Her Sister (Search For Love series) (8 page)

Gone.

Gone...just
like Lynnie.

No. 
This was not happening again.  Wherever Shara was, Clare suspected she'd gone
of her own free will.  There was one place to start, the Hansen household.  But
after she dialed the number and paced, no one picked up.  She didn't have a
cell number.

School. 
If she waited forty-five minutes, she could check and see if Shara was in
homeroom.  Maybe she just wanted to give her mom a scare.  But then why were
clothes missing?

Should
she wait the forty-five minutes or call someone?  But who would she call?  She
remembered Joe saying she could call him.  Call now?  Wait?

She
couldn't go to work, not like this.  She'd phone her supervisor and wait to
call the school.

Forty-five
minutes later, Clare discovered Shara had been marked absent from her
homeroom.  She dialed Joe's number.  He sounded wide awake when he answered and
she suspected he was an early riser.  She said, "It's Clare.  Shara's
missing.  I called the school and she's not there.  I don't know what to
do."

"I'll
be right there."

And he
was, but she didn't feel any less terrified.  She didn't feel any more
reassured.  He was dressed in a casual shirt and jeans and wore a worried
expression.  "What's missing from her room?"

Clare
told him, again listing each item.

He
said, "Let's see what else is gone.  We might be able to tell how long she
planned to be away."

How
long she planned to be away?  Clare hadn't even guessed this might be a
permanent decision on Shara's part.  Oh Lord, what had she done?

"I
went too far last night.  I told her I'd take her computer if she didn't shape up."

He
clasped Clare's elbow.  "Slow down.  She's a teenager.  You have no idea
what she was thinking.  If she took all the clothes you said, she had to put
them in something.  Does she have a duffel?"

"No,
just her backpack.  Unless…"  Clare quickly rushed through the kitchen to
the laundry room and the storage closet there.  She pulled it open.  "My
travel bag is missing."

"I
don't think she took that to school," Joe muttered.

"Should
I call the police?"  She remembered how soon they'd descended on the household
when they'd called about Lynnie.

"She's
sixteen.  My guess is they'll consider her a runaway.  I know you've been
through this before," he said with some compassion, "And so have your
parents.  I really think you should call one of them and get their
advice."

She
didn't want to, oh, how she didn't want to.  But she had to put aside her own
sense of independence.  She had to put aside the relationship she didn't have
with her parents.  This was all about Shara and she had to do what was best for
her.

Clare
called her dad.

****

When
her father walked in, all over again Clare felt as if she was a little girl who
had done something wrong.  At her age, she knew better.  She knew she wasn't
responsible for Lynnie's disappearance.  But she
was
responsible for
being the daughter who was left, the daughter who reminded her mom and dad that
they'd lost their youngest, the daughter who could never make up for that.

Trying
to keep some semblance of normalcy, she introduced Joe.  Her dad had never met
him, though her mom had one day when Joe was trimming the bushes in his yard
and her mom had stopped over for a picnic supper.  But her dad didn't seem to
care about social niceties.  He nodded to Joe, looked him over with a father's
eye and an expression that wondered if the two of them were involved.  But he
didn't ask.  Rather, he shot questions at her...just like a lawyer.  "Is
there any sign of forced entry?  Did she crawl out the window or go out the
front door?  Are you sure you didn't hear anything?  What time frame are we
dealing with?  What was the time you saw her last night?  You didn't check on
her before you called for her this morning?  Tell me exactly what's
missing."

"I
don't know how she left.  I checked on her last night around ten.  This morning
I called her for breakfast and when she didn't come—"  Clare's voice cracked.

Her
father canvassed Shara's room as if he were searching for that one important
clue...as if Clare hadn't done that already.

"And
you really have no idea where she went?"

"Her
friends are in school.  I can't talk to them until they're out.  I didn't call
you over here to give me the third degree.  I thought you'd know the next best
thing to do.  Maybe I should have called Mom."

"I'm
just trying to get to the bottom of what happened here," Max snapped, his
voice gruff.

"No,
what you're doing is remembering, and you're blaming me for Shara running away
just like you blamed me for Lynnie running away."

Max
looked stunned...as if she'd slapped him.  Maybe she'd
intended
her
words to be a shock.  Maybe she'd finally intended to get it all out in the
open.  Yet she could see from his closed face that that wasn't going to
happen.  Although her father was a lawyer, he talked to people rather than
listening to them.  Maybe that wasn't true with his clients and their parents,
but it was true with his family.

Max cut
a glance to Joe.  "This isn't a conversation for right now."

"It
hasn't been a conversation at all for the past twenty-seven years, but we can
move on.  I know the first few hours are important…so important."

Her
father didn't come closer to comfort her.  He didn't fling his arm around her
neck, something he'd never done again after Lynnie was abducted.  But he did
gentle his voice.  "I'm going to contact a veteran on the police force who
was a rookie and there when Lynnie was abducted.  We
will
get to the
bottom of this, Clare.  We'll find Shara.  Now why don't you call your mom. 
She'll be horribly upset if we don't let her know what's happened."

Her
mother
was
going to be horribly upset.  But Clare went to the phone
anyway, knowing she had no choice but to call and give her mother bad news.

****

As
Amanda let herself into Clare's house, she was somewhere between stunned horror
and tears.  Yet she knew Max hated the tears.  Shara was missing.  Missing.

Yet
this was different from what had happened to Lynnie, she told herself.  So
different.  Shara had probably left of her own accord.

