Polly pulled him in for a hug and heard him say "oomph" as breath rushed out. She let him go and handed him the leash.
"It was a fun morning. We'll do it again."
"But no more bodies?"
"Oh Andrew, I hope not! Don't you think one is enough?"
He got serious and said, "Bodies are cool, but that means someone died and they always have someone who loves them, right?"
She thought about it for a minute. Surely there was someone out there who loved Cindy Rothenfuss. "Right. Someone always loves them and that makes it sad."
"Let's go, Obiwan!" Andrew brightened up and patted his thigh. Obiwan followed him out the door into the garage.
She went back into the kitchen. Sylvie was peering intently at her laptop.
"Andrew's taking the dog out for a walk. You've raised an awfully good kid, Sylvie."
"Huh? What?" Sylvie looked up. "Oh, hi. I'm sorry. I'm working on a paper for class and some of this makes my head spin."
"I just said you had a good kid. Andrew's outside with Obiwan.
"Eliseo is setting up the tables for tonight's dinner. Are you going to be there?"
Polly had to think for a minute. "Dinner? With the boys from Chicago? I don't know," she said. "No one's invited me."
"Well, there will be plenty of food. We're having tacos, burritos and enchiladas. If you don't want to eat in the auditorium, you can always join me in here. I told Eliseo that he's always welcome. Jason and Andrew will be with me."
"I'll plan on it, then. Thanks."
Polly heard sounds in the foyer and decided to investigate. She was surprised at the number of people milling about. They were all looking at the different quilts on the wall and there was a large group clustered around the quilt block with lipstick scrawled across it.
"Did you really find the body?" Adele Mansfield took Polly's arm. Polly had met her the previous fall at a slumber party Lydia hosted when they welcomed Polly to town. Adele held a special place in her heart since she had also known Mary Shore, the woman who stepped in to raise Polly after her mother died.
"I really did," Polly responded. "But I can't believe everyone here knows about it. It just happened!"
Adele smiled, "You know how things are around here. News travels fast. It didn't hurt that we were all here wondering where Cindy was. When she didn't show up at noon, someone called Marla and she got hold of the rest of us."
"Which one is Marla?" Polly asked.
Adele looked around the foyer and then pointed to an older woman with very short salt and pepper hair. She had on a pair of half glasses and was looking over them at something another woman was showing her. Two men were standing on ladders in front of them, adjusting a quilt on a hanger.
"Would you like me to introduce the two of you?" Adele asked.
"Thank you, that would be great."
The woman took her arm and guided Polly to the small group around Marla Singer.
"Marla?" Adele began.
"Yes?" Marla Singer looked up and realized what was happening. "Oh, hello there!"
"This is Polly Giller, the owner of Sycamore House and Polly, this is Marla Singer, our now fearless leader."
"I know who you are, Polly. My granddaughter is part of the Literacy Competition."
"It's nice to meet you. How are things coming here?"
Marla's shoulders slumped. "I didn't expect to have to be in charge of this again so soon. I thought that if I ever got another chance, I would at least have some time before the big event."
Adele chuckled, "Three days isn't enough time to get your mind wrapped around all of this?"
"Fortunately Jeff called me Friday night and told me what was happening with Cindy. I began digging into the event over the weekend and spent time with him here on Saturday."
"Did Mrs. Rothenfuss even show up on Saturday?" Polly asked.
"She was here for a while in the morning, but she kept looking at your office. She asked Jeff what time you planned to return and when he didn't know, she finally couldn't stand it. She gave me a bunch of orders on how things were supposed to look and bolted out."
Polly hung her head, but couldn't help giggling. "I can't believe I scared her like that. She didn't act like anything scared her."
Adele commented, "Most bullies can't stand being told off. They are so afraid of everything that they get mean so their fear doesn't show. When you backed her down, she didn't have anything left."
"I feel terrible," Polly said, "but I couldn't put up with her being nasty to people who didn't have the power to stand up to her."
"I don't think you need to worry about it anymore," Marla Singer remarked. "She's not."
She turned back to the men on ladders, "I'm sorry, I need to make sure these get finished. It's nice to meet you, Polly."
Adele drew Polly back, "I hope you don't worry. Someone needed to tell that nasty woman off years ago. Maybe if they had, she wouldn't have been so angry."
"Thank you, Adele."
"Now, you go on. I'm going to look at a few more of these quilts and compare them to my own work."
"Which one is yours?"
"Oh, they haven't hung it yet. You'll see it later."
"Thank you again."
Polly poked her head into the office and was surprised to see that Henry was in the Conference Room with Roy Dunston and Sheriff Merritt. She stopped at the door and looked at him questioningly.
"Come on in, Polly," he said. "We've got a little bit of a crisis going on."
"Another one?"
Aaron Merritt turned around in his chair to look at her. "At least you weren't involved in this one, Polly."
"Hey!" she protested. "I wasn't involved in the other. I just showed up at the wrong time. And wow, you made it here in a hurry."
"Henry called and told me what was going on. My team will take care of the accident site. I can be here for a bit. I needed to talk with Jeff and Marla anyway. Since everyone seems to have made Sycamore House their central location, it works fine for me."
