“Your turn,” Jason and Amber said simultaneously at the sound of the telephone.
They were in the art center—washing down, relining shelves, and stocking supplies. They’d been at it for hours, having taken time out for lunch at the local fast-food restaurant.
“I went the last time.” Jason smiled, yanking open yet another carton of assorted colors of construction paper.
Amber, busy measuring shelf paper, teased, “But it’s your mother.”
“Probably.” His smile widened before he dashed down the hall toward the office.
“Tell her she’s supposed to be on vacation,” Amber called after him.
The first three days of spring vacation had been devoted to paperwork. It had taken that long to clear her desk. She still had some files to update on the computer, but she decided it could wait. She preferred the demands of physical labor—it tired her out so that she was able to sleep at night
With Jason’s help, they’d been unpacking and sorting supplies. They still had the Wendy House, the music room, and infants’ rooms to get through.
“Miss Spencer,” Jason called down the hall.
“Huh?” Amber said, going to the door.
“Mom wants to know if you can come home with me for dinner. She says it’s only pot roast but German chocolate cake from scratch.”
Amber chuckled, thinking Lynn has been a busy little bee today. “Thank her for me, Jason, and tell her I want to finish in here while I’m in the mood. Perhaps tomorrow night at my place. Everyone is invited.”
“Okay. Be right back,” Jason called before disappearing inside the office.
Humming to an old Motown tune on the radio, Amber went back to work, not even looking up when Jason returned.
“I’ll bring those other two boxes of construction paper up from the basement. Shall I take these empty cartons to the shed out back?”
“Please,” Amber said absently. “You know, you don’t have to spend your whole day working. Wouldn’t you rather be out with your friends? This is your vacation, too.”
Jason shook his head. “Naw, I can hang out with the fellows anytime. This is more important, earning extra money.”
Amber hid a smile, thinking not for the first time what a great kid Jason was. Lynn and Alex had good reason to be proud of him.
“I bet you miss your older brothers.”
“It was great having them home again. Although I got tired of never getting any food. Those guys go through cases of chips and ice cream and cookies like you wouldn’t believe. The telephone was constantly ringing... girls, girls, girls. That is all they think about... talk about. I don’t know how they keep all those girls straight.”
Amber laughed. “In another year or two I bet you will be just like them. I must admit I do admire your attitude. You’re willing to work for what you want.”
“Thanks. I probably would have given up last month if it hadn’t been for your friend, Ray.”
“Ray? What does he have to do with this?”
“He’s an all-right guy. I really liked him. He didn’t treat me like a kid. Did you know he was kinda small like me when he was a kid?”
“No, I don’t think I did,” Amber said, effectively hiding a smile.
“Yeah, anyway, he said that if I keep at it, by the time school started in September I probably not only would be bigger but would have all the money I needed. Good advice, huh?”
“Sounds like it.” Amber felt her heart swell, not that she needed reminding that Ray was a good man. It was a treat to hear that others also appreciated his finer points. Generally he was such a self-contained, private person that most people found him just plain cold. With Jason and her friends here in Vermont Ray had allowed them a glimpse of the man she loved.
“Be right back.” Jason dashed out with a burst of youthful energy.
Amber sighed, knowing it was too soon to even speculate on the future. She knew she wanted a lifetime of love and commitment with Ray. She needed to be a part of his life.
She found herself wondering what it would be like to live each day knowing it would be shared with him... to wake up each morning in his arms. Unfortunately their situation was not that simple. They spent more time apart than they did together.
“Get busy,” she told herself aloud. Thoughts of Ray seemed only to intensify her worries for his safety. They never really went away. How long could she go on pretending to him that she could handle the danger? She had not spoken to him recently. She knew he was working, but each day without word seemed—
“Miss Spencer?”
Amber forced a smile. “Yes?”
“I remember putting the padlock back on the door of the shed when I put the lawn mower away on Monday. The shed is open. Have you been out there?”
“No.” Amber frowned, her mind instantly going to Harris. “Did you notice anything else that was unusual?”
“Like what?”
“Anything out of place.”
“No—why do you ask?”
“No special reason,” Amber said evenly, trying to appear unconcerned. “I just want to make sure there hasn’t been any vandalism.” Surely Harris couldn’t still be in the area, especially with the police watching the house. It had been over a week since his telephone call.
“Nothing was messed up. Does this have something to do with Mr. Harris?” Jason asked.
“What made you think of him?” Amber worked to keep her features casual.
“Not you, too, Miss Spencer. I’m tired of everyone treating me like a baby. I will be thirteen next month! Whenever I come into a room, Mom and Dad stop talking about him and change the subject. I’m no dummy. I know something is going on. The kids were talking about him in school last week. They say he’s some kind of nut.”
