“Dave. Take it easy. I want you to come out here right away, and we’ll try to figure out where she could be. While you’re driving here, Deidre and I will call the police and the sheriff. Chances are it’s nothing to worry about, at least not yet. Anyway, don’t speed getting here. It won’t do any good for you to get a ticket. . . . Okay. See you in fifteen minutes.”
Ben hung up the phone. “That was Dave,” he said, not realizing he was stating the obvious. “Maren didn’t come home today, and he hasn’t been able to track her down. He’s frantic, and I said we’d help him locate her.”
Deidre was nearly in shock. “My God, Dave called earlier today, looking for her. I kind of blew it off and haven’t even thought of it again until now. What do we do?”
“Call Megan and see if she knows anything. If she doesn’t, why don’t you suggest she drive here tonight? I’m a little worried about this, and we might need help trying to find where Maren has been today. While you do that, I’ll make some calls.”
Deidre hit Megan’s name on her cell phone’s favorites list, and her daughter picked up on the second ring. “Megan, it’s Mom. Listen, honey, have you seen Maren today?”
“Mom, what’s going on? Dave called three times today, looking for her. The last time was only a few minutes ago, and he sounded terribly upset. You sound really worried, too. What’s wrong?”
Deidre tried to sound casual. “Probably nothing, but it isn’t like Maren not to check in if she’s going to be late. Dad thinks you should come home, in case we have to go looking for her.”
“Have you called the women’s shelter in town?” Megan blurted out.
Deidre saw a red flag coming. “Why do you ask that? Has Maren told you something?”
There was a pause on Megan’s end. “No. She hasn’t said a word to me. In fact, we haven’t even talked on the phone for at least three weeks, but I know that she visited there a while ago when Dave was at work. Why don’t you give them a call, just in case?”
As Deidre was looking up the shelter’s number, she heard Ben on the phone to the police dispatcher. “I know she’s only been missing a few hours, but this isn’t like her at all. . . . I know she’ll probably show up before long. . . . Well, I’d like this to go on the record, and I’d like to have a bulletin go out with her license plate number.”
Before Deidre could make her call to the shelter, Ben was hanging up after talking to the sheriff’s dispatcher. A car swung into their driveway, and both of them had an instant of hope that it was Maren, stopping to tell them everything was okay.
Chapter
Four
DAVE BURST THROUGH the door, not bothering to knock, and immediately looked around the room to see if Maren was there. Deidre could see the panic in his eyes, and he rushed over to her and threw his arms around her in a tight embrace.
“Have you heard anything?” he managed to get out between sobs. Deidre had to tell him no, but they were working on finding Maren. She led him to the living room, and Ben put his arm around the distraught man’s shoulder. Together they guided him to the sofa and eased him down. Deidre couldn’t help but notice how his hands were shaking, and she tried to calm him.
“Megan will be here soon. She may have some insight into where Maren might be. In the meantime, let’s try to figure out where she could be. Did you know she had visited the women’s shelter a while back?”
Dave’s face lost a little of its color, and he responded, “Who, Megan?”
Deidre could see that Dave was too flustered to follow a conversation. “No, Maren.”
A momentary look of panic swept over his face and Dave blurted out. “Why would she do that?” He regained his composure. “No. I didn’t know. I suppose she might have mentioned it to me, but you know how we men are. Sometimes I’m not as attentive as I should be.” He covered his face with his hands, and the three of them sat in silence until they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
Jack and Steve plopped down in chairs, their hair still wet from the showers they had taken. “What’s going on? We heard you guys talking and wondered who was here.” They looked around the room. “Where’s Maren?” Steve wanted to know.
Deidre tried to sound unconcerned, but the strain in her voice gave her away. “Dave’s looking for Maren. She hasn’t been home today.”
Jack was blunt as only an eight-year-old boy can be. “Did she leave you?”
