Athena's Daughter (31 page)

Athena shook her head and swallowed. “That’s
putting it mildly. Every morning’s a battle to get her dressed and
to Andi’s for the day. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear
someone kidnapped my kid and exchanged her for a look-a-like demon.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with her.”

“It’ll get better when he gets back.” Tammy
patted her shoulder in sympathy. After her initial fan-worship of
Derek had abated, Tammy stopped asking to meet him every five
minutes, and had settled down into a surprisingly good
employee.

“Maybe,” Athena sighed. “He’s taking her to
England in a couple of weeks, so that should make her happy. The
real test will be when he goes on tour. He’ll be gone for months.”
While she sat at home alone blowing up like a balloon.

Resisting the urge to lick the wax paper her
sandwich had been wrapped in to get every last bit of mayonnaise,
she bent to grab the phone from under the counter when it rang.

“Stax of Wax.”

“Theenie?”

If Andi hadn’t used her nickname, Athena
wasn’t sure she would have recognized her sister’s voice as full of
tears and panic as it was.

“Andi? What’s wrong?”

“Theenie, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how it
happened. Oh, God, I’m so sorry!”

Fear sent sheets of ice cascading down her
back, and she gripped the phone so hard her fingers turned
white.

“Andi. Tell me what happened.”

A sob came down the line before Andi
answered. “Elizabeth’s gone.”

“What?” Athena whispered.

“We were in the backyard and the kids were
playing. I went in to get some Kool-Aid, and Carrie came running in
and said Elizabeth went out the gate to the front.” Andi’s breath
got faster, and the tears in her voice grew thicker. “I ran out the
front door, but she wasn’t there. I looked everywhere and I can’t
find her.”

Athena was on her feet with no memory of
having gotten there. Her throat closed up, and she had to force her
words through a small opening. “Call the police.”

“I did. They said they can’t do anything
until she’s been missing twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours! Are
they kidding? Theenie, I don’t know what to do.”

The next thing Athena knew, she was in the
passenger seat of her car as Tammy drove down Poplar at dangerous
speeds, darting in and out of lanes. The girl’s face was set and
tight, and she gripped the steering wheel like a drowning
woman.

Athena guessed she must have told Hal what
happened, and he in turn told Tammy to drive her home. She had no
memory of any of it, though. All she could think about was her
sweet, precious baby. She could hear herself sobbing, but her eyes
were dry. She had to get home and find her little girl.

Tammy took risks that made Memphis driving
history, and before Athena knew it they were turning onto Cherokee.
The sight of a number of unknown cars parked out front brought her
panic surging to the surface, and she was out of the car before it
came to a complete halt.

Breath tore through her chest in painful
stabs as she ran through the yard and across the porch, and she was
only peripherally aware of Tammy running behind her. The front door
stood open, and she dashed into the house toward the sound of
voices in the kitchen.

Andi saw her first and hurtled toward her,
tears streaming down her face. “Oh, my God, Theenie!”

Athena automatically patted her sister’s back
as her gaze scanned the crowded room. A large number of her
parents’ college students were present, and several of her
neighbors. Even her mother was present, her no-nonsense gray
pantsuit a solemn note amid all the bright summer clothing as she
stood in the corner murmuring into the phone.

Yes, the house was full of people. But no
Elizabeth. Athena’s eyes kept searching for her wriggling,
energetic form, the bright yellow T-shirt with the pink smiley face
she dressed her in that morning, the long dark braid and the bright
blue eyes. Her ears strained to hear her little girl’s giggles, her
sing-song voice asking for a snack, a plea to watch television,
anything.

This wasn’t real, it couldn’t be happening.
She could not be standing in her kitchen surrounded by people and
noise and still have it feel echoing and empty. Without Elizabeth,
the familiar room was as cold and stark as an alien landscape.

She ignored the voices aimed at her, asking
questions, offering advice and spouting reassurances, and turned in
a circle trying to see past them to where Elizabeth had to be
standing. Her lips trembled as the reality of the situation washed
over her, and her panicked gaze darted around the room in an
ever-increasing need to find what she sought.

