Between Friends (44 page)

“Dallas, what’s happening?” Alex asked softly but in a firm voice.

Dallas shook her head at him, indicating that she didn’t know yet. “Val, I don’t understand. What do you mean you haven’t seen her?”

“She said she was going to spend the night with a classmate. I know the girl and her family. They’ve stayed back and forth with each other before. So Megan left the house at about six. She told me they were going to a movie, and then back to the friend’s house. I didn’t think any more about it. Until the girl called me an hour ago looking for Megan. She hadn’t seen her since study hall yesterday morning.”

“Oh, no. Oh, Val …”

Alex sat up and took the phone out of Dallas’s hand. “Valerie, what’s wrong?”

“Alex … I … Megan is gone. I … I don’t know where, I …”

“Tell me what happened.”

It was another five minutes before the full story of Megan’s anger at Valerie and the argument between the two of them had been fleshed out. Then Alex told her she should finish canvassing Megan’s friends, and then call the police. Dallas gasped when she heard Alex’s firm directive, but she knew it had to be done. Something could be horribly wrong. Alex issued more instructions and then hung up. He turned to Dallas.

“I have to go help find her.”

“I’m coming, too.”

“No. You have to stay here, Dallas. What if Megan is trying to reach you? What if she calls or tries to come by herself?”

Tears welled up in Dallas’s eyes. She repeated all the possibilities Alex outlined and thought,
But what if Megan doesn’t?
Dallas nodded her consent to remain in the apartment. They both got out of bed and dressed quickly. Alex made several other phone calls. One to Ross. One to Lillian and Vin. Dallas called her parents, just in case. Megan knew them, and they were a lot closer than trying to reach the city … if that was what she had set out to do. If nothing else had happened to her.

The squawk box was driving her crazy, with its scratchy loud messages in code. As were the incessant questions and the room filled with suited and strapped men. Valerie had given up control of the situation and her house, which she’d lost the moment she’d made her suspicions about where her daughter was official. But neither she nor the police had any better idea some five hours after Valerie’s discovery that Megan had lied to her … and possibly run away.

“Miss Holland, I’m Detective Burnes. I have a few questions, please.”

That’s how it had gone. Answering questions. Valerie was becoming enraged by the questions. Why weren’t these men and women all out looking for her child? She turned to give her attention to the newest officer. She couldn’t be stubborn now. First they had to find Megan.

“Sure,” Valerie whispered, her voice tired and flat as the officer sat in the chair opposite her and began.

“Now, you told Detective Tillis that you and your daughter had had an argument recently. Over what?”

Valerie felt the stress and pain press at her temples. She didn’t know how to say that it was because she herself had been unreasonable and hard. That she’d been angry and disappointed and had taken it out on Megan. Because to say so would be the same as saying it was her fault that Megan was missing. That Megan might have been angry enough at her to want to run away was what tore at Valerie the most.
She
had driven her own daughter away.

And her best friend.

It was ironic that Dallas was the one person she wanted there with her.

The officers were careful not to make any promises. A twelve-year-old out alone in unfamiliar surroundings was vulnerable and easy prey to a variety of undesirables. Yet they said Megan would probably show up on her own when she got hungry and it got dark. It was going to be dark in an hour.

Valerie nodded absently as the officer assured her that all was going to be fine and walked away to join some of the other half-dozen or so detectives camped out in her dining room. She felt alone. Members of her family had already been by to offer their support, but the weeping had nearly driven Valerie to distraction. She had suggested that it was better if they went home to wait.

Valerie looked at her watch again. It had been exactly twenty-four hours since she’d seen Megan. She could feel her resolve to stay calm starting to crack around the edges. Her stomach was queasy with stress. Tension pulled at the muscles behind her eyelids, twisting into a headache.

“Ms. Holland, there’s someone here who says he has to see you. Should we let him in?” the detective asked. “A Ross Manning.”