Dave looked up with a start, but before he could say anything, Ben interrupted. “Jack, that wasn’t a good thing to say. Of course she didn’t leave Dave. There’s just been some kind of mix up. I’m sure she’ll be calling any time now. Tell you what, why don’t you two hunyucks head up to bed. We’ll call you as soon as we find out where Maren is. Scoot now.”
The boys made their way upstairs, but Deidre could tell by their gait that they knew something was amiss.
“Who’s her closest friend?” Deidre thought to ask Dave.
He considered the question for several seconds. “You know, I really can’t say. Maren stays home a lot. In fact, she almost never goes out in the evening. Always is home when I get home from work, and never talks about her friends to me.” He looked at Deidre and Ben and held out his hands as if to say, “I don’t know any more.”
Ben asked him if Maren’s car was at home, and Deidre wondered why she hadn’t thought of that when Dave had called in the afternoon.
His answer was immediate. “No, that’s what makes me think she may be in trouble somewhere. She could be having car trouble and is stranded. I’ve tried to think where she might have driven, if she ran off the road into a gully and is trapped in her car.” He buried his face in his hands, and when he looked up, his eyes were red-rimmed. “Oh, God, if something’s happened to her, I don’t know what I’ll do.” He put his face in his hands again, and his shoulders convulsed.
Deidre moved so she was sitting closer to him and rubbed his back with one hand while she grasped his hand with her other. “Dave, don’t think of the worst-case scenario. From experience, I know the worst seldom happens. I think your first thought is most likely. Her car is probably stalled someplace, and she’s waiting for help. Maren likes to hike the logging roads up the Drummond Trail. If she drove into the woods a ways, and after a hike her car wouldn’t start, she might have had to walk out. Some of those roads go into the forest five or ten miles. That would be quite a jaunt, even for her.”
Dave looked at her through teary eyes. “I hope so, Deidre. I hope so.” He sat staring blankly at the floor.
“Mom, Dad,” Steve called down from the top of the stairs. “Somebody just drove into the yard.”
Deidre rushed to the door and stepped out on the deck. She could see someone coming up the walk, and her heart skipped a beat.
“Maren,” she called out, starting down the steps to greet her wayward daughter.
“It’s me, Megan,” her other daughter called out, and Deidre’s heart sank.
“Oh, Megan. I’m so sorry. I think I so wanted you to be Maren that I saw what I wanted to see.”
Megan hugged her mother. “We are identical twins, you know,” she said, trying to lighten the mood, but her effort fell flat. Together they went into the house.
Dave stood up and tried to hug Megan, but after a cursory brush of his cheek, she pushed away and went to Ben. She said nothing, wrapped her arms around his waist, and wouldn’t let go. Ben rocked her back and forth for several seconds before he stepped back. Both of them had tears running down their cheeks.
“Do you have any idea where we should begin searching?” he asked his daughter. “What friend might she be visiting? Is their anybody who might have needed her help?”
Maren looked at Dave, and said. “Maybe Dave would know. I haven’t talked to Maren for quite some time, other than a few minutes here or there on the phone. I think it’s been two months since we’ve seen each other, so I feel kind of out of her circle.”
Deidre sensed hostility in Megan’s attitude toward Dave, and s
he attributed it to the fact that Maren had fallen in love and had developed different interests. She thought that must have been hard for Megan to accept, because the girls had been so close when they were growing up. Perhaps it was the old competitiveness rearing its head. Maren had met the love of her life and Megan was still looking.
“Both of you have been so busy these past few months that I don’t wonder you haven’t had time to see each other. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”
Megan looked dejected and said no more. Morosely, she shook her head and went to the kitchen. Deidre heard water running and assumed she was getting a drink. When she returned to the living room, Megan was holding a wet washcloth to her face. No one had an idea of where to turn, and shortly before midnight, Deidre punched in a series of numbers on her cell phone.
“Jeff,” the others heard her say. “Ben and I need you to come out to our place as soon as you can. We’ve got a problem.”