“I’m sorry, Jason. I didn’t mean to talk down to you. I had to fire Mr. Harris. He was very angry because of that. That was his reason for spray painting my walls.” She suppressed a shudder. “I don’t know if the other stories about him are true. I only hope he’s a long way from Shelly by now.”
“Thanks for not treating me like a kid.” Using his knee for leverage, he ripped open another carton.
“Telephone,” they both groaned aloud a few minutes later.
“I’ll get it this time,” Amber volunteered, getting to her feet. She massaged the taut muscles in the small of her back as she went.
Amber grinned when she returned. “Guess who?”
“Mom.” He laughed. “She wants to talk to me.”
“Just a reminder to pick up milk from the market on your way home.”
“Will do.”
“It’s after five, maybe you should get a move on.”
“I can stay if you need me. All I have to do is call my mom.”
They both laughed at that. “I mean—”
“I know what you mean. Thanks, you’ve done enough for today. You’ve earned yourself another ten dollars.”
“All right! Thanks, Miss Spencer. I’ll be over around eight tomorrow morning.” He pocketed the money, quite pleased with himself.
“Make that nine. This is vacation week, remember. You know you don’t really have to spend your free time here.”
“I like to. Besides, I have a goal.” He beamed.
Amber shook her head. “Okay, you’ll get no argument from me. Give your mother my love. Bye.”
“See ya.” With a wave he was gone.
Amber went back to work. When the telephone rang thirty minutes later, she groaned. Mumbling to herself, she raced for the office—she really should do something about getting a wall extension in the main hallway. “Hello, Lynn,” she answered automatically.
“Hello, Lynn, yourself. This is Ginger. How you doin’?”
“Hi. Sorry about that Jason has been helping me all day, and you know Lynn. She is dying to get back here. I’m insisting she take some time off. What are you doing calling? I thought you had better things to do, like organizing the baby’s room.”
“I have been, but you still haven’t answered my question. How are you?”
“Tired but it’s a good tired. I’ve been busy here taking care of all those things we never get time for when the school is open.”
“Working! Shame on you. Come over for dinner tonight. I’ve got steak, scalloped potatoes, and homemade apple pie.”
Amber laughed. “What is it with all the cooking? You and Lynn own stock in a cattle ranch or something?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Thank you, dear friend, but I have too much to do here. I hope to have the Baldwins over soon. I’m hoping you and Wayne can join us.”
“Great. Now tell me more about this baby shower you two are planning. Need any help?”
“Not from you, lady. Oh, so that’s what this call is about? You’re pumping me for information! We want a few surprises.”
“Okay, I’ll behave. Listen, Wayne is due in soon. I better get back to the stove—wouldn’t want to bum his first home-cooked meal in months. Don’t work so hard. It will be there when school reopens.”
Amber was just finishing up in the art room when there was a knock on the side door. She found herself hesitating for a second. She hurried forward when she heard Lynn calling her name.
“Hi.” She smiled, throwing the door wide. “Don’t tell me, you can’t take no for an answer. I must owe you and Alex at least a half dozen meals within the last two weeks alone,” she said waving Lynn inside, then shutting the door behind her.
“Amber Spencer, what are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you come to offer a personal invitation that I couldn’t refuse?”
“Now that you mention it,” Lynn teased. “No, really, I came to yell at my son. I expected him over an hour ago. I suppose earning a few extra dollars has more appeal. Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“He left almost two hours ago.”
Both women read the rising apprehension in the other’s eyes.
“You don’t think—” Lynn began.
“No, I don’t think anything is wrong. There is a logical explanation, and we are about to find it. We aren’t going to panic. Understand?”
Lynn was shaking so badly she could only nod.
“Come on. We’re going to your house. I bet he will be home by the time we get there. He probably stopped to talk to a friend on his way. Give me a second to find my keys and purse, and I’ll follow you in my car.”
They drove slowly, scanning the streets for any sign of him. The only stop they made was at the market. Neither Mrs. Moore, the owner, or her nephew, Joey, had seen Jason that day.
Amber had barely brought her car to a stop in the drive of the Baldwins’ rambling brick home when Lynn raced inside. Lynn had just emerged from the kitchen when Amber entered.
“Is he here?”
Amber judged by the stricken look on her friend’s face that the answer was no. Jason wasn’t home.
“Where could he be?” Lynn whispered.
“Let’s sit,” Amber ordered, moving toward one of cane- backed chairs at the oak dining table in front of the window alcove. “We are going to put our heads together. Between the two of us, we’re going to handle this calmly and rationally. Where does Jason keep his address book with all his friends’ phone numbers?”
