He pushed the door open and showed Lark and Allie where to put the food. The phones were silent. Crystal and Elyse waved, and Rachel and Victoria hurried over to learn the ropes. Crystal’s gaze met his and he felt like she was telegraphing him a silent “hang in there.” He smiled and went back onto the porch.
“Mom, Dad, y’all come in and fix you a plate.”
His mom put her hand to her stomach. “Honey, I don’t think I could eat.”
“You need your strength,” he said, repeating the words she’d used many times to get him to eat in the months right after Beka’s kidnapping.
She gave him a rueful smile. “You’ve heard that before, haven’t you?” But she allowed his dad to lead her into the house.
Jeremy sank down in the porch swing and pushed it back and forth with one foot. He stared out at the cars and trucks parked in the driveway. As nerve-racking as this was, it felt good to actually be doing something. In the days right after Lindsey took Beka, it had been like this. But then life went on. For everyone else.
He dropped his head into his hands, remembering that awful time. And all the empty days since. Finally he began to pray.
Please, Lord, let it be different this time. My little girl is out there somewhere. And I know You’re watching over her. But please, bring her back to me.
After he said, “Amen,” he scrubbed his hands over his face and laid his head back against the swing.
The front door creaked open. He looked up to see Crystal, two plates in her hands. She tilted her head and handed him a plate. “Here. Your mom said to tell you that you need to keep your strength up, too.”
He chuckled. “She’s pretty smart.” He patted the swing beside him.
Crystal sat down. “I really like your parents. Just talking to them at breakfast, I could feel their strength.”
He nodded. “It’s a good thing they’re strong, with all they’ve had to go through.”
“Or maybe they’re strong because of all they’ve had to go through,” she mused.
He glanced over at her. “Is that why you’re so strong?”
She stared down at her plate. “I’m probably the weakest person I know.”
He reached over and touched her chin and gently brought her face up to meet his gaze. “Don’t believe that lie. I don’t know what I would have done without you to lean on these past few weeks.”
Her blue eyes softened. “I’m glad I was here.”
“Me, too.”
Just as they finished eating, the door banged open and his dad stuck his head out. “They’re playing the interview again.”
Crystal gave him a crooked grin and collected an unsteady breath as she reached out. “Ready for round two?”
Jeremy nodded, weaving his fingers through hers. He closed his eyes for a minute to center himself. After a quick repeat of his earlier prayer, that this time the calls might actually produce something relevant, he opened his eyes and smiled at Crystal “Let’s go.”
***
As the grandfather clock started to chime midnight, Crystal jabbed her pen toward her notebook and Elyse’s. “How could we have so many calls and no real leads?”
“Rachel and Victoria got some good ones during their shift. There were a few I thought might be just what we were waiting for. But the sheriff said none of them panned out.” Elyse sighed. “The closest I came was the woman who thought she saw Beka at a local preschool.”
Crystal eyed her speculatively. “Someone checked that out, didn’t they?”
“Yes, they took a day care group picture to the caller’s house, and she picked out the child she meant.” Elyse pushed her chair back and smothered a yawn. “Jack said the girl favored Beka, but she was Roger and Linda Howard’s granddaughter.”
“This has to be horrible for Jeremy, knowing the day is over.” Crystal glanced toward the window where she could see the shadows of the men on the porch. They’d been out there for the last hour. She knew he just hated to see the day end with no success.
“At least Blair is coming in the morning with a camera.” Elyse picked up her phone. “We’re supposed to set this to go directly to voice mail at midnight, right?”
Crystal nodded and punched in the buttons on her phone, too, keeping an eye on the moving figures of the men.
Luke came in first, looking grim, with Jack Westwood behind him.
Jeremy came last. Stubble shadowed his jaw, and his eyes showed a distance that nearly broke her heart. His shoulders slumped, Crystal knew, from lack of sleep and discouragement.
She stood and walked over to him. “Hey,” she said softly, while Luke and Jack were talking to Elyse about the phone lines. “You’d better get home and try to sleep. You have to go live at seven in the morning.”
He raised his head to look at her. Exhaustion and worry covered his face like a mask.
She wanted to smooth out the wrinkles on his forehead with her hand, but she just stood helplessly. “I’m sorry, Jeremy.”
He nodded. “You did your best. Thank you all for everything.” The words were dry and brittle, but he reached out and touched her arm. Crystal took the gesture for what it was—all he had to offer at the moment.
Luke turned around and frowned. “Hey, Jer, why don’t you let me give you a ride home? Then I’ll pick you up in the morning and bring you back.”