“Where’s Elizabeth?” she burst out in a
near-scream.

The familiar, comforting scent of Jergen’s
lotion combined with Estee Lauder Youth Dew perfume enveloped her
as soft, strong hands closed over hers.

“Athena, listen to me.”

Trained from childhood to obey that voice,
she stilled and looked into her mother’s grey eyes. A sense of calm
fell over her at the touch of the hands that had always made things
better when she was growing up. Mom would take of things; she
always did, even if she was a bitch when she did it.

“Are you with me now? Good.” A flash of
irritation blazed in Katherine Hill’s eyes, and she turned her head
to speak sharply to a neighbor looming over her right shoulder.
“Leave her alone for a minute,” she snapped in the voice that
brought thousands of college students to heel over the past twenty
years. “You’re confusing her.” She turned back to her daughter, her
voice gentled. “We’re doing everything we can to find her. Now, we
need to know if she has any little friends in the neighborhood,
someone’s house she might have gone to.”

“Um.” Athena swallowed and tried to focus.
“She plays with Keely Monette down the street. But she wouldn’t
have gone there. They’re in California at Disneyland.”

“We’ve already looked there,” Andi put in
from somewhere behind her. “No one’s home.”

“Well, we can look again. Is that all,
Athena? No one else in the neighborhood she plays with?”

“I can’t…” A horrifying thought occurred to
her, and she gripped her mother’s hands. “The lake!”

“Your father and some of his students are
already looking there.” Katherine’s lips shook a bit before she
firmed them again. “I’m sure Elizabeth would not get in that lake,
Athena. She has more sense than that.”

Nodding obediently, Athena agreed. Elizabeth
might go to the lake, but she’d never go into it.

“Walt took a picture of Elizabeth to his
office, and he’s running off flyers on his copy machine. He should
be back here any minute. Your dad is out looking for her, like I
said. Speaking of dads, we don’t know how to get in touch with
Derek,” her mother continued. “Have you called him yet?”

Derek! In an instant Athena wanted him there
with a need that was almost painful. “No, not yet,” she
whispered.

“Then you need to do that. But before you do,
you need to give us a key to the guest house.”

“She can’t get in there,” Athena protested.
“It’s locked.”

Andi spoke up again. “Theenie, she spent so
much time out there with him. Maybe she knows a way to get in even
without a key.”

That was true. Elizabeth had been in the
guest house almost more than she’d been in the main house over the
summer. If there was a way to get in there, to go into the place
where she could feel close to her father, she’d do it.

“My keys,” she murmured, patting her pockets.
“I don’t know where my keys are.”

“Here they are.” Tammy stepped forward and
pressed them into Athena’s hand. “And I just called the sorority
house. Some of the sisters are here taking summer classes, and
they’ll be here in less than ten minutes to help search.”

“Thanks.” She nodded at Tammy with gratitude,
and began fumbling through the keys on the ring, looking for the
one she’d never used. “Here it is.”

Andi took it from her and headed out the back
door, followed closely by two college students.

“Now.” Her mother put a hand on her back and
turned her toward the hall. “Go call Derek. Use the phone in your
bedroom where it’s quieter.”

Nodding in obedience, Athena went down the
hall to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. The quiet of
the room was surreal after the circus atmosphere of the kitchen,
and it, along with the calm, controlled voice of her mother,
steadied Athena a bit. She was still panicked and lost, but at
least now she had an immediate goal, a job to do.

Her little red-covered address book was in
the nightstand drawer, and she pulled it out, searching for the
contact information Derek gave her when he first told her he would
be going to Muscle Shoals. The paper with his handwriting fluttered
into her lap along with a collection of business cards, and she
snatched it up, the cards falling to the floor.

Derek. Just the thought of him steadied her
further. If he would come home, then everything would be fine.
Elizabeth would come to him even if she ignored everyone else. He
could find her.

Her hands were still shaking enough to make
dialing the phone tricky, and it took her three tries before she
was able to punch in the correct number. The connection was made,
and the phone rang. And rang. And rang.