“In the desk in his room.”
“I’ll get it.”
Tears filled Lynn’s large dark eyes. “My baby ...” She couldn’t go on. Her dark eyes seemed to shimmer in the fading light coming in through the lace curtains. They were filled with fear. “I need to call Alex,” she mumbled almost to herself.
Amber held her hands, communicating a shared sense of fear and grief neither was able to put into words. Lynn was the sister she hadn’t been fortunate enough to have.
“As far as we know, nothing has happened to Jason. He’s merely late. We won’t think the worst... we won’t.” She gave Lynn a quick hug before handing her the telephone. Amber swallowed the tears rising in her own throat “Call Alex. Maybe Jason has called him.”
Amber hurried toward the wide staircase leading up to the bedrooms. “Anything?” Amber asked when she returned a short time later with the address book in hand.
“No, Alex hasn’t heard from him. I also called Ginger, she hasn’t heard from him, either. They both will be here soon. Oh, Amber,” she said, taking her hand. “You’re right. There has to be a simple explanation. And when I get my hands on that boy—” Lynn made a valiant attempt to smile.
“That’s the Lynn I know and love. Are they having anything over at the junior high school for the kids? What about Jenny’s Sweet Shop? He could have met one of his buddies there for a banana split.”
“Jason is such a responsible kid. He wouldn’t just go off without calling me first. He knows how I worry. He also knows I was expecting him with that milk for the potatoes I never got around to mashing for dinner.” Lynn motioned her hand to the range top and the diced vegetables on the butcher block work island in the center of the room. “Where could he be?”
“He’s dependable. But he’s still a kid. Sometimes they do foolish things. You know that,” Amber said, trying not to ring her own hands in hopeless frustration. She had to stay calm for Lynn’s sake. She wouldn’t be much help to anyone if she broke into hysterics.
“I’m so glad you’re here. I’m just not thinking straight. Let’s start calling his friends. We’re bound to find him.” Jason wasn’t with any of the half dozen friends he had listed. Nor had Jason arrived by the time his father, Alex, got there or Ginger and Wayne at seven thirty.
Between the two of them, Amber and Ginger managed to get the meal together for all of them—not that anyone seemed inclined toward eating it John McClure had come and gone questioning each of them, Amber more intensely than the others. The hours seemed to drag. Unfortunately when telephone did ring, it was one of the Baldwins’ friends eager for news.
Although no one voiced the thought, they all feared that Harris was connected to Jason’s disappearance. There was no ransom demand—nothing to give a clue to the boy’s whereabouts or the reason for his disappearance, other than the most dreaded one—that Harris had taken him.
Alex paced the den while Ginger and Amber did what they could to support and reassure Lynn. Wayne manned the phone, fielding the calls. It was a long, long night.
Amber wrestled with her own sense of responsibility and regret. She couldn’t stop thinking that it could have been prevented. If she hadn’t been so self-absorbed, if she’d agreed to have dinner with the Baldwins, then she would have driven him home. Jason would be in his own room right now, probably playing his music at full volume, much to his parents’ chagrin. Harris could not have gotten to him.
Common sense dictated that if Harris was responsible for the boy’s disappearance, one failed attempt would not stop him, probably only lead to another try. Logic and reason were not keen parts of her thought patterns this night She was functioning on pure emotion, and she couldn’t seem to control her mounting fears.
Wayne and Ginger went home around two thirty in the morning, leaving only after the Baldwins promised to call if there was news.
Amber stayed the night preferring to be on hand given the off-chance that she was needed. She would gladly do whatever was needed to help Lynn and Alex through this horrible time. Lynn had been there for her during the rough times from establishing the nursery school and through to the worst of Harris’s scare. She had never lost faith in Amber or blamed her for hiring the man in the first place.
Amber could not stop wondering if she would have been quite so generous if the circumstances were reversed. A crisis like this forced her to realize what her friendship with the Baldwins had come to mean to her. She valued them both. They were good people. They certainly didn’t deserve this kind of heartache. From the first, Alex Baldwin had volunteered his professional services to the nursery school with no thought to his own demanding schedule at the university. Their entire family helped Amber put her home back together after the vandalism.
In the guest bedroom Amber woke warily. She hoped the others had managed to get some sleep. None of them had gone to bed until after four. With barely four hours sleep, she pushed the velvet coverlet back and padded into the connecting bathroom. She showered but was forced to dress in the same jeans and sweatshirt she’d worn the day before.
“Something smells good. Mornin’,” Lynn said when she entered the sun-brightened kitchen. Her smile didn’t reach her dark brown eyes.
“Coffee’s ready. Sit, I’ll get you a cup.”