Jeremy’s lips stretched into what might have been a grin on another day. “Thanks, man. I’ll be fine.” He left without looking back.
Crystal followed him outside. But by the time she reached the porch, he was getting into his truck. She stood and watched him drive away. It was hard to realize how important hope was. Until she saw it dying right before her very eyes.
She trudged back into the house and said good night to Luke and Jack.
After they left, she hugged Elyse. “Want me to walk you home?”
“Then I’d just have to walk you back.”
Crystal smiled. “True.”
Elyse patted her pocket. “I’ve got my phone.”
“Call if you need me.”
As soon as Elyse was gone, Crystal opened the front closet to get her bedclothes out. She reached up to get the pillow off the top shelf, wincing at a spasm in her back. What she wouldn’t give for one night of sleep in a bed.
She froze and drew her hand back. Was she really so cowardly that she couldn’t sleep upstairs? She didn’t believe in ghosts. At least not any kind other than the one that lived inside her heart. But that particular ghost wasn’t limited to a certain room.
A memory of today on the porch with Jeremy shot through her foggy brain, sharp and clear. He’d said she was strong. She looked down at the patchwork quilt in her arms. Where was that strength now?
She shoved the blankets back in the closet and shut the door. She had a choice. Why should she let herself be held captive by her own fears and sorrow? Jeremy was a wise man. She headed for the stairs. Maybe she was stronger than she thought.
At the top of the stairs, she went straight to the closed door. Her hand trembled on the knob. Mentally she chided herself, until finally she opened the door. She stared at the dark room. Moonlight streamed in the window and she could make out the outline of two beds, still arranged with their heads together as they had been seven years ago. Nothing had changed.
But everything had changed.
Tears edged her tired eyes. She shut the door softly and slipped into the bathroom to get ready for bed. When she finished, she stumbled into Elyse and Kaleigh’s old room, now Mama’s sewing room with a double bed in the corner. Kaleigh still slept there when she came home for weekends and holidays. But she wouldn’t mind Crystal borrowing the bed tonight. She set her phone alarm and snuggled under the covers with a sigh.
At least she’d opened the door.
CHAPTER 19
I’m Blair Winchester with Channel Six, live from Shady Grove, on this beautiful Saturday morning. As I told you before the break, this morning we’re doing something a little different
with a live newscast featuring a plea from a heartbroken father. Jeremy Buchanan’s little girl, Beka, is missing. So here we are live from the McCord Ranch with Jeremy Buchanan. Jeremy.” The heavily made-up anchorwoman stuck the microphone in his face.
He stared at her. She’d said the word live so many times that his tongue felt permanently glued to the roof of his mouth at the thought of all the people watching him right this second. He only had one chance to get this perfect. “Um. You’ve done a great job explaining the facts, Blair. And many of your viewers saw my interview yesterday. Thanks to everyone who called in. But I’d like to say one more time”—his gaze caught Crystal’s, and she was looking at him like she knew he could do it—“if anyone out there has any idea where Beka is, please, please call.” He held up a portrait that he’d had taken of him and Beka two Christmases ago for his mom and dad. “She’s my little girl and I’m her daddy. And neither one of us will ever be completely whole until we find each other again.”
He took a deep breath. He hadn’t run this by anyone, not the anchorwoman, not the missing-children experts, not even Crystal. He looked directly into the camera and smiled at his daughter. “Beka, honey, if you’re out there and you can hear me, listen up, Little Bit.” He winked as he said his pet name for her, forcing himself to imagine her looking straight at him. “I’ll always love you. Never give up. When you get old enough to find me, I’ll be waiting.” He could feel a tear trickle down his cheek. He handed Blair the microphone and shrugged his shoulder up to wipe the droplet on his flannel shirt.
Blair took the microphone and cleared her throat. “Thank you, Jeremy.” Her smile looked a little trembly as she faced the camera. “Folks, you’ve seen the local search center here set up at the McCord Ranch on the outskirts of Shady Grove, Arkansas. You’ve seen the operators inside ready to take your calls.” The cameraman moved in toward her and she lowered her voice. “And you’ve seen a heartbroken father pleading for his daughter’s return. Operators will be here until noon today. Please call the number on the screen or notify your local police department if you know anything at all about six-year-old Beka Buchanan.”
When the camera stopped rolling, Crystal hugged Jeremy. He pulled her close and breathed in her strength. They hurried into the house to the phones.
As he braced himself for the roller coaster of hope and despair to start again, he was glad that he’d talked his parents into waiting at home for word. The stress was killing them.
