Samantha Sanderson Without a Trace (3 page)

Sam swallowed. That was a really short time. She tried to remember when she'd been dropped off. It'd been straight up eight, and kids were just going into the
cafeteria. Makayla's bus had already dropped her off, so Sam had to run to be able to walk in with Mac. Did she see Tam then? She didn't think so, but wasn't sure. She honestly couldn't remember.

“Do you know if your son would deliberately not go to the designated area?” Deputy Jameson asked.

Mrs. Lee shook her head. “Tam wouldn't do that. He's a rule follower.”

The deputy looked at Mrs. Trees and raised a single eyebrow.

“Tam is an honor student here and has never been in trouble,” the principal confirmed.

“Has he ever skipped school before?” Deputy Jameson asked.

“No,” Mrs. Lee answered before Mrs. Trees could.

Mrs. Darrington typed on her computer. “He's not had an unexcused absence all year.” She tapped some more. “Or even the two years before this.”

“I see.” The deputy scribbled on his notebook, then tapped his chin with the pen. “Mrs. Lee, does your son dabble in drugs or alcohol?”

She gasped. “No, of course not.”

Sam pinched her lips together. Drugs or alcohol . . . Tam? No way.

“He just has to ask, Mrs. Lee. He's not accusing Tam of anything,” Sam's dad said in his soothing tone.

“I understand.” But Tam's mom sounded a little shakier than before.

“What about your son's relationships at home?” the deputy continued.

“What about them?” Mrs. Lee locked stares with Deputy Jameson.

“How do you and your son get along? Does his father live in the home?”

“Yes, Tam lives with me and my husband.” She shrugged. “We get along like a normal family, I suppose.” But she sounded a little unsure, even to Sam.

“How about last night and today even?” Deputy Jameson leaned a little closer to Mrs. Lee. “Did either of you have a disagreement with your son? Ground him? Make him angry?”

She hesitated. “Well, he wanted to go spend the night with a friend last night but we said no.” She looked at Sam's dad. “It was a school night and that's against our rules.”

Sam's dad nodded. He had the same rule, unless there were special circumstances.

“Was he angry you wouldn't let him go?” the deputy asked.

“A little, I suppose.” Mrs. Lee wrung her hands again.

“So it's possible he ran away.” The way the deputy said it was more of a statement than a question.

Tam wouldn't run away. He was too mature for that. Sam sucked in air, which drew Deputy Jameson's attention. “And you are?”

“My daughter,” Dad said at the same time Sam replied with, “Sam Sanderson.”

“Do you know Tam?” the deputy asked her.

She nodded. “He's on the newspaper staff with me, but he wasn't in class today.”

“Did you see him at all today?”

She shook her head. “Not that I can remember.”

“Deputy,” Mrs. Lee interrupted, “just because my son was disappointed that he didn't get his way doesn't mean he ran away. Tam's never run away from home and he wouldn't start now.”

The deputy seemed to ignore her statement and moved on. “Who was the friend he wanted to visit?”

“Luke Jensen.”

Sam gasped again. Luke Jensen . . . he was . . . well, he was the cutest boy at Robinson Middle School. At least as far as Sam was concerned.

The deputy shot her a hard stare, then glanced at her dad. “I think I've got it from here, Detective.”

Oh, no! She'd gotten them the boot.

Her dad stood and pressed a hand on Mrs. Lee's shoulder. “If we can do anything for you, just let us know.” He nodded at the deputy and Mrs. Trees. “Come on, Sam.”

Now how was she going to find out what they were doing to find Tam?

“Sam?” Dad used that no-room-for-arguments tone he often reserved especially for her.

She let out a breath and moved alongside her father. “I'm sure Tam's okay, Mrs. Lee,” she said before following Dad out of the office.

Boy, she sure hoped she was right.

CHAPTER THREE

T
hanks for staying, Dad. I know Mrs. Lee's really worried,” Sam said as she and her father climbed into his truck.

He didn't respond until he'd started the engine, put on his seatbelt, and backed out of the parking space. “Sam, if you know anything about where Tam might be, you should tell me.”

