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Esther
“What’s wrong, Cathy?” Esther asked. Her friend was looking depressed.
Cathy sighed. “I’ve called every church in the state, just about. Every one with a phone number. A few of them said they would put out a call for volunteers, but it’s been mostly a bust.” She gestured toward the closed door. “As you can see, those called volunteers aren’t exactly beating our door down.”
Esther didn’t know what to say, how to comfort her.
“We’ve had a few,” Adam said. “And they’re being very helpful. Though I wish those people with the dogs would show up.”
“We’re running out of daylight,” Cathy muttered.
The front door opened, and every head in the room snapped toward it. Even Nora looked up from the Bible she’d been quietly reading in the corner.
It wasn’t Levi. And it didn’t look like volunteers from another church. It was four adults, two of them in police uniforms. They strode toward the desk.
“I’m Carl Pettiford, the officer in charge of this case.”
Esther braced herself. She thought they were about to get in trouble. Carl wore civilian clothes. Had he been off duty when she’d called him? Carl introduced the other three people as police officers. Esther recognized the woman, who was in uniform.
“We’ve come to help. Give us a territory.”
Adam looked dumbfounded and for several seconds didn’t move. Then he came to his senses. “It seems wasteful to put you all on one team. I’d rather put each of you in charge of a team.” He paused. “Would you consider that?”
Carl nodded. “Of course. Whatever you need.”
Esther turned to look at Nora, who was staring at the officers with her mouth open. Esther headed her way. “Quite a development, isn’t it?”
Nora looked at her with wide eyes. “You don’t understand. I was praying for that exact thing the exact second they walked in. I asked God to make the police help. I mean, I know they’ve been helping, but I asked him to make them help here. With this.”
“See? God is working this out. I don’t know what’s taking so long, but he knows, and he’s got a plan.”
Nora looked less skeptical than she had earlier. She got up and headed toward the map table. Her eyes met Carl’s. “Thank you,” she said softly.
He nodded stoically. “Just to be clear,” he said in an official police-like voice. “We have no reason to think he’s just hanging out somewhere on the peninsula waiting to be rescued.” He let out a long breath. “But it certainly can’t hurt to look.”
Nora gave him a small smile.
Adam hung up his cell phone and looked at Carl. “All right. Might you be willing to go help the team currently searching the shore to the north of the Cove?” Adam sounded sheepish, as if he wasn’t quite comfortable giving instructions to a police officer.
Carl looked at the area Adam was pointing to on the map and nodded. “Of course.”
“Great.” Adam slid a scrap of paper across the map. “Here’s the number of one of the men looking.”
Carl snatched it up. “Great. Thanks.” And he was gone.
Adam made another phone call and assigned another officer to a team, and then Esther looked around to see where Nora had gone off to. She was back with her Bible. Esther thought this was a great sign. If anything was going to keep this poor mother’s heart intact, it was the word of God.
Esther headed toward her. “See? That’s a huge addition to our team.”
Nora attempted a smile, but it didn’t reach her red eyes. “It’s a big peninsula.”
“We’ve already searched a fifth of it.” This was a small exaggeration, but Esther didn’t know the true fraction. “We’ll get there.” Esther heard something and turned toward the door. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” Nora stood beside her. “It sounded like a tractor trailer truck. Do you get a lot of those on Providence Ave?”
Esther snickered. “No. Sure don’t.” As she headed toward the door, she heard the whoosh of air brakes. Whatever it was, they were stopping.
“Um, Adam?” Cathy said from the window. “Two school buses just pulled up.”
Adam didn’t respond. He looked a little dazed.
School buses? Esther’s mind flitted through a half-dozen scenarios, but none of them made sense. Certainly no school had sent a busload of kids to their church.
“Oh my goodness,” Cathy said slowly, still looking out the window.
Esther had never heard her sound so disbelieving.
The last police officer was on his way out and held the door open for the newcomers.
And there were a lot of them. They poured through the door, and when they stopped, Esther assumed that was the last of them, but then another surge of them burst through. They crowded into the entryway, looking around the sanctuary. It took a second for Esther to notice that they appeared to be a ragtag bunch. A lot of them wore ill-fitting, mismatched clothes. There were many ripped and stained coats. What was this?
A middle-aged man extricated himself from the pack, looked around as if trying to figure out who was in charge, and then headed toward Adam, extending his hand. “My name is Galen Turney.” He turned to look over his shoulder, located what he was looking for, and then motioned for her to come closer. “This is my wife, Maggie.” He pointed. “And those are my two boys. We’re here to help. Put us to work.”
Adam looked past him in wonder. “And who are the rest of you?”
Galen smiled. “This is my church.”
Adam hesitated as if not sure how to proceed. Then he sprang into action. “Can you break them into teams of four or five? I’ll get you some maps.”
Cathy came closer to the table, her eyes as big as saucers. “What church are you from?”
It appeared that Galen didn’t hear her, but another young man did. “Open Door Church from Mattawooptock.”
“Oh my goodness,” Cathy said quietly. “I called them hours ago.”
“Well, Mattawooptock is quite a haul,” Esther said.
Cathy looked at her. “Where is matta ... matta ... mattawhat?”
“Mattawooptock,” Esther repeated. “It’s over by Skowhegan.”
“Wow, that’s got to be a two-hour drive.”
“Yes,” Esther said. “Yes, it is. But they’re here now. So we’d better get some more coffee on.” Esther started toward the kitchenette.
“There’s got to be a hundred of them,” Cathy said behind her, still frozen in wonder.