Panic fluttered to the surface again. Was she
not going to be able to reach him? She gripped the phone harder,
and willed someone to pick up. Just when she was on the edge of
full-blown terror, a brusque male voice answered.

“Yeah?”

“I need to speak to Derek Marshall
immediately,” she informed him.

“Sorry. No one here by that name.”

“Oh yes, there is!” She jumped to her feet.
“There’s an emergency with his daughter in Memphis, and you’d
better get him to this phone this instant!” She was yelling, but
couldn’t stop. “You tell him Athena needs to talk to him. And if
you don’t, then I’ll call whatever passes for police in your shitty
little town and have them swarming all over the place and arrest
your ass!”

“Geez, darlin’,” the voice drawled. “Don’t
get your panties in a wad. Hang on.”

A clunk sounded in her ear as the phone was
put down on a solid surface. She heard the distant sound of a door
opening and closing before silence descended. Hurry! Now that she
knew she would talk to Derek, any delay was unbearable. Hurry!

When she heard the door again followed by
approaching footsteps, she pressed the phone tighter to her
ear.

“Athena?”

His soft, confused voice in her ear was the
most comforting thing she’d heard all day, and she sagged in
relief.

“Derek, come home.”

“What’s going on? Jerry said something about
an emergency.”

“Elizabeth’s missing.” Now that she’d started
talking, the words spilled out of her in a torrent. “The kids were
playing in the back yard and Andi came in to make Kool-Aid. And
Elizabeth went out the gate, but Andi couldn’t find her. And now
she’s gone and the police won’t do anything to help and everyone’s
looking but we can’t find her.”

“How long?”

The low note of panic in his voice brought
her upright, and brought back to mind the severity of the
situation.

“I don’t know. An hour, maybe more.” Her
voice broke. “Derek, please come home. I need you.”

“I’m coming right now. Do you hear me, angel?
I’m on my way.”

“Please hurry.”

All her life Athena had heard the phrase
“like looking for a needle in a haystack,” but she never really
realized what it meant until she started looking for her missing
daughter.

Elizabeth was so small and Memphis was so
big; how was she supposed to find one little seven-year-old girl?
And she might be hiding, afraid she was in trouble. Athena made
sure to call out that she wasn’t mad as she searched the streets.
But no one ever answered.

Now the sun was setting and Elizabeth was
still missing. The walkie-talkie Walt handed her just before she
left to search had only crackled once in the intervening hours, and
it was just her mother wanting to know where she was.

Athena stopped and looked around. When her
mother called she had just crossed Southern Avenue. Now she was on
Park among run-down buildings with boarded-up windows, and empty
lots full of weeds and broken bits of glass. It was forbidding
enough during the day, but with the shadows lengthening and streets
growing empty it was downright scary. Only the thought of her baby
being lost in this kept her going.

She really didn’t think Elizabeth could have
made it this far, and even if she did she wouldn’t stay in such a
frightening place. Athena turned and started walking toward
Highland Street. In a bit she would come to a quiet neighborhood
with small, trim houses, schools and churches. If Elizabeth was
lost, that was the kind of place she’d feel safest.

Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks as she
trudged along the sidewalk. The further down in the sky the sun
got, the more her hope was extinguished. All the things she hadn’t
let herself think of during the day were creeping in despite her
best efforts to keep them out. Elizabeth knew not to talk to
strangers or to get in cars with them, but if someone wanted to
take her, they would have no problem grabbing her and …

A sob tore through Athena’s chest, and she
walked faster as if speed would somehow bring her daughter into
sight. This was a nightmare and she couldn’t wake up.

“Athena!”

She whirled around at the voice. The next
moment she was flying toward Derek, her feet skimming over the
cracked and uneven concrete. His arms crushed her to his chest, and
she let go, bawling like a baby. Of all the people who cared about
finding Elizabeth, only Derek could understand how Athena felt. She
knew he felt the same fear, the same urgency, and yes, the same
guilt she did. He was the only one she trusted to never, ever give
up, just as she wouldn’t.