Chapter 28 #2
“Oh, God,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead. “I really screwed this up, didn’t I?”
“Sure did,” Peyton said cheerily, pushing my margarita glass closer. I glared at her and she laughed. “Oh, come on, Grace. You can totally fix it. That guy is cu-ruh-azy about you. It’s so obvious.”
I felt a little flicker of hope in my chest. Wasn’t that exactly what I had always wanted from Liam? For him to feel for me the way I felt about him? I cast a glance over at Rosa and she was nodding, a small smile on her face.
“A guy doesn’t go to that much trouble on a date for a girl he’s already sleeping with unless he’s really trying to make her happy.”
You deserve it, he’d told me, when I argued about the fuss he’d made. I could still hear the tender note in his voice. Could still feel the way his arms had tightened around me, holding me close enough to hear the beat of his heart beneath my ear.
I sat up straighter. I needed to talk to Liam, preferably soon. The team didn’t have a game tonight, and they weren’t traveling, so that meant he would probably be home after practice. I pulled out my phone to check the time. Three fifteen. So he might be home any time now. I would just—
The phone in my hand started ringing, making me jump with surprise. The number on the screen was even more surprising. Helen Church. My principal. I couldn’t remember the last time she had called me on my cell. Most after school communication from her office came through email.
Feeling unsettled without really knowing why, I held the phone up to my ear. “Hello?”
At first listen, Helen’s voice sounded the way it normally did—efficient and professional. But there was something in her tone, a slight breathlessness, that had me sitting up straight, worry creeping in.
“There was an incident with your substitute today that I need to make you aware of.”
I swallowed hard. I had left detailed notes for my sub about the day’s schedule and lessons.
I had included my usual welcome letter, pointing out any behavior issues they should be aware of.
I rarely took sick or personal days, but when I did, I was sure to cover all my bases. Had I missed something?
“What happened?” I asked, both the girls looking at me with concern at the audible shake in my voice.
That breathlessness increased when she answered me and I realized, with a jolt, that Helen was scared.
“Josie O’Conner is missing.”
I sat in stunned silence for a long moment, sure I had misunderstood. “What do you mean, missing?” I finally asked.
“According to the substitute, Josie lined up with the students for the bus this afternoon.”
“Josie doesn’t take the bus,” I cut in. “Her grandparents or father pick her up.”
“Apparently, the substitute didn’t realize that.”
“But…” I was finding it difficult to speak. Panic was rushing through me, muddling my thoughts. There had to be some kind of mistake. “I left a note. The substitute is supposed to call the students by name to line up for the bus.”
That was the procedure for the entire school.
I still adhered to it, every day, even though by now I fully knew which of my students were bussed and which were picked up.
Along with taking attendance in the morning, I considered it the most important safety precaution of my day.
And I had definitely mentioned it in my note.
Helen sighed. “You know how it can be at the end of the day. There’s a lot of chaos.
Apparently, the bus aide came to collect those students before your sub had finished lining them up.
” She paused and her voice sounded carefully controlled when she continued.
“It was your sub’s first day. He said he felt overwhelmed and didn’t think it was a problem to let the kids go. ”
Guilt crashed over me. I shouldn’t have taken the day off. I should have been there, taking care of my kids. It was my job. And instead, I was here, whining to my friends about my love life and sipping on margaritas.
If something happened to Josie, I was never going to forgive myself.
“The bus aide didn’t notice they had one of the wrong kids?” My voice was way too loud for the restaurant but I couldn’t seem to control it. I was panicking now, flooded with worry and confusion and guilt. How could this happen?
“The bus aide didn’t even notice Josie was with her group.
” I closed my eyes and pictured the scene.
Bus line-up was always chaotic. It took place on the same side of the building as parent pick-up, meaning there were kids and adults coming and going.
It would be easy to miss one little girl in all of that.
It was one of the reasons I was so rigid in sticking to the school’s policy.
“So she got on one of the busses?” Why in the hell would Josie do that? It didn’t make any sense—
“No,” Helen said, and my insides turned cold. “She didn’t get on any of the busses. We checked the security cameras. It appears that as soon as she got outside, she left the group from your room and got lost in the crowd. One of the cameras showed her walking out of the parking lot.”