“Dad, I don't. I promise.” She was a little hurt he implied she might. Then again, she had kept things from him in the past. But not about something like this.

“I'm guessing you'll ignore me if I advise you not to go about investigating Tam's disappearance on your own, right?”

“Tam's my friend, Dad. I'm worried about him.” That was the honest truth, and friends would try and figure out where he was, to make sure he was okay.

“I know, pumpkin. I just want you to be safe, and stay out of the sheriff's way. Law enforcement doesn't play around when a child is missing.”

“Will the FBI get called in?”

He chuckled. “Not unless a ransom demand is received.” He cut his eyes over to her. “Is Tam's family extremely wealthy?”

She shrugged. “I dunno.” He didn't seem to have more than anybody else at school.

“Is his father or his mom in a position of power at work?”

Sam shrugged again. “I don't think his mom works and his dad is a brain or heart doctor or something.” She chewed her bottom lip, thinking. “Do you think he might have been kidnapped?”

“I very seriously doubt it.”

“Then where is he, Dad?” Nothing made sense. “Tam isn't the type to ditch school or to run away. He's smart and he's funny. He's an honor student, on the newspaper, and in EAST, just not my class.” Environmental And Spatial Technology, EAST, was a class that focused on student-driven service projects by using teamwork and cutting-edge technology, including GPS/GIS mapping tools, architectural and CAD design software, 3D animation suites, virtual reality development, and more.

“You don't really know how people are, Sam. You don't know what someone's home life is like. There are a lot of things people don't share. Especially at your age.”

“What's that mean?”

He sighed as he turned into their driveway. “Just that if there's something going on, many times kids in middle school won't talk about their family issues with friends, much less teachers or counselors.”

“Like what kinds of stuff going on, Dad?”

Dad turned off the engine and turned to face her. “Like trouble at home. Arguments between parents. Any kind of domestic disturbances. Kids arguing with their parents. Being hit.” He shrugged. “Especially boys.”

“You think Tam deals with any of that stuff?” She couldn't imagine that being the case. Tam was too sweet, and his mom seemed way too nice, but if what Dad implied was true, who really knew?

“I'm not saying he does, but I'm not ruling out that he doesn't. I'm just saying that in my professional experience, kids your age can surprise you. Don't think you know someone just because you're friends at school.” He opened the driver's side door of the truck and stepped to the driveway.

Sam did the same, grabbing her backpack from the backseat and slinging it over her shoulder. She needed to talk to Makayla. Maybe Mac had seen or heard something about Tam.

“Mom texted me that she was running to the post office, then is picking up dinner on her way home,” Dad called out as Sam reached down to pet her dog Chewy, that greeted her at the front door.

“Did you miss me, Chewy?” The black and brown German hunt terrier jumped up and down.

Sam laughed and skipped with her dog to the kitchen door. She noticed over half the food bowl was still full. “Did the storms scare you, huh?” She rubbed between the dog's ears. Chewy didn't like storms. She really didn't like the tornado sirens that go off either. Whenever storms were in the area, the dog would hardly eat.

Sam patted the dog's head a final time, let Chewy outside, then headed to her bedroom. She dropped her backpack on the floor and fell across her bed. The ceiling fan spun on low, just enough to move the cool air from the vent in the ceiling around the room and keep the temperature comfortable.

Was Tam comfortable wherever he was?

BabyKitty, the white kitten she'd recently rescued, uncurled from her position at the foot of Sam's bed. She stretched and yawned, then “kneaded” the fleece blanket she thought was hers, and curled back up and closed her eyes.

Sam sat up, smiling and shaking her head at the cat, then dug her phone out of her pocket. She leaned over and ran her fingers through the cat's thick, white fur as she quickly dialed Makayla's cell number.

“Hey, girl. Took you long enough to call,” Mac said. Her voice always cheered up Sam, no matter what, because Mac was so happy and upbeat all the time.
Even when her mom was on her case or she was exhausted from karate practice, she was still so cheerful. Today was no exception, even though Sam had a lot of serious stuff on her mind. “I thought maybe you'd gotten in trouble and I wouldn't be able to go home with you tomorrow.”