Valerie stood up and nodded to the officer. “Yes, let him in.” Then she waited, feeling a jolt of adrenaline that made her both apprehensive and wary. She was in no way expecting Ross, but she was not surprised that he had come. She stared in the direction of the entrance until he finally appeared, his usually mischievous and knowing gaze serious and thoughtful as it sought her out. When their eyes connected across the room, Valerie felt for the first time that she was not alone. She was glad to see him.

She noticed the slightly uneven gait in his walking as he approached, his face looking as concerned and serious as she’d ever seen it. Valerie decided she liked it the other way, when he was cheerful and bantering, flirtatious.

He stopped within a foot of her. For the first time since they’d met they were at a loss for words for their usual sparring. The dynamics were different now, and there was something else … someone else, at stake.

“You haven’t heard anything?” he asked.

The sound of his voice was strong and solid, his presence reassuring. “No, nothing.”

“Alex had some ideas to check out. Is Dallas here with you?”

Valerie shook her head. “She’s at her apartment, in case Megan manages to make it there.”

He looked closely at her. “How are you doing?” he asked quietly.

She wished he wouldn’t be concerned and tender. She wished his voice didn’t sound like it could heal anything. She wished he wouldn’t look at her that way that said the horrible pain in the middle of her chest was real and it did feel that it was ripping her insides out.

“I’m okay.” Valerie nodded.

Obviously Ross didn’t believe her. He stepped forward and put an arm around her. Valerie felt the crack turn into splintering. Her forehead fell forward onto his chest, and she could hide the fierce pain that seemed to squeeze out through her pores. She had never been so scared in her life.

“Ross, I’m sorry. I …”

“Don’t be.”

The acceptance of her pain, the dismissal of her need for comfort and forgiveness, gave Valerie permission to cry.

Every time the phone rang, Dallas stared at it as if it contained an evil spirit. It meant that someone was calling with news. But she was afraid that the news might be something she didn’t want to hear.

On the start of the third ring she picked it up. “Yes …”

“Dallas, anything yet?”

She sighed. “No, Ross, nothing.”

“The police out here have called all of her friends, and searched the usual places where the kids hang out. No one has seen her.”

“She hasn’t tried to call me.”

“What about Alex?”

Dallas blushed. His assumption that Alex would have been with her made her realize that Ross was aware of what was developing between them. “He left here several hours ago, but I haven’t heard from him. He didn’t say what he was going to check out.” Dallas took a breath. “How’s Val?”

“Do you want to talk to her?”

“Well, maybe I should …”

“Hold on …”

Dallas could hear the low murmur of Ross’s voice and then Valerie was on the line.

“Hi, Dallas.”

She sounded exhausted and Dallas wasn’t surprised. But she also wondered if what had happened between them was going to prevent them from supporting each other.

“How are you holding up?”

“My nerves are raw. I want to scream at the police to do something. My mother has been hysterical.”

“I’m not surprised. Is Rosemary there?”

“No. I made her go home to wait. I’m trying to stay calm, and her crying was getting to me. God knows I’m going to do enough of it myself if anything …”

“Don’t say it, Val. I
know
Megan is okay.”

“I hope to God you’re right.”

Dallas could hear the strain in her voice. Their mutual concern for Megan’s welfare had moved them past their last difficult encounter. Dallas imagined that it was not forgotten by Valerie any more than herself, but it hardly seemed important at the moment.

“I’ll call if I hear anything. You’ll let me know if there’s anything I can do?”

“Sure,” Valerie promised, subdued and tired.

“Val … everything’s going to be fine,” Dallas whispered.

“Thanks for saying that. I … hope so.”

“I’d better get off the phone in case Megan or Alex is trying to reach you or me.”

“Yes …”

“Tell Ross I said thank you.”

Valerie chuckled. “You noticed, too?”

“He handled this very well. Got us talking. Megan is much more important than our differences.”

“She’s the most important thing in my life. But I don’t want to sacrifice our friendship, either.”

“It’s been kicked around a bit,” Dallas conceded. “But I think there’s some life left in it.”

“Then we’ll talk when this is over.”

It was another two hours and dark outside before the phone rang again. It was Alex.

“Where are you?” she asked anxiously.

“I’m at Val’s.”

