"Gimme a break," she snapped. Right away, she regretted it. "I"m sorry. I"m just trying to find out what happened."
"Isn"t it obvious?"
"Not to me, sir."
"I was obliged to stop for gas." He said it slowly, clearly, as if trying to make himself understood by a moron. "Andrew was with me up to that point, sitting in the pa.s.senger seat, pouting."
Pouting. His whole family was slaughtered last night, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
"I stopped my car at a self-service island. Are you following this?"
"Yes. Thank you."
"As I began to fill the tank, Andrew opened the door and asked my permission to use the men"s room. The john, he called it. I gave him permission. The last I saw of him, he was walking toward the station"s office."
"You let him go by himself?"
"Of course. He"s not a baby."
"He"s only twelve."
"I"m aware of that. And I don"t believe I appreciate your att.i.tude, young lady."
"I"m sorry. I"m just trying to do the best I can."
"You"re insinuating that I"m somehow at fault in this situation."
"I didn"t mean to insinuate anything. Really. I just want to get this information for Dad, that"s all. Okay?"
"All right, then."
"Good. Thank you. Now, when did you realize that something was wrong?"
"When I went to the men"s room, myself. That was after I"d finished pumping my gas, and after I"d gone to the office to pay for it. As a matter of fact, I didn"t think much of it when he wasn"t in the restroom. I thought he must"ve gone back to the car while I was in the office. So it wasn"t until I returned to my car that I realized he was actually gone."
"You looked around for him?"
"Of course."
"Did you call the police!"
"Your father is the police, young lady. That"s why I phoned him."
"Dad can"t do anything officially. I mean, not in Indio. What you need to do is call the Indio police and have them search for Andy."
"I certainly enjoy receiving instructions from a fifteen-year-old child."
"Sixteen," she corrected him.
"I am not about to get the local gendarmes involved in this matter. Andy wasn"t kidnaped. He ran away."
"How do you know he wasn"t kidnaped?"
w.i.l.l.y didn"t answer right away. Jody heard the empty sounds of distance. She heard the faint noise of a truck"s horn. "Isn"t it obvious?"
"Why?"
"He didn"t want to leave your house in the first place. He didn"t want to go anywhere with me. So the first chance he got, he ran off. He probably intends to hitchhike back to your house. I wouldn"t put it past him."
It sounded plausible to Jody. More than plausible-likely. The little twerp. She sighed. "That"s all the more reason to find him." She grimaced at Miles. "There"s a police officer here. Maybe you"d better talk to her."
She pa.s.sed the handset to Miles. After identifying herself, Miles leaned back against the kitchen wall, listened and nodded. She didn"t listen for long, though. "Mr. Spaulding, you should"ve notified the local police the moment you realized Andy was missing. Give me your number there." She pulled a pen out of her shirt pocket, and jotted down the number on the note pad they kept by the phone. "Okay, Mr. Spaulding. I"m going to hang up, now, and call the locals myself. You stay right where you are." She listened for a moment. Then her eyes widened and her face grew red. "You will not. That boy is your responsibility, and I"ll see to it that you"re prosecuted if you leave the scene. Is that understood?" She nodded. "Very good. See that you do." She hung up.
"You were great!" Jody blurted. "He is such a jerk."
"He"s Andy"s uncle? Doesn"t even sound like he likes the boy."
"I don"t think he does. I think the only reason he came to get Andy is because his wife made him."
Miles nodded, then lifted the phone and tapped in the number for directory a.s.sistance.
"What gives?"
Jody swiveled sideways and saw her father swaggering through the dining room. She met him before he reached the kitchen. "Andy"s disappeared," she said. "We just got a call from his uncle. Miles is calling the Indio police right now."
He leaned and glanced past Jody, apparently confirming that Miles was on the kitchen phone.
"How did it happen?"
She told him about the stop at the Texaco station and how Andy had made a solo trip to the restroom while Uncle w.i.l.l.y was busy filling the tank. "He never came back from the john," she concluded.
"When did this happen?"
"Around nine."
Dad checked his wrist.w.a.tch. "Great. With that kind of headstart ..." He shook his head.
"He might be trying to come here."
"Andy?"
"He didn"t want to leave in the first place."
"You"re a.s.suming he wasn"t grabbed."