Elyse and Rachel were taking calls and the phones were already jangling. After an hour, they slowed down to an occasional ring. Rachel looked at her notebook then over to where Jeremy was pacing by the couch. “Other than a couple of obvious crazies, I think most of this morning’s callers were just touched by your plea and want you to know they’re praying for you.”
He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “I appreciate their prayers.”
Someone knocked on the door, and Crystal jumped up from the couch to answer it. A plump woman Jeremy recognized as his barber’s wife stood on the doorstep with tears in her eyes. “Oh, honey,” she said when she saw him. “I’m so sorry.” She rushed past Crystal and handed Jeremy a plate with a sliced loaf of some kind of bread on it. “I made this for the flower club meetin’. But after I saw you on TV...” She shook her head and pulled a tissue from the pocket of her smock. “I wanted you to have it.”
“Thank you so much.” Jeremy held the plate and nodded toward the phone lines. “I’ll share it with everyone.”
She nodded and backed out the door and down the steps.
Crystal took the plate from him. “I’ll put this in the kitchen.”
Luke sauntered in the front door, looking over his shoulder. “Hey, what’s going on out there?” He zoned in on the plate Crystal was holding. “That smells like banana nut bread.” He reached out and scooped up a slice.
She slapped at his hand, but he was too fast.
In spite of his nerves, Jeremy smiled.
Luke jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward outside. “Do y’all know there’s a traffic jam out there?”
Crystal set the plate down, and she and Jeremy raced to the door. “Oh, my,” she breathed.
At least seven vehicles were trying to get down the bumpy little lane, with the lead one right in the middle of the road, apparently straddling the potholes, refusing to go over five miles an hour. The barber’s wife was trying to go back the way she’d come, but the little car coming at her wasn’t giving her anywhere to go. Finally she came to a stop at the edge of the driveway and waited.
Jeremy could hear the horns start to honk. “Who are they and what are they doing here?”
Jack joined them on the porch and shook his head. “That’s my mother in the front car, and unless I miss my guess, Rachel’s mom is with her.” He clasped Jeremy on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, man, but it looks like your plea touched hearts you weren’t aiming for.”
Finally the little car reached the driveway and pulled off to the side. Mrs. Westwood and Mrs. Donovan climbed out, both carrying baking dishes.
Jeremy groaned. “Not that I’m not grateful,” he said quickly to Jack.
Jeremy glared at Crystal as she smothered a giggle with her hand.
The older women were teary eyed as they bustled up to the porch. They practically fell on Jeremy, patting his back and squeezing his arm. “Bless your heart. If there’s anything we can do...”
He nodded. “Thank you so much.” He looked over their heads at two vans pulling up close to the porch. A woman jumped out of the first van and ran around to slide the big door open. “Over here,” she directed. Children ranging anywhere from five to fifteen poured out of both vans, many of them clutching musical instruments, some of them carrying papers that looked suspiciously like sheet music.
The driver, a no-nonsense-looking woman, walked up to Jeremy and stuck out her hand. “Mr. Buchanan, I’m Claire Mitchum, and this is our homeschool group band and chorus. When we saw you on TV earlier, everyone started wondering what we could do to help.”
He shook her hand. What in the world?
She beamed proudly at a snaggletoothed redhead carrying a clarinet. “Carson came up with the idea that we could sing and play for you.”
Jeremy’s puzzlement must have been showing on his face, because she gave him a sympathetic smile. “To calm your nerves while you wait.” She leaned in close. “I know what you’re thinking, but they’re really quite good. And they so wanted to help in some way.”
He nodded, bemused but touched.
“You sit on the porch.” She included Crystal, Jack, and Mrs. Westwood and Mrs. Donovan in her motion. “You and your friends.”
Crystal tugged on Jeremy’s hand and led him to the double rocker. Jack guided his mother and mother-in-law to chairs and leaned down to slap Jeremy on the knee. “I’d better go check on the phone lines.” He glanced out at the driveway where there were several other vehicles parking. “And see if Luke can handle crowd control.”
The first note sounded and Jack rushed into the house.
Crystal slipped her hand into Jeremy’s and squeezed. “This was really sweet of them,” she whispered.
He nodded, wondering if she realized how desperate he was to know what kind of calls were coming in right now. But he had to admit to himself that he was better off out here being distracted instead of inside, driving himself crazy each time the phone rang.
He saw Luke slip out the door and hurry out to the driveway, not making eye contact with the group surrounding the porch. Jeremy grinned. In his midtwenties and a confirmed bachelor, Crystal’s brother probably thought there were way too many women and children around for comfort.
The Reluctant Cowgirl Page 17
