Since You've Been Gone (5 page)

“And you feel she's reliable?”

“Goodness, yes.” Molly tried to smile. “She's our high school valedictorian. She's headed for the University of Virginia in the fall but she's already taking classes this summer through an extension program. She works at The Jewelry Box downtown during the day. Very ambitious. Her mother works at Grace Healthcare. She's Frank's secretary.”

Frank Hardison, Rebecca's stepfather, had taken over running Grace Healthcare shortly after the death of Rebecca's father, Patrick. Her mother had married him a year after Patrick had been killed in the wreck that had almost claimed Rebecca's life, too. If not for Frank, Rebecca felt the family and the business would have fallen apart.

“Frank was here earlier,” Molly said. “After Bill had
finished questioning Sonia, he took her to the hospital.”

“We missed them somehow,” Clay said. “It was a busy night with the storm.”

Bill nodded. “The girl had been hit on the head. She said it happened a little after nine. She was watching TV. She was still unconscious when Molly got home.”

Rebecca leaned forward, looking at Molly intensely. “You haven't come in contact lately with anyone who seems odd, have you? Someone who pays too much attention to Todd, someone who says things like they'd love to have a boy like him?”

“Bill has already asked me all of this.” Molly shook her head. “Since school is out, Todd has been staying at Mrs. Lomax's during the day, but then so do about six other kids. We've been to the movies a few times and last Saturday we went to one of the concerts at the park. But I didn't see him talking to any adults or anyone watching him with particular interest.”

“Well, I see I'm just covering the same ground as Bill,” Rebecca said. Of course she knew all the questions to ask. The same ones had been asked about Jonnie. “But what about the neighbors?” she couldn't help continuing. “Did they see anything?”

“People in the house on the right are on vacation,” Bill answered. “Couple across the street say they didn't see anything unusual. A nurse lives next door. She does some private-duty work at nights looking after an elderly lady. She leaves about seven.”

“And the baby-sitter, Sonia, saw and heard
nothing?
”

Bill answered again. “Said she looked in on Todd just before nine. He was asleep. Molly's told me he can be a pill about going to sleep—wants some special light on, keeps asking for glasses of water—but I guess he'd played pretty hard today and wore out early. Sonia claims she was lying on the couch watching something on TV. All at once she was aware that someone was in the room and then she felt a pain in her head before she could even sit up. She does have a nasty bump.”

Molly stared at a framed eight-by-ten photo of Todd prominently displayed on the mantle, clearly not paying attention to the exchange between Rebecca and Bill. Her fingers knotted and unknotted a couple of times before she finally asked almost timidly, “Becky, will you do something for me?”

“Anything.”

“Go into Todd's room. Spend some time and tell me what you see.”

A tingle of discomfort rippled through Rebecca. So often in the past she'd been asked to perform this feat of “seeing” what others couldn't. She'd already “seen” something, but she didn't want to mention it in front of Molly, who was clearly fragile. First she wanted to discuss with Bill her vision of Todd being chloroformed and carried out the window. But at the moment Molly was looking at her with both hope and desperation in her eyes. As much as Rebecca disliked trying to stir her drowsing ESP back to full wakefulness, she couldn't turn down Molly.

“Okay. But you realize I haven't done this sort of thing for years. I'm not like I was when I was sixteen. The visions don't come—”

“Rebecca,
anything
you can do will be a help,” Molly said beseechingly. “Please try. For me.”

Only someone with a heart of stone could have turned down the frantic mother, Rebecca thought. All of her life she'd loved Molly. She'd waited in the hospital while Molly gave birth to Todd by cesarean section. She'd begged Molly to stay in New Orleans, but Molly had insisted on returning to Sinclair. She stood up. “Show me his bedroom.”

Bill rose with Molly. As they walked down the hall, Rebecca felt her chest tightening with stress. The exhilaration that had once accompanied ESP insight now triggered dread so strong she was near nausea. Still, she managed a tight smile for Molly as she entered the bedroom.