Chapter
Five
DAVE WAS INCONSOLABLE, and while they waited for Jeff to arrive, he paced the floor like a wild animal in a cage. He would sit down and immediately stand up, go to the window and part the curtains as though he were expecting Maren to materialize at any moment. He was the first to spot a set of headlights approaching the driveway and was on the outside deck before the car turned in. Dave rushed to meet the car, and Deidre’s heart was broken when she saw his shoulders droop after realizing the car wasn’t Maren’s.
Jeff and Dave walked to the house together, and for some reason, Deidre was surprised that Jeff was out of uniform. Then it dawned on her it was after midnight and she had probably gotten him out of bed with her frantic call.
Jeff was one of her oldest friends. They had been hired the same summer by the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, and they had experienced too many good times together to count. During their friendship, there had been some tough times as well. He was Deidre’s second in command during her tenure as sheriff, had cared for her when she was shot by a terrorist, had talked her down when she was on the verge of executing a drug dealer who had killed her fiancé, and had replaced her as sheriff when she was forced from office.
Eight years ago, Jeff had been ambushed, shot in the back by a militia member, and Deidre had helped bring his assailant to justice. Other than her husband, Ben, Jeff was her best friend, the one person she felt she could call on for anything. She noticed he still had a limp from having been shot, but the slight drag of his right leg wasn’t enough to keep him from performing his job as sheriff of the county. Deidre thought he must have been about retirement age, but he had never given an inkling that it was something in his near future.
Ben rose to greet Jeff and gave him a hug. Jeff went to Deidre and hugged her, too. “It sounds like this is urgent,” he said to her. “What can I help you with?”
“It’s Maren,” Deidre said as she looked at him with fearful eyes. “She’s been missing for about,” she looked at the clock on the wall, “for about eight hours now. We know that’s not all that long, but it’s so unlike her. No one has any idea where she is.”
Jeff thought a moment, not wanting to increase everyone’s alarm by overreacting. “Have you tried calling her friends? Her boss at work? How about the city police? Chances are somebody will know something.”
Deidre was quick to answer. “We’ve contacted all of them, and have gotten no answers.” Then it dawned on her that after talking to Megan, they hadn’t called the women’s shelter after all. She found the number of their hotline and in seconds was speaking to the person manning the line.
“Hello, this is Deidre Johnson calling. I believe you know my daughter, Maren VanGotten. . . . Yes, I was sheriff several years ago. I wonder if you could tell me if she has been to the shelter today. . . . Yes, I understand you can’t give out the names of your clients, but I’m not sure she was a client. . . . Yes, I understand. Thank you for your time. Oh, and if you do see her or hear from her, please tell her to call her mom and dad. . . . Thank you.”
Ben could fill in the words of the person who was taking the hotline calls, and before Deidre could relay the conversation, he spoke up.
“They haven’t seen her, have they? But it seemed they knew who you were talking about.” He looked at Megan. “You said Maren had visited the shelter. Did she tell you that?”
“I kind of blew it off,” Magan recalled. “But I know the last time we talked on the phone she said she had an appointment there. I just assumed she was visiting a friend.”
Ben turned his attention to Dave. “What do you know about this? Was Maren going to the shelter for some reason?”
Dave looked shocked. “I, I have no idea. Like I said, I don’t remember her mentioning it to me.” Deidre thought Dave became even more agitated.
“I’ve got some calls I want to make,” Jeff said. “Would it be okay if I went in the kitchen?” Ben motioned him to go. Before leaving the room, Jeff asked for a description of Maren’s car and its license plate number. Deidre stood and caught Megan’s eye.
“I’m going up to check on the boys. Why don’t you come with me? If they’re still awake they’ll want to see you.” Megan followed her up the stairs, but once in the hallway, Deidre turned to her daughter.
“I couldn’t help but notice that you were pretty cold toward Dave when you came in. Any special reason? Do you know something you’re not telling us?”
