He didn’t answer for a few seconds, and then he slowly lifted his head, looking at her.
He pointed to the cab. “Get in, ladies. The next stop on our Tour of Destruction is about to embark!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ten minutes later the cab pulled up at the police station, and the women jumped out.
A gasp escaped Sondra’s lips, and Allyson followed her gaze. There, parked in the parking lot, was Ray’s vintage mustang parked under a streetlamp. Allyson chuckled under her breath. Did he really think it would be safe . . . even there?
“She took her daddy’s car!” the words exploded from Sondra’s lips, talking to no one in particular. “I told Zoe that if she went to that rave that she was going to learn the hard way. Her daddy is going to kill her when he finds out she’s in the clink.” She threw up her hands. Then she slammed her hands against her legs and leaned back against the door.
Bridget was still inside the car. She was trying to get out, but Sondra was leaning against the door.
“Clink? Really?” Bridget pushed on the door harder. “Can you please move?”
Izzy waited by the front door. “Come on!” Allyson could read the worry on Izzy’s face. She had to get her babies out of prison . . . now!
Allyson leaned down to talk to the cabbie. “I think you can just leave now,” she told him.
He smiled up at her. “Oh no, darling. I’m totally committed to this. I want to see how it ends.”
If that’s what you want.
She personally wanted to see how it was all going to turn out too. Not only did they still not have Phoenix, but now she was also worried about her own children. Who had them? Were they safe?
Allyson followed the other women into the police station. They quickly hurried through the metal detector in a single-file line. They rushed up to the front desk officer.
“Are you taking my children?” Izzy asked, rushing forward.
“Do you have my daughter?” Sondra called frantically. Her hair was tousled all over her head and her clothes now looked as if she’d slept in them . . . or as if she’d been in a high-speed chase and crashed in them.
“We need to file a missing person’s report,” Bridget called out.
Allyson rushed ahead, and then she looked back to see Bones entering. Instead of walking through the metal detector, he turned and walked around the side of it. The security guard didn’t seem to notice. She was too distracted by the commotion of the women, all talking at once.
“Do you have my van?” she asked the police. Allyson’s voice joined in with the rest.
The young handsome officer eyed them, trying to figure out what had just happened. Trying to make sense of their words.
“Can you tell me which foster care home you took my children too?” Izzy asked.
“She’s just going through a phase,” Sondra explained.
“I’ll find whatever foster home you took them too . . .” Izzy’s voice grew louder.
“Wait, wait, wait!” The young officer held up his hands, trying to calm them. “Just hold on. Hold on.”
Bridget leaned forward, the mama bear emerging. “What do you mean HOLD ON? I have a MISSING child!”
Ally nudged past her. “Look. What’s she’s trying to say is—”
Instead of letting Allyson talk, explain everything to the officer, Bridget pushed Ally out of the way. Ally staggered backward, and then caught herself, steadying herself.
“NO, ALLY! Stop. Okay, nothing you’ve tried to do tonight has helped in any way. So just stop trying to fix things.” She waved a hand in Allyson’s face.
Bridget’s face was beet red. Anger flashed in her eyes. Allyson sucked in a breath, not remembering the last time someone had ever treated her this way. At least she was trying . . .
Emotion filled in her throat. Trying to help.
Before Allyson had a chance to catch her breath from Bridget’s words, Sondra leaned forward. Anger flashed in her eyes too, causing Allyson to pull back.
“This is what happens when you take away people’s cell phones!” Sondra seethed. Then rolling her eyes she directed her attention back to the front desk officer and started in, trying to find out information about Zoe.
“I want to talk to your boss!” Bridget’s voice rose to near shouting as she tried to talk over Sondra and Izzy. “If you’re not going to help me then I want to talk to your boss!”
Sondra placed a hand to her forehead. “Where’s my daughter? Do you have my daughter?” She turned her back to the others. “I knew this would happen,” she mumbled under her breath. “This is God punishing me for the Woodstock Reunion.”
“Woodstock Reunion!” Bones called out, pointing. “You were in the caravan. I never forget a face. Sarah? Hmmm.” He scrunched up his face. “Sandy?”
Izzy turned to her. Her face registered shock, horror. “Sondra?” Izzy cried out.
