One Chance: A Thrilling Christian Fiction Mystery Romance (6 page)

Jacob and Camille had been good friends when they were younger. He was at Doug and Camille's wedding a little over five years ago. That had actually been how Penelope and Jacob met.

And then Camille left Doug and basically cut all ties to family and friends. Jacob's opinion of Camille had been guarded ever since.

"No, she's not. But I'll let Doug explain it to you," she said. "We'll be at Spanky's. Meet you soon."

CHAPTER 11

As it turned out, seeing Jacob again would have to wait a bit. She had just gone back inside and told Doug that Jacob would be joining them for lunch when her phone rang. The caller display told her who it was. Why was the Sheriff's Office calling her again?

"Deputy Chance," she answered.

"Penelope, it's Jim." Deputy Jim Saunders said from the other end of the call in his thick Georgian accent. "I'm not sure, but I'm thinkin' we may have a runaway."

"How do you think you have a runaway? You either do or you don't," Penelope rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Listen, can you handle this one without me?"

"We don't need you to come in," Saunders said. "I'm calling because I think you know the girl. It's Missy Clark. Seen you in the park across the street talkin' to her and that Tommy Pruett, so I figured you'd want to know what's goin' on. Thought maybe you might have a different take on it, too."

"Yeah. Thanks, Jim," she said. "Yeah, I know those two. They're good kids, but in too much of a hurry to grow up."

"Parents say they haven't seen her since she left for school yesterday," Saunders said. "I already done checked with Mister Dobson down at the grocery store, where she works after school. He says she was there sure enough and left at seven thirty last evening. 'Course, he also seems to think she stole forty dollars from her register. He wasn't gonna say anything, but when he heard she might be missin' he thought it was better to say so."

Penelope was surprised. "Missy stole from her register? That doesn't sound right. She never seemed like the type to do that."

"All I know is he said her drawer came up forty dollars short and now her parents say they haven't seen her in more than a day."

"You've talked to Tommy's parents?"

"Well, let's just say that Tommy's parents are a little less interested in what their son is doin' than Missy's parents are with her. They think he's probably just out with friends. They ain't worried."

Penelope sighed. Young love. Blind to everything but what the heart wants. "She and Tommy probably went over to Gainesville."

"So what should I tell her parents?" Jim asked.

"Have they tried calling her friends?"

"Yup. So did I. Same thing, none of them have seen her since school let out yesterday."

Penelope thought a moment, but the only answer was the obvious one. "Well, I can't think of anywhere else she might be, other than with Tommy."

"You want I should tell that to her mother? That she's probably with the boyfriend?"

"She's not going to want to hear it," Penelope said, "but that's the only thing we can be reasonably sure of at this point. They're both eighteen and legally they're adults in the eyes of the great state of Florida. Tell them we'll put a locate message out but there's not much else we can do if all they did was run off together."

"Got it. Thanks, Penelope," Jim said. "You want I should call you back if anythin' develops?"

"Could you? I'd like to know if she gets back home or if you find her."

"Will do. Thanks, Penelope." And then Jim hung up, leaving Penelope to wonder at the foolish things young hearts did.

Of course, she might not be the one to throw that particular stone.

*

Inside Spanky's Grill, the town's local family restaurant, Trevor sat in a booster seat at their table, stuffing chicken nuggets into his mouth.

Jacob had met them in the parking lot. Penelope embraced him tightly and he whispered into her ear that he loved to see her in her uniform, but wasn't she supposed to be off duty today?

She'd given him the brief version of the day's events, and he nodded once and left it at that. He had to be the most understanding man in the world. Doug had looked at their affectionate display with a mixture of jealousy and sadness. Penelope now had the very thing Doug had thought he'd found with Camille.

Inside the restaurant, Jacob watched Trevor eat. He laughed. "My goodness, Doug, he's getting so big he'll be wearing his daddy's clothes before long."

Trevor laughed and said, "You're silly, Uncle Jay-Jay."

He smiled to hear the boy's pet name for him. "You haven't called me that in a long time. I wasn't sure you'd remember me."