Megan lowered her voice. “I really don’t know anything. It’s just a feeling I have, as if Maren has been avoiding me for several weeks. I miss being her close friend so much, and everything changed after she moved in with Dave.”
Deidre took Megan’s hand and led her into the guest bedroom, the one that had been Maren’s and Megan’s room before they left home. They sat on one of the twin beds.
“Did Maren ever say anything against Dave?”
“That’s what’s so strange, Mom. Maren adored him. I never heard her say anything bad about him. It was always, ‘He’s so thoughtful,’ or, ‘he wants to spend all his time with me.’ She was always telling me how he wanted to do everything with her: grocery shopping, clothes shopping, even just going for walks around town. She said she was lucky to have somebody who wanted to be with her all the time.”
Deidre had other questions. “Do you think she was really happy?” Megan nodded. “Could it be that you resent Dave, because subconsciously you think he took your sister away from you? The bond between twins can be very strong.” Megan shrugged and a single tear trickled down her cheek. She tried to smile.
“I suppose you’re right. Maybe I am jealous of Dave.” She dried her eyes. “Let’s get back downstairs and hear what Jeff has to say.”
Jeff was coming back to the living room as they came down the stairs, and they heard him announce, “I put a call through to the State Patrol and gave them the info on Maren’s car. They’ll keep their eyes open. Also, all of my deputies who are on patrol will check the out-of-way places like gravel pits and rest stops, places where a parked car might go unnoticed. The city police promised to make a sweep of the parking area by the boat landing, the city park, and the parking lot for the hiking trail. I’m sure something will turn up soon,” he said reassuringly.
Dave was becoming more fidgety by the minute, and Deidre thought he would explode. She was right.
“Oh, God, what’s going on?” he cried out. “Can’t somebody do something?” Deidre went to his side and knelt on the floor. She placed her hands on top of his and spoke quietly.
“Dave. Dave, look at me.” He raised his eyes to meet hers, and for the first time it occurred to her that Dave had beautiful eyes. She realized that her thoughts were far from what should have been on her mind, but she could only think that his eyes were beautiful. In that instant, as she took in the soft brown of his irises, the long, dark lashes, and his dense brows, the thought entered her mind, I can see why Maren fell for him.
Deidre cleared her throat. “We’re doing all that we can right now
. It’s going to take a little time, but all the departments have been alerted, and once it’s daylight, they’ll be able to make a better search for her car. In the meantime, all we can do is wait and pray.” She really wondered why she said that. She wasn’t particularly spiritual and always wondered just how much power prayer held.
Once, after a race riot in a southern city, a minister had said during an interview on TV, “The only hope we have now is prayer.” Deidre had answered the TV, “And how is that working out for you so far?”
Now she wondered if the results of any prayer she might say would be the same as the minister’s.
Chapter
Six
JEFF STAYED WITH THEM until one o’clock. “Sorry folks, but I have to get a little sleep,” he said apologetically. “Got a busy day tomorrow. If Maren hasn’t shown up by morning, we’ll get out a statewide notice of her disappearance.” Ben and Deidre were standing side by side, and Jeff put his hands on their backs. “This has to be really tough on you guys, but you have to remember that most missing persons show up the next day with one excuse or another. I’ll call you in the morning, and we’ll go from there.”
Jeff patted Dave on the back as he passed him. “Hang in there, Dave. We’ll hope for the best, and pray that by tomorrow night you two will be home together.”
There’s that word again. Pray. For God’s sake, Jeff, do something, Deidre thought.
Megan curled up on the couch and seemed to fall asleep. Deidre reached over and stroked her daughter’s hair, remembering how she was always the one who used sleep as an escape when anything traumatic was going on. But never before had the tension reached tonight’s level.
“Get you a cup of coffee, Dave?” she asked. He looked at her with dead eyes and nodded. Deidre busied herself in the kitchen trying to channel her nervous energy. “I don’t remember,” she called. “Black or with cream? Sugar?”
An Iron Fist, Two Harbors Page 2
