.’

‘Why not?’ she demanded.

‘Because I want you gone. This is completely nuts. Why would I take Geordie? How could you even think . . .’

Caitlin slipped past him and started up the staircase, screaming. ‘Geordie, are you here? Answer me. It’s Mom.’

The house was silent. She climbed a few more steps and looked up at the second-floor landing. ‘Geordie, don’t be afraid. Answer me,’ she cried. There was no response.

‘Geordie!’

‘You can scream till you’re blue in the face,’ said Dan in a steely tone, opening the front door again. ‘Nobody’s going to answer.’

Caitlin sighed and descended the stairs. Without looking at Dan, she walked out onto the front step. She could feel his gaze on her. She looked back at Dan. He was studying her with an expression she could not define in his eyes.

‘What?’ she demanded.

Dan shook his head. ‘You really do love that kid,’ he said.

Caitlin’s chin trembled, and tears rose to her eyes. ‘Don’t sound so shocked.’

‘You never know,’ he said.

‘You’d know if you paid attention,’ she said angrily.

Dan pointed a finger at her. ‘Watch it, Caitlin. You’re lucky I didn’t call the police on you. If there’s any damage to my car . . .’

‘I used to like you,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I used to think you were a good guy.’

‘Chill out,’ he said. Then he closed the door in her face.

Caitlin called Haley before she left the city and Haley met her at a bistro in Hartwell. They each had a hamburger and a glass of wine, and then mounted the steps in the Jordan Bakery building to the apartment on the second floor. Haley had wisely bought the building at a favorable price when she decided to open. Noah had helped her to negotiate the deal. Now, she lived on the second and third floors of the building, and her business hummed along at the street level, not subject to arbitrary raises in rent.

‘Call me a bad person,’ said Haley, unlocking her apartment door and ushering Caitlin inside. ‘I . . . just don’t see it. I mean, you weren’t the one at the wheel. If that had been the case . . .’

‘But, it wasn’t,’ said Caitlin.

‘Exactly,’ said Haley. ‘So, you were in a terrible position. I mean, surely they can see that. I feel sure that Noah will come around.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ said Caitlin. She accepted a second glass of wine which Haley poured from the selection of bottles on her kitchen counter. Haley poured herself a glass as well, and led the way to her comfortable sitting room which looked out over Main Street. The gaslights on the street were illuminated and their glow shifted with the rustling trees. Most of the stores on Main Street were closed except for a couple of pubs and restaurants, so there was a peaceful atmosphere in the apartment.

‘Tell me more about your visit to Dan,’ said Haley. ‘Was the new girlfriend in her Jimmy Choos there?’

Caitlin shook her head. She had deliberately not said very much to Haley about her visit with Dan. On reflection, she was a little a bit ashamed that she had virtually accused Dan of having a part in Geordie’s disappearance. From this distance, it seemed insane. And she knew that Haley would not take kindly to that suggestion.

‘No, he was . . . definitely by himself,’ said Caitlin. ‘Why? Do you think this one is a keeper for Dan?’