However,
when Amanda saw the expression on her daughter's face, she knew Clare was
feeling everything she herself had felt so many years ago.  Her daughter was
stiff, resisting, holding herself tightly together, just like Amanda had done.

Clare motioned
to Joe.  "I called him because I didn't know what else to do.  He
suggested I call you and dad...since you'd been through it before."

In
spite of the turmoil Amanda felt at the thought of Shara being out in the world
alone, she knew it was telling that Clare had called Joe.  Did she depend on
him?  Might they be involved?

Amanda
found herself hoping they were, though Clare had never given any indication of
that.  Her daughter needed something special in her life...
someone
special.

There
was another man in the room, too, dressed in a suit.  Amanda suspected who
he
was.

Max took
over the introductions this time.  "This is Detective Sergeant
Hobart."

Amanda
extended her hand, thinking the detective appeared a bit familiar.  She guessed
he was in his late forties, with sandy blond hair and a midriff that might be
proof he'd eaten too many donuts.  He had a round face and blue eyes and
tortoise shell glasses.  Those glasses rang a bell, too.

"We
met a long time ago," he said to Amanda.  "I was a rookie working on
your daughter's case."

"You
worked with Detective Grove?"

"Yes,
I did.  Not his right-hand man or anything.  Mostly ran errands then, took
calls on the hotline.  That type of thing."

"Have
you found out anything about Shara?"

"No
ma'am, not yet.  I'm doing this as a favor for your husband.  At sixteen, well
the truth is, we usually give it twenty-four hours because sometimes they do
come home.  It's not like with—"  He stopped abruptly.

"You
can say it," Amanda assured him, being strong, showing Max she could be.  "Lynnie
didn't leave of her own free will.  Shara probably did."  Her gaze went to
Clare but her daughter looked away.  She was pale and drawn and Amanda could
only imagine the emotions roiling inside of her.

"I
was just about to ask your daughter a few more questions," Hobart said.

Amanda
knew all about questions, thousands of them, most of them having no answers.

The
detective asked Clare, "Did you daughter have access to any money?"

"If
she had any, it wasn't much.  She'd just had a shopping spree at the mall.  I
made her take a few things back.  It would have been less than a hundred
dollars."

He frowned. 
"That would be her own money.  I was thinking more of
your
money. 
Have you checked your wallet?"

"Shara
would never—"

"Ms.
Thaddeus, kids who want to run away do lots of things you wouldn't expect.  You
said she's not on drugs or drinking to your knowledge, but that doesn't mean
she's not going to pull from any resources she can.  Do you mind checking your
wallet, and any place you might keep some funds?"

Amanda
wanted to hold Clare and comfort her as she saw understanding sweep through her. 
But she was Max's daughter clear through, independent and rebellious.  That
might hold her in good stead right now.

Without
another word, Clare went to the freezer.

Max
began, "The detective asked you to check your purse."

"I
know, Dad, I’m checking something else first.  Shara knows I keep extra money
in a zip-lock bag wrapped in foil in the freezer.  So just back off a bit until—" 
She reached her hand into side of the freezer and along a pack of frozen
bacon.  She pulled out a zip-lock bag with a slim foil package inside.  She
took out the foil package, hoping the bills were still there.  They weren't.  Her
gaze met the detective's.  "There was probably about three hundred dollars
in here.  It's gone."

His
voice was soothing.  "You have to remember, that for whatever reason, she
might have been desperate."

"She
didn't have to be desperate.  She has
me
."  Clare's emotions shook
in her voice and now Amanda did go to her and take her hand.

"We'll
find out what's going on with Shara.  We'll find her.  You have to believe
that."

"Oh,
Mom, how can I?"

"Check
your wallet," Max said in a gruff voice.

Amanda
could have socked him.  For once in his life, couldn't he just show a little
compassion?  She gave him a glance that said exactly what she was thinking.

His
face reddened a little, but he didn't back down.  "We have to know how far
she can get.  We don't even know if she ran off by herself, or if she's with
someone else."

Hobart
said, "I'll be stopping over at the school when I'm finished here.  I'll
check if Brad Hansen is there.  If he is, I'll question him.  If he isn't, I'll
let you know."

Clare's
movements seemed almost robotic as she went to the counter and unzipped her
hobo purse.  After she pulled out her wallet, she checked the contents. 
White-faced, she leaned against the counter.  "My ATM card's gone and so
is one of my credit cards."

Amanda's
heart sank along with her daughter's.  With what she'd taken, Shara could go
farther than any of them had thought possible.

****

Chapter
Five

After
the detective left—Joe had excused himself before the questioning began—Amanda
had wandered into Shara's bedroom.  He'd reassured them that often teens
decided against being on their own and returned that night.  Yet from the
questions he'd asked and the evidence of the money, the credit card and the
bank card that was missing along with Shara, Amanda knew he didn't believe that
any more than they did.  She couldn't stand any more of the police talk, the
questions, the underlying insinuation that as a parent, you'd done something
wrong.

Had
Clare
done something wrong?  From the story that had come out about what had happened
with this Brad Hansen in the past week, it just sounded as if Shara didn't want
to abide by Clare's rules.  But who knew what was going on in a young girl's
mind?

As
Amanda sank down onto Shara's bed, she scanned the room that was so totally her
granddaughter's.  She didn't have teen idols on her walls.  No, she seemed to
go for older men. Because she'd never had a father?  Because Max hadn't been
present in her life any more than he had in Clare's?  The poster was Alex
O'Loughlin from Hawaii Five-O.  Good looking and sexy.  Hot.