Roy Dunston looked awful. His forehead was furrowed, his eyes looked worried and his face was drawn. Henry didn't look much happier.
"What in the world has happened?" she asked.
"Two of the kids are gone," Henry quietly said. "They took the Foster's truck."
"When did they leave?"
"Early this morning. Mrs. Foster talked to them last night as they were going to bed and everything seemed normal. When they got up, the kids and the truck were gone."
She sat down beside him. "Oh, Roy. I'm so sorry! They have no idea what happened?"
"Mrs. Foster called me right away. I've checked with a couple of their friends and no one knows why they've left. I'm hoping they find their way back without any problem."
"Do you think they'll come here?"
Roy shook his head and dropped it into his hands. "I don't know. I just don't know. These two were the boys I was most worried about. I went out to the house on Saturday morning and everything was fine. They were having fun and seemed to be excited. The Fosters are great with them and I didn't dream they'd leave."
"We have good people looking for them," Aaron assured him.
"They have such an aversion to the police, I'm really afraid they'll do something stupid if they see any of your vehicles."
"All we can do is look."
"I know this is a stupid question, but don't all those boys have phones?" Polly asked.
"I've called several times this morning. The calls ring through, but they're not answering. I don't know what to think."
"Do they have families in Chicago you can call?"
Roy pursed his lips. "Not really. We're their family. They live with their moms, but those women don't know when these kids are even in the house. One of them, well, there's no better way to say it. She's a prostitute. The other isn't much better, but she has four younger children to worry about and Jaleel is on his own. Calling their homes won't help me, but I did try."
Aaron
stood up, "I have a call," he said and stepped out of the conference room. In a few minutes, he returned.
"We found the truck. They're in Boone. At least the truck is in Boone. The boys aren't with it, so now we're looking for them."
"That was fast," Roy said. "At least the Fosters will get their truck back."
Aaron grinned. "You're in small town Iowa. People have more of a tendency to pay attention to trucks that are out of place. They parked it in a parking lot on the south side of town. We'll check the restaurants around there, but it's been there all morning. Highway 30 is just down the road. Who knows where they've gone."
His words caused Roy Dunston to slump even lower.
"We'll find them, buddy," Henry said.
"I'm just so damned disappointed. In all the years I've worked with these kids, nothing like this has ever happened."
Polly felt awful. She desperately tried to remember if she and Andrew had seen those kids while they were in Boone, but there was nothing she could capture from her memory. Henry didn't know how to help his friend and all she could do was hold his hand, so she reached under the table and set her hand on his thigh. He brought his hand down and gripped hers tightly.
She reached across the table with her other hand trying to extend herself to Henry's friend. "Won't all your boys be here later today with their host families for dinner?"
His eyes were filling with tears. "They will and I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. All of these boys have grown close this last year as we've worked toward this trip. They've learned to trust each other and to trust me. It's been a long process. They'll need me to be normal tonight."
He brought his fist down on the table, "Damn it. I go from sad to angry in a second. What in the hell were these boys thinking? Even if we do find them, they're out of the program. They know that."
Aaron said, "Don't make any decisions until you know what has happened. I don't know your kids, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond their control and they don't know how to make the best decisions at this age. Punishing them without fully understanding is something I try to never do. I have people out looking for them, and though Boone has a pretty good mix of people, I'm guessing they will stick out. If they are still in town, we'll bring them back."
Roy nodded. "You're right. I think maybe I'm internalizing this too much. If it were any other boy, I would be right there with you, giving them every chance in the world to make it right. Maybe I'm just personally offended by this, because I trusted them and they've betrayed that."
"You don't know that yet," Polly said quietly.
Aaron stood again. "I see that Jeff is free. I'm going to talk to him about Mrs. Rothenfuss and if I can separate Marla Singer from her tasks, I need to speak with her as well."
Roy stood up and shook the Sheriff's hand. "Thank you for your help. I appreciate that you are trying to make this easier for us. The kids don't always get this type of understanding from law enforcement."
He moved to follow the Sheriff out and turned back to Henry, "I'm sorry. I'm not much good right now. I'm going to head up to my room and see if I can come up with any way to find these boys."
After he left, Polly said, "I'm sorry, Henry. I know this isn't easy."
"I'm just glad it was the Fosters. Of all the host families, they are the most easygoing. If the boys had needed to go somewhere, they probably would have just given them the keys and let them go. Their name is perfect, you know. They've fostered six or seven kids while raising four of their own. They get it. If Roy brings the boys back to Bellingwood, they'll open their home again and act as if nothing happened."
"Is Roy going to be able to get past this?"
"He has to. There are ten other boys who need him to lead throughout the week. I know these two aren't his first disappointments, but I don't think it has ever gotten this far."
"I wish there was something I could do."
"This isn't yours to worry about," Henry smiled. "You have enough on your plate."
He spun her chair so they were knee to knee, "You didn't tell me you found another body. My girlfriend is becoming more and more infamous around town. I can’t imagine what they’re doing with this down at the Elevator. You probably made someone a winner."
