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Esther
The formal Q and A had ended, but a dozen people had Adam pinned in the corner, continuing to grill him. Cathy had dismissed the congregation without calling for a vote. Either she’d forgotten, which Esther highly doubted, or she’d thought they needed more discussion first. Either way, the Q and A had gone fabulously, and Esther was greatly encouraged.
The front door opened, and Vicky came back in with a woman Esther hadn’t seen before. Esther headed toward them.
“This is ...” Vicky started in a loud voice and then looked at the woman.
“Nora,” she said softly. “My name is Nora.” She looked nervously at the small crowd, who had fallen silent. “My son is missing. I was wondering if any of you have seen him?”
Most of the people drifted toward her, but Adam broke out of the pack to lead the way. “What’s your son’s name?”
“Levi. Levi Langford.”
“Langford, Langford, Langford,” Vicky said, trying to place the name. “Are you Frank Rich’s daughter?”
Nora gave her a small smile. “I am.”
Vicky nodded. “He was a good man. This town was sorry to lose him.”
“Thank you,” Nora whispered. Her eyes floated away from Vicky and landed on Jason. She smiled again. “Hi, Jason. I didn’t know this was your church.”
“Levi’s in my class,” Jason said to everyone. “He’s a good guy.”
Nora looked surprised at this.
Adam pulled out a chair. “Have a seat, Nora.”
Looking even further surprised, Nora sat. “I really can’t stay. I need to get back to looking. I was just wondering if any of you had seen—”
Adam slid another chair over and sat facing her. “Who is organizing the search?” A few dozen people gathered around.
Nora seemed confused by his question. “No one, I guess. It’s just me. It’s not really organized at all.”
Adam nodded. “Do you know that he’s still in town?”
Nora shook her head slowly. “No, but I found his phone in a field out on Clark Cove Road.” She looked down at her hands. “I think he’s still in town. Or close. At least I hope so.”
Adam looked up at the congregation. “Does anyone have a Gazetteer?” Several people nodded. His eyes landed on Lauren. “Do you have it with you?”
She nodded. “It’s in the truck.”
“Great. Do we have a photocopier here?”
At first no one answered. Then Cathy said, “No, but I have one at home.”
Adam looked at Cathy. “Do you have a Gazetteer?”
Cathy shook her head apologetically.
Adam looked back at Lauren. “Can you two work together to get blown up photocopies of this peninsula? Get them as big as you can, and make several copies?” He didn’t sound bossy, exactly, but his voice carried an authority that impressed Esther.
Lauren looked at her husband. “Can you watch the kids? I’ll run Cathy to her house.” She swung her coat on and looked at Cathy. “You ready?”
Cathy nodded, and they left.
Adam returned his attention to Nora. “All right. Once we get the maps, we’ll chop the area up into sections that volunteers will search. Call everyone you know who might help.” He looked up at the others. “If you can help, please help. You might want to go home and get on your walking shoes. And please invite anyone you know who might be willing to help.”
Emma looked at her mother. “Can you call our old church?”
Tonya looked skeptical, but she nodded. “I can try.”
“I’ll get the soccer team,” Jason said, pulling his phone out.
Nora started to cry. “Thank you,” she said softly.
Adam patted her knee. “That’s what we’re here for. Would you like some coffee? Or a doughnut?”
Esther flinched. They were out of doughnuts.
She nodded. “That would be great.”
Esther grabbed Zoe’s sleeve. “Go get more doughnuts. As fast as you can.”
Zoe opened her mouth to speak.
“Take my purse,” Esther answered her unspoken question.
“I’ll go with her,” Walter said. “We’ll get some other snacks too. And some water.”
Adam raised his voice to say, “Can we start a prayer circle?”
“Already on it,” Vicky snapped.
Esther looked over to see her and Barbara making a circle out of chairs. This was a relief. Esther couldn’t see herself hiking through blueberry fields looking for clues. But she could pray. She could certainly pray. She was about to head in that direction when Adam asked Nora, “Where do you think he might be?”
Esther stepped closer to listen to her answer.
Nora shook her head. “I don’t know.” Tears ran down her cheeks, and Esther hurried to find her a box of tissues. Nora plucked a few out of the box and then gave up and took the whole box, mumbling a thank you.
“I know you don’t know,” Adam said gently. “But even your guess might be valuable.”
She nodded, took a deep breath, and looked up. “I think he was with Shane Defel or Kendall Cooper. Or maybe both of them. I don’t know what they were doing, but they usually just drive around drinking. They sometimes go to parties at kids’ houses. And in the summer, they drink at the Cove or sometimes in the woods. But I don’t think they’d be doing that in November.”
“When’s the last time you saw him?”
Her voice cracked as she said, “When he went to school on Friday.” Her voice was laden with guilt, and Esther’s heart broke for her. There was no bigger liar than a good mother’s guilt. She silently prayed for God to lift that lie from the woman’s heart.
Adam looked at Jason who had just hung up his phone. “Do you know of any parties on Friday?”
Jason shook his head. “I don’t.”
Adam looked at Zoe, his eyes asking the same question.
“I don’t think there was one, at least, not a big one. If there were, Jason would have been invited.”
Jason gave her an annoyed look, but he didn’t argue.
Adam returned his eyes to Nora. “Does Levi have a car?”
Nora shook her head.
“Do either of the other boys?”
Nora didn’t answer.
“Kendall does,” Zoe said. “A blue Chevy Cruze.”
Adam nodded contemplatively. To Nora he said, “Do you know if anyone has seen either of the other boys?”
“Yes,” she said with contempt. “I talked to both of them yesterday morning, but they both denied being with Levi. I think they were lying.”
“Where were the boys? Where did you talk to them?”
“I went to their houses,” she said bashfully.
“Did you see his car in the yard?” he said quickly, all business. Had he done this sort of thing before?
Nora closed her eyes to think. “Yes, there was a Chevy in the yard.”
“Okay, good,” Adam said. “And if you didn’t notice something wrong with it, then there probably wasn’t a car accident.”
Nora flinched. Maybe she hadn’t thought of that yet.
“So they were probably drinking, and something happened,” Adam said. “Something they don’t want to tell the cops.” He looked at Nora. “You did give the cops these kids’ names, right?”
She nodded quickly. “They can’t find Shane, they say. But they’re not calling him missing or anything. I think he’s just hiding from them. Which makes him very suspicious.”
“Oh yes,” Adam said. He looked at Jason. “Can you ask around if anyone’s seen Shane?”
And Jason was back on the phone.