“Sondra!” Bone’s face broke into a smile, and he seemed pleased with himself. “I love your tattoo.”
Tattoo?
Allyson scrunched up her face and looked to her pastor’s wife. She waited for Sondra to laugh. She waited for Sondra to deny what Bones was saying, but from the look on Sondra’s face Allyson saw it was true. True!
Sondra gasped. And then a small cry escaped her lips.
Izzy’s jaw dropped, and Allyson could see that she already looked at Sondra differently.
Ally tried to take it all in. Not only had everything else failed tonight, but now Sondra’s reputation was ruined. She was called out—found out—by some tattooed biker. This was even worse than the Dance Cam incident and that was bad. Real bad.
Allyson felt like running, escaping. Her stomach ached and it had no relation to her hunger.
They were right. It was all her fault. All of this. If it wasn’t for her . . . none of this would have happened. She had wanted her way. She had pushed and pushed . . . and look what it had done to all of them. There was nothing peaceful about this night. She’d drug her best friends into this ordeal only to have Izzy starving to death, and to have Sondra humiliated.
The color drained from Sondra’s face. She looked around as if she’d just lost her best friend in the world. As long as Allyson had known Sondra, she’d done her best to always take care of others and now everything she’d worked for had come to this.
The door next to the front desk opened, as an officer led a criminal out.
Seeing her chance to break free from their gazes, Sondra turned to the door that was slowly closing.
“Com’on, ladies.” Sondra rushed toward it, opening it farther. Then Sondra hurried inside, as if trying to escape their knowledge of her past. But she hadn’t moved fast enough. Allyson had spotted the plea in Sondra’s eyes. The one that had said,
Please don’t tell anyone.
“Wait! You can’t go back there!” the man at the front desk called. Izzy and Bridget followed Sondra. The officer at the desk picked up the phone, and Allyson knew it would take a lot of backup to wrangle those mama bears out.
Allyson tried to hold back her tears. She’d done it again. She’d tried to do her best but she’d fallen short. She’d ruined everything. She doubted that after tonight they’d want to be her friends anymore.
She forced back the tears and glanced up at Bones. He was the only still one standing by her.
“I—I don’t think they want me back there right now, Bones.” She turned and leaned against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. She’d tried to do something right, but things had gone so, so wrong.
“All I really want to do right now is call Sean and the kids,” she confessed.
Bones pointed. “There’s a phone right over there by the metal detector.”
Of course he knew that. Allyson glanced up at him, wondering how many times he’d been in this place. Lots, she’d assumed. And she thought about her own Brandon and Beck. Bones had been a little boy once. Had his mama had dreams for him?
She didn’t have time to think about that for very long. She hurried to the phone. She wanted to hear Sean’s voice. She needed his strength. She needed his help. She needed his optimism.
More than anything, Allyson needed Sean to tell her that things were going to be okay.
***
Sondra did the only thing she knew to do. She ran. She ran from their stares, and she ran from the truth as she’d been doing for many years.
Sondra rushed into the back area, where the criminals were held and the officers worked, with Izzy and Bridget trailing behind her.
“Sir, we have a situation up here,” he could hear the front desk officer saying into his radio.
Still that didn’t stop her steps. She needed to—had to—find Zoe. This was her fault. She’d made the mistakes, and now her daughter was going to be the one who suffered. No, she couldn’t let that happen.
“It’s a maze back here,” Izzy called, weaving through rows of desks.
Finally they found their way back around to where the desk officer was. She had to talk to him face-to-face. She had to get information about Zoe!
Sondra raced up to the officer, noting the terrified look in his expression, as if it were Bones, not her who rushed him.
Maybe he’d overheard about her tattoo. A shiver raced down her spine.
***
Sean leaned over the desk. Around him the walls were plastered with . . . art, he supposed. He looked at the guy with the Afro and the large aviator glasses.
Ray had driven them up and down 5th, and this was the only tattoo parlor. He winced thinking of Allyson being in here without him. Why had she come? Had Izzy wanted a tattoo? It was the only thing he could think of. Or maybe they’d brought Bridget. After all, Ally had been on Bridget’s phone. But why had Ray’s wife agreed to that? Sean shook his head. Nothing made sense.