Polly slapped his knee, "I knew you were going to tease me about it. Was I supposed to drive past and not try to help? Huh? Huh?"
"Of course not," he winked, "but I've never heard of one person walking into so many terrible situations. How do you do it?"
She backed up and stood to leave. "I'm not talking about this with you any longer."
"Oh come on, I'm only teasing you. You have to have some sense of humor about it."
"Nope. I don't," she pouted dramatically. "No sense of humor at all. I don't like finding bodies and I want it to stop."
Henry followed her out of the conference room into her office, nodding at the Sheriff as he and Marla Singer came in.
"Thanks guys," Aaron said. "If you don't mind, I'm going to tie up this room for a while."
"Use whatever you need, Aaron," Polly replied. "Let me know if anything else comes up."
He went in and shut the door. Polly dropped into her own desk chair. "Today wasn't supposed to go like this. I took Andrew to Boone to buy some books. I picked up shirts for the parade. I took him to McDonald's. A mundane day in the life of Polly Giller." She leaned back and put her feet up on her desk. "I like mundane days."
Eliseo stuck his head in the door. "Polly?"
"What now," she growled.
He glanced at Henry, looking for help. Henry shrugged.
“Mark is coming over to work the team again. Did you want to ride along?"
She dropped her feet to the ground and jumped up. "That sounds perfect! I'm out of this madhouse." She patted Henry on the back and scooted past Eliseo. "Hold down the fort guys, I'm gone."
Polly started out at a slow trot, then picked her feet up and ran to the barn. When she got there and realized that she still had too much energy, she checked the horse's stalls to make sure they had hay, then checked to make sure the bedding was clean. When she finally looked up, Mark was standing in the alley, watching her move from stall to stall.
"What's got you in a lather?" he asked when she pulled up short in front of him.
"Are you telling me you don't know?"
"Know what? I've been gone all day. I came over here instead of going back to the office. Marnie said I wasn't needed. Walk with me and tell me what's up."
She followed him to the tack room. He pulled the first harness off the wall and walked out the back door. Demi noticed him and came to see his favorite veterinarian. Daisy followed and Polly put her hand on the girl's neck to hold her in place.
"I found Cindy Rothenfuss dead in a cornfield this afternoon."
Mark stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her with an immense grin, "You did what?"
"I know," she smirked. "I was driving back from Boone and pulled over because it looked like someone had been in an accident. Sure enough, it was her car in the field, she was dead and someone had spray painted the word 'bitch' on the back of her SUV. Then, I get back here and two of those kids from Chicago are missing. Someone has defaced one of the quilts and you know what the worst of it is?"
"No, what's that?"
"There's every probability that whoever has done something bad around here is someone I know and I'm going to feel stupid for having trusted them."
"Here, hold this," he said, handing her the reins. He went inside and came back with Daisy's harness and Polly moved over to stand beside Demi. He nosed her shoulder and she reached up to rub his forehead. It was so soft and Polly loved looking into those immense, trusting brown eyes while she stroked him. She leaned in on his head and planted a kiss in the velvety spot above his nose.
Mark and Polly led the horses over to the wagon where it was parked under the front overhang and he proceeded to hitch them up. She watched what he was doing and realized how grateful she was
not to have to learn all this on her own. He'd be there as often as she needed him and she also had Eliseo and Henry.
"Get on up," Mark said. "It sounds like you need to be out of here."
"I do! As soon as Eliseo told me you were coming over, I just took off. I might not have even finished the conversation I was having with Henry. But he gets it. He'll be fine."
"Do you want to take the reins?" he asked, trying to hand them to her.
"No, just keep going."
He clicked the horses up to a trot and they headed out of town. He turned right on the first gravel road and said, "Whoops, sorry about the dust and dirt. You're going to have to wash the wagon down before the parade on Friday."
"Maybe it will be a good job for Jason," she laughed. "The poor boy is ready to do anything just so he can be in the barn with Eliseo and the horses."
"That might be abusing your power, Polly."
"No!" she was shocked. "I'll pay him. His birthday is on Thursday and I think his mom is getting him a cell phone. He has to pay for anything extra he puts on it. He will be begging for ways to make money."
When they'd gone a mile, Mark turned left and said, "Have you talked to Sal lately?"
"Since last week? No, I'd bet you talk to her a lot more often than I do."
"Oh, I just wondered."
"Don't tell me there's trouble," Polly sighed. "I don't want anyone else to have trouble in their lives."
"No. There isn't any trouble. It's just very difficult to try to build a relationship with someone who lives half a continent away."
"Duh. Didn't I try to tell that to both of you? But no. You two were different than everyone else who has ever tried it. You were just going to be really good friends. It was going to be easy."
"Way to make me feel better, Polly."
"I'm not very good at that, am I? Did something happen between you two since the last time I was sitting in this seat?"
"I talked to her about Christmas and she didn't like the idea of meeting my family."
"I told you! Don't talk to her about it again until you are face to face, you moron."
"We are face to face. We always use video chat."
Secrets and Revelations (Bellingwood #4) Page 15