Dad"s words made a cold place in Jody"s stomach. "But n.o.body followed their car out of here. You said they got clear all right."
"We thought they did. I don"t know. You can"t be a hundred percent sure about a thing like that. Anyway, all we can do is guess about what might"ve happened to him. If w.i.l.l.y thinks he ran off, maybe that"s what happened."
"I sure hope so," Jody muttered. "It"d still be awfully dangerous for him, but ..."
"A lot better than if he got s.n.a.t.c.hed."
"But what if he tries to hitch his way here, only he gets a ride from some sort of a pervert?"
"I"d hope that Andy would be smarter than to hitchhike."
"How else can he get here?"
"Sergeant?" Miles asked.
Dad gave Jody"s arm a squeeze, then stepped past her. She followed him into the kitchen. Miles was off the phone.
"Did Jody explain the situation, sir?"
"I"ve got a rough idea."
"Well, I just contacted the Indio police department. They"ve got a unit on the way to the scene. Also, they"re pa.s.sing on word about the boy to the Highway Patrol."
"What"s your take on the deal, Miles?"
"It looks like the boy took off on his own."
"What makes you say that?"
Miles leaned back against the wall. She folded her arms beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and tilted her head sideways. "Well, Sergeant. From what I heard about last night, he"s a game kid. Also, he"s gone through an incredible emotional trauma. A shock like that can distort your perspective, so you do crazy things like run away in the middle of nowhere. Another thing is, he found a degree of safety and calm while he stayed here with you and your daughter. I think there are strong bonds between him and Jody. And finally, his uncle is a complete a.s.shole. The boy probably couldn"t wait to get away from him, and fled the moment a chance presented itself."
"That"s how it looks," Dad said.
"There are other possibilities, but ..."
"Let"s hear them."
"Well, the bad guys from last night might"ve grabbed him. Or he might"ve run afoul of someone in the gas station toilet. And there"s one other possibility that"s occurred to me. It"s unlikely, I suppose. But we"ve only got Spaulding"s word about how things went down. He might be lying through his teeth."
"Oh, Jeez," Jody muttered.
"You"re suggesting he got rid of Andy?"
"It"s just a thought. Adding a kid to the family can be an expensive proposition."
"You think he murdered Andy?" Jody blurted.
Miles grimaced. "I don"t mean that at all, honey. Maybe I shouldn"t have brought it up ..."
"No," Dad said. "It"s worth considering."
"I honestly think Andy probably ran off."
"More than likely," Dad agreed.
"What"ll we do?" Jody asked. "This is awful. He might be ... he might need help, or ... Do we just have to wait?"
"Let"s drive out there," Dad said.
Jody couldn"t believe her ears. "Really?"
"Yeah. We might not accomplish much, but who knows? Better than staying here."
"It sure is."
"We were going to be pulling out, anyway. I just talked to Ryan about it. It looks as if our little *trap" got two civilians killed. Three, if you count fetuses."
Miles winced. "The woman was pregnant?"
"Looks like our shooter performed a quickie Cesarian on her and ..." He glanced at Jody and stopped in mid-sentence. "We don"t want to risk anyone else. The guard"s being pulled off as soon as we can get out of here. I"d thought we might try Big Bear, but now with this ... We"ll head out to Indio, for starters. Maybe we can find out something about Andy."
"We can help look for him," Jody said.
"Pack enough for a week," Dad told her. "If we have to stay away longer, we"ll deal with it when the time comes."
"I"d like to go with you, Sergeant," Miles said. "On my own time, of course. To provide some extra security for Jody."
Dad looked surprised.
"That"d be great," Jody said. "Can she?"
"Well ..."
"My shift"s about over, anyway," Miles said. "All you"ve gotta do is square it with Ryan so I can leave early. After that, I"m off till Monday night. What do you say, Sergeant?"
"Come on, Dad. We might need her, you know? And besides, she"s really nice."
Dad eyed Miles. "You sure you wanta?"
"Yes, sir."
The upturned comer of his mouth stretched its way higher. He stuck out his big right hand. "Okay." As she shook it, he said, "What"s your name, Miles?"
"Sharon."
"Okay, Sharon. Good to have you aboard. I"m Jack."
Chapter Twenty-four.