"Mama said we had to move away. But I think we might come back now. That's what daddy said." He stuffed another nugget in his cheek and sipped soda through his straw.

Jacob exchanged a look with Penelope. He knew, just like Penelope did, how badly Doug wanted his family back together again. He leaned over and tickled Trevor's ribs to break the sudden tension. Trevor laughed and spilled soda down his chin.

"Daddy!" he complained. "He tickled me!"

"He did?" Doug asked in mock surprise. "What do you think I should do about that?"

A few minutes of silliness ensued in which Penelope offered to arrest him for illegal tickling of a minor child. Trevor's eyes got wide and he said he didn't want to press charges because he didn't want him to go to jail. Everyone at the table broke out in laughter.

It felt good to Penelope to have the three of them together like this, and especially with Trevor there with them. It was like things were the way they had been, back before Doug's divorce. Back before all the troubles they were facing today.

Several other couples and groups and single people were in Spanky's. And a lot of those people cast a lot of glances their way, all directed at Doug. Whispered conversations followed those looks. Penelope was reminded that no matter how good this moment felt, there was still a cloud of suspicion hanging over her friend's head.

Jacob saw it too, and squeezed her hand. "You'll figure it out," he said to her. "I have faith in you."

"Me too, Penny," Doug said, ruffling his son's hair. "I know you'll make everyone see I didn't do this."

"Do what?" Trevor asked in an innocent little-boy's voice.

"Steal all the french fries in town," Doug told him, picking one up off his son's plate and popping it into his mouth.

"Hey!" Trevor cried out, grabbing for the fry too late. "Daddy!"

Doug winked at Penelope, feeling better than he had in the last twenty-four hours or so. His friend had never let him down before.

Penelope saw the confidence that Jacob and Doug had in her. She hoped she lived up to their expectations. Because she was starting to get the feeling there was something obvious she was missing. Something right under her nose.

The rest of their meal went quickly and they were soon headed back to Penelope's place. Jacob had said goodbye to her with a hug and a kiss, and Penelope couldn't wait until this was an everyday thing for them, not just a whenever-we-can-find-the-time thing.

Back in her own home, Penelope turned the television on for Trevor and set it to one of the cartoon channels. The boy sat down happily on the floor with his trucks and his stuffed dog and stared at a big, goofy looking bear trying to eat a bag of pretzels. He'd be happy for hours.

"Doug, I'm going to take a shower. Why don't you try to call Camille?" she said over her shoulder as she headed for her room and a change of clothes.

She took longer in the shower than she had intended. The hot water just felt so good on her tired muscles. When she stepped out she put on jeans and a comfortable t-shirt, making sure to hang her uniform up. The gunbelt went into her small safe in her bedroom. No sense taking chances with a little boy in the house.

When she came back out she found Doug in the living room with Trevor, on the floor playing an elaborate game of racecars involving a track built out of books from Penelope's bookshelf. She smiled and hoped she and Jacob would be doing something just like that with their own son one day.

"Did you get ahold of Camille?" she asked Doug.

Her friend shook his head, racing his car next to Trevor's and not looking up. "Tried. Still no answer. Beep beep!" he said to Trevor, passing his car.

"Hey!" Trevor said, and sped his own car up to pass his dad's again.

Penelope couldn't help but smile. Doug was a great dad to his son. There had to be something more to this attempted murder case that Doug was caught up in.

There had to be. She just wasn't seeing it.

CHAPTER 12

Not long after Doug put his son to sleep in the same spare bed that he'd been using in Penelope's house. Penelope waited for him to come back out into the living room. While she waited she sipped at a cup of coffee and tried to fit together mis-matched puzzle pieces. She turned every piece of information she knew every way she could think to turn it. Nothing seemed to fit.

Doug came out of the bedroom and flopped down on the couch. "I can't believe Trevor's back, you know, Penny? I'd almost given up hope. That's why I keep hitting the drink so hard. I mean, losing Camille was bad enough, but losing Trevor was the hardest. The worst."

"God never gives us more than we can handle," Penelope said to him. "I honestly believe that, Doug."