“Val’s?” she repeated blankly. “Alex, what …”

“It’s okay. I just got here. I found Megan.”

“Oh, my God … where?”

“She was hiding out on the boat.”

I think what people want most in their lives is love. It’s surprising what we’re willing to give up in order to have it and experience it. But love is not something you wish for. It’s something that has to be created. And it comes not from what you can get, but what you have to give. It sounds difficult, but it really is not. Where we tend to fall short of the mark is insisting on a love we think we want and need, instead of what actually makes us feel good … and which lasts. Love has no boundaries, or rules, or size and, we’re finding out at last, that it doesn’t come in colors. When we find it in a particular person, or it is shared with us, then we are truly blessed. I have found the love I want. Not unexpected, but different than I’d planned. It is a gift. But the question I want to know about love is this … “If I violate the taboos defining my cultural identity, will I offend God?”

“I
DON’T SEE HER,”
Rosemary Holland whispered to her daughter.

“Mom, be quiet,” Valerie whispered back. “You’ll see her when she stands up.”

“But she won’t know where we are.”

“Don’t worry,” Ross said. “She’ll know.”

Dallas, seated one row behind members of the Holland clan, grinned as Valerie turned her head to give her a look. When they had graduated from elementary school, they had tied red balloons filled with helium to the arm of the chairs assigned to their families. It was a tradition the school made sure was never repeated.

“Michael Gizzali,” the principal announced, and another student stood to join the others on stage as applause broke out in the auditorium. “Janine Grant …”

Alex reached for Dallas’s hand and threaded his fingers with hers. While she felt the need to be cautious, Alex did not. He’d made a choice, placed his affections, and didn’t care a damn if anyone knew.

Dallas’s gaze quickly swept around those gathered, to see if anyone else noticed the hand-holding. She was not used to this kind of open display. It made her feel peculiar. But not in the way of Hayden or Burke, both of whom had placed so much emphasis on her looks. Alex didn’t take what he felt lightly. Which was a good thing. Because neither did she.

On her other side Lillian Marco fidgeted nervously with her program and craned her neck to make sure she didn’t miss anything.

“Mariko Hashimoto … Megan Holland …”

Megan’s contingent broke out into thunderous applause. But so did the rest of the room. Down in the front of the auditorium, where the graduating class were all seated in uniform blue, Megan stood up. Her ponytail swung left and right as she walked with jaunty confidence to the stage. A reporter and photographer from the local papers, as well as a mini cam crew from a local TV station, were positioned to photograph and tape her as she climbed onto the stage. She shook hands with the principal who gave her a folder containing her diploma.

“Oh, isn’t she beautiful?” Lillian murmured rhetorically, drawing in her breath and shaking her head in wonder as she clapped.

“She sure is.” Ross cranked his head around to answer. “Runs in the family.”

Lillian shook her head and scoffed at the indirect compliment, but she blushed when Vin nodded in agreement.

Megan had become a celebrity.

Her twenty-four-hour adventure that had taken her from the south shore of Long Island to Brooklyn had made the newspapers. Dallas beamed as proudly as anyone else, surprised at the resourcefulness and smarts Megan had demonstrated while on her own. Disappearing the way she had had ultimately galvanized her family and brought them together again.
All
of them. She had run off just long and far enough to end the stand-off between her mother and godmother, and Dallas still speculated if the disappearance was from anger … or a clever plan.

Megan had known nothing of her relationship to Vin and Lillian Marco until she’d been reported missing and an item had been aired on the evening news. Lillian, notified of Megan’s flight by a nearly hysterical Valerie, had received the surprise of her life when Valerie then babbled an apologetic explanation of Megan’s relationship to her and Vin.

Of her part in the healing of old wounds Megan remained blissfully clueless. What she was enjoying the most was that her classmates thought what she had done was way cool.

“Aagh … I’m so nervous,” Lillian said, leaning close to Dallas.

“No need to worry,” Dallas tried to reassure her. “I think she pretty much understands about Nicholas being her father, but I’m not sure how she feels that her mother never told her. She doesn’t remember you or Vin from the funeral.”