“Did anyone come in here tonight that wasn’t supposed to be in here?” Sean asked the front desk guy.
“Oh, man, I don’t know.” The man with the large Afro spoke in a slow, easy tone and the words just rolled off his tongue. “I don’t think of asking them those kinds of questions, but I think you’re on to something, ’cause I should inquire more of our patrons.” He straightened in his chair.
“What about this?” Sean covered his face with his hand, trying not to let his frustration build. “Does the word Bones mean anything to you?”
The man nodded. “It does.”
Sean forced a smile, and his eyebrows lifted. “What does it mean?”
Ray leaned forward. “Is it a person?” He tapped on Sean’s shoulder, urging him to ask that question.
“Is it a person?”
The man nodded, as if Sean’s words were finally filtering in. “It is.”
“Is it a manager?” Ray asked, tapping Sean’s shoulder, urging him to ask.
Sean stood on his toes so he could lean in a little farther. “Is it a manager here?”
“You are correct. Correct.” The desk guy pointed to Ray, as if he’d just answered the Question of the Day on
Jeopardy.
“You’re good at this one.” Then he waved from Sean to Ray. “Keep him.”
“Did you see any women with Bones?” asked Sean.
“I did . . . you guys are good at this!”
Ray’s voice rose, and he motioned to the desk guy. “Do you know where they went? Which direction they went?”
“No, but I did see them leave,” the man offered.
“Where did they go?” Ray asked. Sean could tell his patience was wearing thin.
“To the right.” He pointed to the right with two fingers.
Both men turned to see where he was pointing.
“Out and to the right,” the man said.
They turned back to him.
“No destination?” Ray looked puzzled. “They didn’t say where they were going?”
“Well, I think the right is east.” The man smiled, pleased he’d come up with that on his own.
“Okay.” Ray lowered his head, and Sean could see his mind racing, trying to figure out what questions he needed to ask in order to get what he needed.
Sean was also trying to figure where to go from here when his phone chimed, telling him he had a call.
“Hello?”
“Sean?” It was Allyson’s voice.
“Hon?” Relief flooded over him. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He stumbled forward slightly and placed a hand over his racing heart. Just hearing her voice took away a ton of burdens that he’d been carrying.
“Where are you?” she asked.
He wanted to ask her the same question, but he could hear worry on her voice. Most likely worry about the kids.
“We’re fine, we’re fine. We’re at the tattoo parlor.”
“What?” shock registered in her tone.
“Yeah, at the tattoo parlor,” he said. It should be obvious why, shouldn’t it? Since that’s where she told him to go.
***
Sondra hurried toward the officer, and his face registered shock. All she needed was one minute . . . why didn’t he just calm down and listen to her—to them? Somewhere in his jail Zoe sat behind bars. The idea of it made Sondra unable to stop pushing forward. Unable to be still.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” The officer lifted a hand toward them. “Calm down. Just wait a second!” the officer called out to them.
“Do you know where my daughter is?” Sondra pleaded. “She’s not a hard criminal.”
“Hold on.” The officer waved his hands, and then he moved behind his rolling chair, as if using it as a shield.
Izzy lunged forward. “Please NO!” her voice erupted with emotion. She reached a hand toward the officer. “Don’t put them back there. Take me! Take me instead! Just arrest me!”
Sondra also reached for him. “Do you know how much it scars a teenager to be in here!”
Then, as if by a miracle Bridget’s phone rang, interrupting the commotion. She whipped it out of her pocked to answer it.
Sondra barely paused, and then she started in again, seeking answers. Izzy’s voice joined hers.
“Calm down for a second.” Then he leaned down and spoke into his radio. “We have a situation here!”
“Quiet! SHUT UP!” Bridget’s voice broke through, overpowering theirs. “It’s Caprice!”
***
On the other end of the line, Allyson let out a heavy sigh. “It’s just been the worst night ever, Sean. I don’t know how it could get any worse.”
“Alright, hon. Don’t move.”
A group of officers rushed past Allyson, toward the back rooms of the police station. She pressed the phone tighter to her ear and shuddered thinking of what type of hardened criminals they had back there. They surely had to be really bad to need backup like that.