Her friend nodded. He wasn't convinced. "So, was I just too weak? I mean, God threw all this at me and all I could do was drink myself into oblivion every night." He looked at Penelope hopefully, as if he were waiting for Penelope to say something that would make it all right.

"I'm not going to judge you, Doug. I never have before. God knows I had enough opportunities to do that while we were growing up. But I didn't. And I'm not going to start now. You dealt with things in your own way. If you think it wasn't the right way, then you're free to do something about that, right?"

"Yeah," was all Doug said. "What if...I mean, I can't change what I've done, right? Things that are done, they can't be undone."

Penelope heard something in her friend's words, something he was trying to say without really saying it. "Doug, is there something you need to tell me?"

To her surprise, Doug nodded. He put his head down into his hands, raked his fingers through his short hair. "I didn't tell you the whole reason that Camille was here."

Not what Penelope had expected him to say. But it was better than the confession she had braced herself for.

Able to breathe again, she said, "I was wondering about that, buddy. I was happy to hear she came back and all, it just didn't seem like I was getting the whole story."

"You weren't, Penny, you weren't, but I couldn't talk about it in front of Trevor, you know?"

Penelope waited. When Doug didn't say anything more for more than a minute, she prompted, "You can tell me, Doug. I've always been here for you, right?"

Doug managed a small smile. "Yeah, you have. You've been like a sister to me, Penny. All this time after Camille left me, you've been here for me. Everyone else in town wrote me off. Just ignored me. Or worse. But you've always been there for me."

"So let me be there for you now. What did Camille tell you?"

Doug took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "She told me something about her new boyfriend. The...uh...guy she took up with after she left me. The one she's been living with, with my Trevor."

The heat in his voice was hard to miss.

"Anyway," he went on. "She said that she started to think, maybe this guy isn't who he said he was. Maybe this guy's something way worse."

"Like...what?"

Just then the phone rang.

They both jumped, then looked at each other and laughed. They had been so intent on what Doug was saying that they'd both lost track of the world around them. Now, the phone continued to ring, insisting on being answered.

The caller ID showed her it was, once again, the Sheriff's Office. "Deputy Chance," she answered.

"Penelope, it's Saunders," she heard Jim's voice. "I wanted to tell you what we got with Missy and Tommy. I'm real unsure where to go with this."

"Okay, what kind of help do you need?" Penelope asked.

"Well, I called over to her mother and told her just what you said," Jim explained. "You were right, she didn't want to hear it, but it made her feel a mite better to know her daughter hadn't been kidnapped or somethin'."

"What about Tommy's parents? Did you call them?"

"Well, yeah, I did," he said, and Penelope could hear in Jim's voice his opinion of that. "They still wasn't too worried about him, though."

"Really?" Penelope asked. "Did they say why?"

Penelope could almost hear Jim shrug. "Well, accordin' to them, Tommy's a big boy. Whatever he does with his time is on his own head."

"So we're up against it as far as where these two might have gone?"

"Yeah, that's about the size of it right there."

Penelope thought for a moment, a memory tickling her brain and then coming to the surface. "I think I remember hearing Tommy and Missy talking about going to Orlando sometime last week," she said. "Yeah, Tommy said something about staying in a motel in Orlando, but as soon as they saw me, he changed the subject. Didn't really pay much attention to it at the time. But, considering where this is going."

"That about all you remember?" Jim asked her.

"Well, that's all I heard," Penelope replied. "You might want to start checking the motels down there. Give them a description of Tommy's car and you just might find them."

"Thanks Penelope. Knew you'd be able to help with this," Jim said.

"You're welcome," Penelope said. "Don't know how much help I've been to you, but if it works out you can buy me lunch tomorrow."

"This helps me find these kids, you got it."

Penelope hung the phone up and rubbed her temples. Hard to believe just a day or so ago she was complaining to God that his little town of Franklin was too quiet. Sure didn't feel that way now.

I'm sorry, God, for wanting more than You give. I should have heeded the wisdom to be careful what you ask for. I asked, and I received. Help me take the same advice that I gave Doug, that You never give more than a person can handle. Amen.