Chapter 21
21
DAISY
H urrying after my last client couldn’t make up her mind about going a shade darker for autumn, I rush through an intersection as the light flips from yellow to red.
I pull up in the pick-up lane where Mrs. Ling meets me.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I hope Liam isn’t upset,” I say. “I was held up at work.”
She speaks into her walkie-talkie, tells me, “Just a minute,” and moves on to the next car. A few kids come out, but there’s no sign of my son. A couple of minutes pass and I jump out of my car, heart racing, and head into the school. I brush past the woman at the sign-in desk and head for the office.
“I need Liam Cooper,” I say, “He never came out for pick-up.” I sound breathless and frantic, not calm and polite like I meant to do.
The secretary finishes a phone call and turns her attention to me in the busy office. I repeat what I need. She frowns for a second, refers to a clipboard and holds it out to me.
“Liam was signed out at 2:15 today,” she says.
“That’s impossible. My mom is at work and she’s the only other person authorized to pick him up. Are you sure it’s—” I scan the paper and see a signature scrawled beside my son’s name.
“There must be some sort of mix-up, because his teacher had a message from you on the class app saying he’d be picked up early by his uncle.”
“He doesn’t have an uncle!” I say, terror making me see spots. “I didn’t message her about that. Look—in the app it shows—” I stop and read a message sent from my parent account asking her to pack him up at two because his uncle was going to surprise him and pick him up. I grip the edge of the desk to keep from falling to my knees. “Who did you let take my son? Check the camera! Did you get his ID or anything?”
She picks up her phone and in seconds the principal and the school security officer are with me, taking me into an office and giving me a chair and a bottle of water. My head is swimming. It has the unreal quality of a nightmare. Liam is gone. They’re assuring me about their security protocols and question whether I forgot I sent the message. I argue that someone got into my account, and I know I sound crazy. I grab my phone and do the only thing I know to do.
I call his father. The second he picks up the phone I start crying.
“Benny, I need you. Please. I need you to come to the school. Bring Liam back right now!” I try to tell him which school and eventually the security officer takes my phone and gives him the address.
When I get the phone back, I want to scream into it. I shout at him to bring my son back. The school nurse comes in and starts to talk to me in the soothing voice I assume she reserves for people in full-scale panic. I take deep breaths to calm myself down, but nothing is working. Benny found out about our son and now he’s punishing me.