In her vision she'd known only what Todd knew and
his eyes had been covered by a cloth. Her knowledge of the room came from Todd's thoughts—the blue Lava lamp Molly left on at night for comfort, the goldfish in a large, sparkling clean bowl. Her gaze went to the window set only two feet above the floor, nothing in front of it except a red and blue throw rug. How easy it would have been for someone to climb through it holding a slight, limp seven-year-old. “Could he have left prints beneath the window?” she asked.

“We haven't had rain for two weeks until tonight,” Bill said. “The ground was hard. But no one said he came in through the window.”

“I just assumed the doors were locked,” Rebecca said to Bill, who was looking at her suspiciously. He'd been the first person to accept her extrasensory abilities when she was a child, and now he'd already guessed she knew more than she was saying.

“But I might have left the window unlocked!” Molly blurted. “I should have checked it before I left, but I didn't! Oh, God.”

Rebecca put her arms around Molly. She was trembling violently. “Molly, if someone was out to kidnap Todd, they would have just forced the window open even if it was locked. It's not your fault.” She leaned back and smiled into Molly's blotchy face and wide eyes. “Now you and Bill go back to the living room and leave me alone. Maybe I'll come up with something.”

“Oh, Becky, thank you,” Molly said.

“I can only try. I can't promise anything. You know how this works, or doesn't work most of the time …”

Bill put his hand on Molly's shoulder, steering her away from the room. “Take your time, Becky. And relax.”

Rebecca had rarely felt less relaxed. Her nerves thrummed and her shoulders ached from the weight of everyone's expectations. She walked around the small room, trying to concentrate on her surroundings but instead replaying every negative remark that had been made over the years about her “magic powers” and her “hocus-pocus.”
Usually she had been able to shrug the gibes off because she had a degree of faith in herself. Her mother's mother, Ava, had had the same power. She had never suffered an insecure day in her life and she'd tried to instill the same unshakable self-faith in Rebecca. Ava had never been entirely successful. But now Rebecca had to dig deep for some of her old confidence and try, for Molly's sake.

Rebecca trailed her fingers over the red, white, and blue patchwork quilt covering Todd's bed, a bed she knew police had already searched for fingerprints, errant objects, torn clothing, and blood. Above the bed on the north wall hung a
Star Wars
poster. On the east wall was a magnificent framed photo of a wolf standing in snow taken by Todd's grandfather, Molly's father, who had abandoned the running of Grace Healthcare to become a wildlife photographer, leaving the company in the hands of his brother Patrick.

Rebecca walked to the maple dresser. At one corner sat a globe. In the center two goldfish swam peacefully in their bowl with blue gravel and a castle in the bottom. On the edge of the mirror hung a medallion on a red ribbon reading, “First Place, Junior Swimmers.” Last year's trophy for Todd's performance in swimming class. Rebecca smiled. After years of lessons, she still could not swim although she wasn't afraid of water.

Dimly Rebecca heard a roll of thunder. Was the storm coming back? She shivered, not for herself but for Todd. She knew he was terrified of storms. She scanned the room again. She could almost feel Molly and Bill vibrating with anticipation in the living room. She wanted desperately to tell them she'd seen something beyond the ordinary in the room, but there was nothing.

When she walked into the living room, Molly took one look at her face before her tears began to stream. “I'm sorry,” Rebecca said awkwardly. “I didn't see anything …”

In the bedroom
, she wanted to add, but she knew it was best to keep Molly in the dark for now; she'd tell Bill about her vision in the car as quickly as possible, though. Not
that it would be all that helpful. She couldn't give him a description of Todd's abductor or where he'd been taken.

“It's all right,” Molly said hollowly, wiping at her face with a tattered tissue. “I really didn't expect anything.”

But of course she had and the sobs that tore at her throat a minute later said so. Rebecca rushed to her and held her shuddering body close. Clay rose. “I think Molly needs something to help her relax,” he said gently.

Molly shook her head. “No! I have to stay alert so I can help Todd.”

“You can't help Todd in this condition,” Bill said. “Let Clay give you something. Then you'll think more clearly.”

