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Matthew stood staring down at the woman he had so admired, and Bob stood staring at Matthew. The scene was a little creepy. Couldn’t Matthew feel Bob’s eyes on him? Apparently not.
As they approached, Matthew looked up at them, self-consciously wiping his eyes. “Sorry.” He sniffed. “I just can’t believe she’s gone.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss.” She was sorry, but more than that, she was eager to share some information with Bob, without appearing to be talking to her imaginary friend. So she pretended to talk to Matthew. “Have you seen Peter? Someone took him. Someone knocked Ethel out with a blow to the head and then took my son somewhere.” Her voice cracked and she fought to breathe through her panic.
Bob’s eyes were wide with concern.
Matthew’s were not. Either he hadn’t heard her, or he didn’t care.
Bob motioned toward the top of the stairs.
“I’d like to go back upstairs,” she said slowly, still pretending to talk to Matthew, “but I can’t leave Ethel.” She didn’t dare look at Ethel as she waited for Bob to figure out what she was saying.
“The props room then,” Bob said aloud.
Sandra nodded and then looked at Ethel. “Let’s go look in the props room.”
Ethel, seeming to know that there was more going on than she was aware of, nodded her assent. “Where’s the props room?”
“I’ll show you.” On their way there, Sandra almost smashed into Otis, who was coming out of the costume room.
“Just putting on some extra layers, so I don’t freeze to death outside,” he said, answering a question no one had asked.
Sandra didn’t care what Otis was doing in the costume room. To each his own. She was in a hurry to get into the props room, and once again, had to lower her shoulder to get the door open. Bob was already inside. He couldn’t have opened the door for her? She took a deep breath and tried to think. How could she say what she needed to say to Bob while pretending to talk to Ethel? She looked into Ethel’s eyes and slowly said, “I’m scared to death. I need some supernatural help here. I need to find my son.”
She’d never seen Ethel’s eyes so somber. Ethel reached out and took her hands. Then she began to pray in a voice so strong it gave Sandra the shivers. “Father in heaven, I sense that you have already sent your angels to minister to us in this fearful situation. I ask you for a miracle, knowing full well that you are capable. You have promised to keep your sheep safe, and that’s what we need right now, God. Bring this child back to us, using whatever means necessary—”
“Ethel,” Bob interrupted, and Ethel’s eyes sprang open. “I am an angel of the Lord, and I’m going to help you find Peter.”
Whether it was the head injury or Ethel just expected the supernatural, she hardly seemed surprised. “Amen,” she said with reverence. She squeezed Sandra’s hands. Then she looked at Bob. “Do you have the potatoes?”
Bob looked at Sandra. “You keep looking here. I’m going to go get a bird’s eye view.”
“Thank you,” Sandra said, but her voice came out hoarse.
Bob glanced at Sandra’s candle, which had shrunk significantly. “First, let me get you a flashlight.” He vanished then, and Sandra opened her mouth to ask Ethel what she thought of Bob, but he reappeared before she could get a word out, and handed Ethel a flashlight that was about three feet long. It was big enough to be a weapon. Maybe that would be a good thing.
Bob vanished again, and Sandra looked around the now well-lit prop room.
With Ethel’s new beacon lighting the place up, the room seemed much smaller. “I’m pretty sure Peter’s not in here,” Ethel said. “Let’s go check the costume room.”
“Otis just came out of there. I think he would have said something if Peter was in there.”
“Let’s go check anyway.” Ethel turned and headed for the door.
“I was much more alarmed than you when I first saw Bob,” Sandra said, and they stepped out into the hallway.
“Bob’s not my first angel encounter.”
Really? Sandra wanted to ask her for details, but they heard commotion in the green room area, so they headed that way to find Jan trying to herd everyone back into the auditorium.
“Why can’t we just stay here?” Gloria asked. “As long as we’re all in the same place, isn’t that the point?”
Jan looked stymied.
Sandra expected she didn’t even have a reason to get them all back to the auditorium, except that this was where she’d initially told them to stay put, and she expected to be obeyed.
“It’s warmer down here,” Gloria added.
Sandra doubted this. The theater was cooling off rapidly, and that went for every room she’d been in.
“Everyone needs to go back upstairs—” Jan said again, but Sandra interrupted her.
“Actually, I need people to spread out.”
Jan opened her mouth, but Sandra didn’t let her object.
“Someone has taken my son, and I need help looking for him.”
“No one would take your son,” Jan said in a patronizing tone that made Sandra want to throttle her. “People always think their children are angels, and they never are. If your son is missing, that’s because he wandered off on his own. These people need to stay together for their own safety, not run off on some fool’s errand chasing your fool son—”
Ethel stepped right in front of Jan and peered up into her face. “With all due respect, you need to shut your trap.” She looked past Jan’s shoulder at the others clustered in the room. “I was upstairs with Peter, and someone hit me in the back of the head hard enough to knock me out.” Then she looked at Jan again. “So the only fool here is you.” She stepped back. “Please, help us look for the child. There is a murderer in our midst, so you should probably go out in twos.”