“Alone?”
There was a definite catch to Helen’s voice now. “Yes. She left alone. When her grandmother arrived a few minutes later, the substitute realized what had happened and called the office.”
I pictured Evelyn Taylor coming to get Josie the way she always did, her kind face patient while she listened to the little girl chatter about her day. What would she have thought when she arrived to find Josie missing?
What did Liam think when she called him to tell him the terrible news?
I have to get to him. That was the only thing I could think of. I actually got up from my chair, ready to leave, before I realized that I hadn’t driven.
Helen was explaining what the police were doing and how the school was helping, but it all seemed to be coming to me through a fog. I realized belatedly that Peyton was clutching my shoulder, half holding me up as I slumped at the table.
“Her father has been notified?” I finally asked, my voice raspy.
“Yes. He met police officers at his home.”
I took a deep breath. “Do you need me to come to the school? I would prefer to go to the house as well, see if I can be any help to the police or the family.”
I phrased it as a question but there was no way I was going anywhere but Liam’s house, whatever she said. Luckily, she agreed that I should go to the family while she stayed at the school and coordinated things there.
“I can give you the address,” she said and I fumbled in my purse for something to write on before Rosa shoved her phone into my hand, the map app already opened.
I typed in the address as Helen read it to me, vaguely thinking about how I had never been to Liam’s house in all that time we’d been sneaking around.
I would always invite him to my place, not wanting Josie to ever see us together.
As soon as I was off the phone, the girls were already standing, reaching for their bags. “We heard most of that through the phone,” Rosa said, taking several bills from her wallet. “We’ll go with you.” I glanced down at our half-finished meals—and the nearly empty margarita pitcher.
“Shit,” I muttered. “We can’t drive.”
“Already on it,” Peyton said, typing something into her phone. “Our Uber is almost here.”
I closed my eyes, trying to take a calming breath. I was so grateful that my girls were here right now. I had no idea how I would have managed on my own.
Was Liam on his own? Surely, he had Evelyn and Peter with him. Maybe Jay as well. I wondered where he’d been when he heard. At the rink? On his way home? I shuddered to think about him driving after hearing that news.
“Come on,” Rosa said, pressing my purse into my hand and gently nudging me into motion. “Let’s get you there.”
The first person I saw after knocking on the door to Liam’s house was the last person I would have ever expected to see there.
“Andy?”
“Hey.” His familiar green eyes, so much darker than mine, were anxious.
“Everyone’s in the back.” He opened the door wider so we could come in.
I didn’t need to ask my question—what the hell are you doing here?
—because Andy had always been able to read my mind.
“I was with him at the arena when he got the news. Didn’t think he should get behind the wheel so I drove him over. ”
That didn’t explain why Andy hadn’t simply asked his driver to bring Liam, but I was pretty sure I already knew the reason. Whatever issues the two of them might have, there was no way my brother would leave someone alone with the worst news of their lives.
When we got to the back room, the girls stayed back, hovering around the door, probably not wanting to get in the way. My eyes scanned the space. Evelyn was crying, showing a police officer pictures of Josie. Peter was on the phone, pacing behind her.
Sitting on a couch in the center of the room, staring blankly at the floor, was Liam. Jay sat next to him, a hand on his shoulder, while another officer asked questions. I didn’t think Liam even heard him. I was pretty sure he was in shock.
Without a thought for who was in that room or what they might see, I walked straight to Liam.
He looked up when I was a few feet away and the moment he saw me, his face crumpled.
I rushed the final few steps and he grabbed me around the middle, burying his face against my stomach as I stood helplessly over him.
“It’s okay,” I soothed, running my fingers through his hair, trying to keep my voice from breaking. “We’re going to find her.”
“Gracie.” His voice was muffled in my blouse. “I…I can’t.”
I didn’t need him to elaborate. His daughter was everything to him. If something happened to her, if the police couldn’t bring her home, I didn’t think Liam would be able to survive it.