Molly didn't argue. She simply cried raggedly on Rebecca's shoulder as Rebecca's own tears began. It had been Molly who had cradled her when she'd cried over her father's death when she was 9, Molly who had comforted her after Jonnie's death when she was 17. Now their positions were reversed, although Todd wasn't dead. Rebecca knew this, but she couldn't say anything yet, she couldn't raise false hopes with a vision so vague.

Molly didn't flinch as Clay injected her. “Ativan,” he said. “You'll feel drowsy in a bit.”

“Drowsy? I don't want to be drowsy,” Molly protested. “I want to be alert.”

“You've had a bad shock, Molly. You need to sleep it off. When you wake up, you'll be calmer and better able to help your son.”

Rebecca helped Molly into her bedroom, into her pajamas, and into bed. “Will you stay with me for a minute?” Molly asked after Rebecca had tucked her in like a child.

“Sure.” Rebecca sat down on the bed and gently smoothed Molly's brown hair back from her face. “Remember when you used to spend the night with me when we were kids?”

“So often. My parents were always gone. And you know what? I didn't care. When they were home Dad seemed so restless and Mom asked incessantly what he was thinking, where he was going, who he'd been talking to on the phone
until he'd lose his temper. It was different at your house. So much fun.” Molly's smile became slightly lopsided as the tranquilizer took effect. “Remember how we used to stay up watching horror movies?”

“The
Halloween
group were my favorites. I wanted to grow up to be Jamie Lee Curtis. Mother threatened to ground me if I didn't stop standing on the back lawn practicing my screams.”

“You were a
great
screamer. And how about Jason in his hockey mask? No summer camps for us! Summer at your house was perfect.” Molly had begun slurring her words. “Even affer your dad died it was still good. Oh, he was wunnerful and I missed him but then Frank came along and he was gennel and kind … not as much fun as your favver but loving … and zen …”

And then Jonnie was murdered. Rebecca couldn't talk about Jonnie's murder with Molly, not when Todd was still lost. She was searching for something to say when she looked down and saw Molly's eyes closing. Thank God.

She went back to the living room where Clay and Bill were talking quietly. “She's asleep,” Rebecca said. “Bill, I didn't want to bring this up in front of Molly, but is there a chance Todd's father took him?”

“The father was my first thought,” Bill admitted. “But Molly told me he's dead.”

“Dead?” Rebecca was shocked. The possibility had never occurred to her. “When? Who was he?”

“She wouldn't tell me who he was. She just said he definitely couldn't have taken Todd because he died several years ago. I pressed until I thought she was going to get hysterical, but I couldn't get any more information. I thought you might know something, Becky.”

“I don't. Honestly, Bill, I wouldn't hold back at a time like this if I knew
anything
. I was in New Orleans when she got pregnant. Mother was in better shape then and took care of her.” Rebecca frowned. “But I've always thought maybe the father was married. She never said anything definite, but I got the feeling he was just unavailable, not unwilling
to be with her. Maybe he was one of her professors. She might be protecting his family from ever knowing he had an affair.”

“That would be like her,” Bill agreed. “Always thinking of other people.”

Rebecca closed her eyes. “Oh, God, what a thing to happen to Molly. Todd was her world.
Is
her world,” she corrected herself in horror. Todd would be returned. He had to be. “Of course I'll stay with her tonight.”

Clay shook his head. “That's not a good idea. Your body has suffered quite a shock. You're not up to caring for Molly tonight.” He looked at Bill. “Is there someone else who can stay with Molly?”

“There will be cops here taking care of the phone, handling people who have heard the news and will start coming by. And I'll be in and out. I might be some comfort to her. Molly and I have been seeing each other a bit lately.”

“You mean dating?” Rebecca blurted in surprise.

Bill's color rose slightly. “Well, I guess you could call it that. We're not related by blood after all,” he said defiantly. “I'm
Suzanne's
brother, not Patrick's and Molly's father's.”

“I know the family relationships. Bill,” Rebecca said, smiling. “You don't have to defend yourself to me. I think it's wonderful that you're seeing each other.”