“Tam Lee is missing!” Sam blurted out.

“Missing? What? Tell me.”

Sam filled Makayla in on everything that had happened and all that was said, then almost out of breath, added, “I don't remember seeing him this morning at all in the cafeteria or outside the gate. Do you?”

“Hmmm. I don't think so. I don't remember. He usually goes out of his way to say hello to you if he sees you, and that's usually how I see him.”

“I know.” Sam wormed across her bed until she leaned against the pillows and headboard. She kicked her shoes to the floor. “I can't imagine where he could be.” She thought about the storm. Had Tam been okay? Had he been inside where he was protected from all the rain and hail and wind?

“Me either, but I don't know him as well as you do.”

Sam thought about what her dad had told her. “Well, maybe I don't know him all that well. I mean, he's nice and we chat in Newspaper and if we see each other in the hall, but I don't really know him, know him.”

“I guess. Hey, maybe he's home now.”

“That'd be good. Let me call and see.” Sam had all
the newspaper staff phone numbers, cell and home. It was the paper's policy. She pulled out the list with all the numbers.

“While you're doing that, I'll do some poking around online and see if I can see anything mentioning him on social media. If he ran away or something, he probably posted something somewhere to let his friends know how to contact him.” Unless he didn't want his parents to see. “Or he told someone he'd private message them.”

Mac was not only ninja smart with computers, she was scary brilliant when it came to thinking of the obvious.

“I'll call you back.” Sam dialed Tam's cell number.

The call was answered on the first ring. “Hi, this is Tam. Leave me a message and I'll call you back.”

Sam hung up, a little unnerved with hearing his voice, but knowing he was missing. Maybe not . . . maybe he was at home. She dialed the number listed for his home.

“Hello,” Mrs. Lee said, her voice weak over the line.

“Mrs. Lee, this is Sam Sanderson. I met you in the office.”

“Yes?”

“I'm wondering if you've found Tam yet.”
Please, God, let Tam be home and safe.

“No.” Mrs. Lee sniffed. “The police are here, looking through his room now. They're taking his phone to go
through back at the station. Although, I have no idea what they hope to find. He didn't run away, he's missing. They won't listen to me. They don't understand what a good boy my Tam is.” Her rambling was evident, even to Sam.

She didn't know what to say to Tam's mother. “I'm sorry. I'm praying for him.”

“Thank you, Sam. I need to get off the phone now.” Mrs. Lee hung up before Sam could say goodbye.

She quickly called Makayla back. “He's not home,” she said as a way of greeting as soon as her bestie answered. “Mrs. Lee said the police are taking his phone to go through it. They're there looking through his room. Don't know why.”

“Probably to see if there are any clues about where he could be. That's why they do it on the crime shows.”

“Dad says those things are full of baloney.” Dad usually ranted about how ninety percent of what was in those television dramas was misleading and had nothing to do with real police work.

“They probably are.”

“Did you have any luck?” Sam asked.

“I've checked all his social media sites and he hasn't posted anything since last night. His last post was about being bummed that he couldn't go visit a friend because of his dad's stupid rules, and that wasn't made from his mobile device, so he was most likely posting from his computer.”

“He actually posted that his dad's rules are stupid?” Sam was pretty outspoken herself, but she wasn't quite brave enough to publicly post that she thought her dad's rules were stupid. She'd be grounded for sure.

“Yep.”

Maybe Dad was right and she didn't really know Tam all that well. Maybe he
had
been angry enough to run away.

“Are you going to write a post for the paper's blog?” Makayla asked.

“I think so. Maybe someone saw him or talked to him or something.” Sam couldn't imagine not a single person knowing what happened to him.

“I checked the local news pages. There hasn't been an AMBER Alert issued yet. That's good, right?”

“I don't know.” The AMBER Alert Program activated urgent bulletins in many missing children cases. The alert would broadcast on television, Internet, and over cell phones to instantly spur an entire community to assist in the search for a missing child. “From the way the sheriff's deputy acted, I think they're treating this as Tam running away from home. I don't think they put out AMBER Alerts for suspected runaways.”