“Amber, you don’t have to...” She gestured to the delicious smells coming from the covered warmer.
“I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to do something. Bacon, french toast, scrambled eggs are ready.” Amber encouraged as she poured coffee into a yellow flowered mug.
“Just coffee. I don’t think I can eat. I’m glad you stayed last night.” Lynn made herself comfortable at the kitchen table.
Amber filled two plates, certain she wouldn’t be able to eat anymore than her friend but determined to try. “Here we go. Did you get any sleep?”
Lynn shrugged, taking no notice of the plate Amber placed on the placemat in front of her when she joined her at the table. “A few hours. How about you?”
“Same. How’s Alex? Did he manage to get some sleep?”
“A little, thank goodness. I think he is taking this harder than I am. Jason is our baby. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. Hungry... hurt—” Lynn broke off with a sob. “Sorry,” she said, reaching into her pocket for a Kleenex.
Amber’s eyes were also brimming with tears that she had been struggling not to let fall. She had to remain strong for Lynn’s sake.
The two looked at each other through watery eyes. Suddenly they were holding each other and giving vent to all the fear welling up inside of them. Tears rushed down their cheeks while they rocked and sobbed.
“He’ll be fine. He just has to be,” Amber reassured, drying her face on a paper napkin.
“I keep telling myself that. If only there were something we could do. We called Jason’s brothers this morning. It was so hard, so hard. But we can’t keep this from them.”
“I wish I could do something to help... anything.” Every time she thought of him as he was during the day yesterday, her heart ached.
Lynn shook her head. “All we can do is pray.”
Amber nodded, impatient with the long wait... the waiting was driving them all crazy.
They ran out of tissues and napkins before they ran out of tears. They laughed when they realized they were mopping their faces on one of Lynn’s yellow dishtowels.
Lynn surprised Amber when she gave her a hard squeeze. She lifted a fork with a determined glint in her eyes. “Eat.”
They’d barely started when Lynn said, “Amber, I want you to stop blaming yourself. None of this is your doing.”
“How?”
“How did I know?”
“Yes. Have you started reading tea leaves?”
“I know you. You feel responsible. You’re not. That horrible man is the only one to blame for this. I feel it in my bones. I just know he has my son. This was such a nice, peaceful little college town. Small, secure, a wonderful place to raise children. Ever since he showed up, it has been one problem after another.”
“If only we’d known... something—” Amber stopped abruptly and started eating.
“Amber, I’m not made of cotton candy. Speak your mind, girl.”
She chose to change the subject instead. “Are the boys coming home?”
“Alex and I haven’t decided. To tell you the truth, Amber, I couldn’t deal with the anxiety of having either one of them in an airplane. I want them to stay where they are... safe. I know it’s illogical, but that doesn’t change how I feel.”
“I can understand your feelings.”
“Oh, Amber, I can’t stand the thought that that hateful man might be... He’s so young, too young to even understand any of this. I’m thirty-nine, and I don’t understand it!”
“Oh, honey, don’t. Please, don’t torment yourself this way. We really don’t know if Harris has him.”
“Morning,” Alex said, reaching for the coffee mug with one hand and the percolator with the other.
Amber did not need to ask how he was. One look at his haggard bronze features was answer enough.
“Sit. I’ll get his breakfast.” Lynn pressed Amber back down into the chair. “It will give me something to do.” They had barely finished breakfast when the doorbell and telephone both started ringing. It was the beginning of another long day. Time passed slowly with no real news of Jason or Harris. It was as if the two of them had disappeared off the face of the earth. John McClure sent several agents over. They went through the house, asking question after question while others manned the telephone and monitored the area. None of them seemed able to supply any new information.
Ginger and Wayne came in the early evening with a meal and plans to spend the night. A tired and disheartened Amber left for home with the promise that she would return in the morning.
It was after ten when she turned into her own drive, waving at the man parked across from the house. As was her custom, she parked in the garage. The old rambling house was completely dark. The wind whipped briskly from off the lake, as if a storm might make an appearance before dawn.
Amber was too tired to pay much attention as she pulled the collar of her jacket close to her neck. It was such a dismal night. Probably downright frightening to the young boy out there somewhere. Amber shuddered with ever increasing dread.
“Please, dear God, let him be unharmed,” she prayed softly, disengaging the alarm system before she let herself inside. She stepped on something underfoot, then flicked on the hall light before stooping to retrieve an envelope.
She had hung her jacket in the foyer before she opened the envelope. After reading the single handwritten sheet through, she was shaking so badly that she had to lean against the door for support.
Boss Lady,
He’s safe for now. Be at the telephone booth in front of Anderson’s Drugstore, if you want to keep the boy that way. Ten thirty! No cops!