Carol Clark - Burned

Ned ran hard for ten miles, something he hadn’t done in a long time. When he reached a deserted stretch of beach, he took off his shoes and shirt and dove into the water. It felt good to move, to kick his feet and let loose. When he saw a big wave approaching, he decided to ride it in. The undertow was strong. It pulled him under, threw him around, and then finally retreated. Ned struggled to his feet. A mass of broken shells blanketed the ocean floor.

“Ow!” Ned cried. He had stepped on something sharp. He limped to the sand, sat down, and pulled a shard of glass out of the bottom of his second toe. Blood was pouring out, and it looked to Ned as if it needed stitches. But there was no way he was going to risk that when Will’s mother was coming to town, the woman who had been obsessed by that very toe thirty years ago. If he was going to let any doctor look at his feet, it would be after Almetta Brown was long gone from the Hawaiian Islands and all talk of royal leis had ended.

Ned sat in the sand and applied pressure to the cut with one of his gym socks. He was rewarded with the sight of a white sock turning bright red. With the piece of glass he had just pulled out of his foot, he cut a piece off his sock and tied it around his toe. He squeezed back into his shoes and limped back to the hotel. By the time he got back to the room, his foot was incredibly sore and still bleeding.

As he showered, watching the blood trickling out of his toe wash down the drain, all he could think about was that the ball would be over and the leis would be gone tomorrow. That was fine with him. But what to do about that bellman Glenn? He’s definitely up to no good. A thought occurred to Ned: Could Glenn be behind the trouble at the hotel? He seems to be everywhere. And Will has him running around all over taking care of things. But if he is up to no good, I can’t do anything about it, Ned realized. And who knows? He could already have set me up with the cops.

Now I’m really getting paranoid, Ned thought. He stepped out of the shower, dried off, and tied wads of toilet paper around his toe. He didn’t have any Band-Aids and wasn’t about to start poking through Artie’s shaving kit. Thankfully, Artie wasn’t around. He must be downstairs with the Hudville group, chowing down at the buffet.

Ned got dressed, then reached into his closet and tried on the shoes he had worn surfing yesterday. They felt very tight. He took them off and put on his sneakers. When I get the word from Will that his parents are here, I’ll change back into the beach shoes. I can’t exactly go in the ocean with my sneakers on-Will’s mother would certainly notice that. From the sounds of it she hasn’t changed much in thirty years. She probably still notices everything.

Ned went back outside to join the world with one goal for the day: to not get arrested.

“I ’ m so worried.” Carla’s mother was on the speaker phone talking to Regan and Will. “It’s so unlike her. She finally gets engaged after all these years and then drops off the face of the earth. It doesn’t make sense. My Carla would have been calling me every five minutes to discuss the wedding. No one has heard from her since yesterday. And now you say it looks as if they hadn’t slept in their room!” Her voice cracked, and she started to cry.

“Mrs. Trombetti, we’re going to do everything we can to track them down. Don’t forget, she did just get engaged. Carla and Jason may just have decided to go off and have a few days to themselves, shutting out the world. This is Hawaii, and there are lots of romantic places where couples go to be alone.”

“Not Carla. If she’s away from a phone for a few hours, she gets withdrawal symptoms.”

Regan could hear her sniffling.

“And how much more time alone does she need with Jason? They’ve been together for ten years. I’m surprised the bloom isn’t off the rose. I was so happy they got engaged before they got sick of each other.”

Regan raised her eyebrows. “You know the police don’t even count them as missing persons yet because they are adults and are free to do as they choose. They’ve been gone only twenty-four hours. But we’re going to do everything we can to find them.”

“Wasn’t there just a drowning at the hotel there? My husband was looking up the news from Hawaii on the Internet.”

“Unfortunately, there was,” Regan answered. “An employee from the hotel. But she was alone. It’s unlikely that your daughter and her fiancé-”

“I know, I know,” the woman interrupted. “But, believe me, I know my daughter. As much as we might spat with each other, she doesn’t ignore my phone calls or go this long without talking to any of her friends.”

“I understand,” Regan said softly. She spent the next few minutes trying to reassure Carla’s mother. But she knew how her own mother would feel if she suddenly disappeared. And she knew how excited her mother was about finally planning a wedding. When Regan hung up, she looked at Will and asked, “How many of these kinds of calls do you get?”

“Enough,” he answered. “People come to Waikiki on vacation and want to be free. The batteries on their cell phones die. Or they travel around to areas where there’s no service. Relatives get worried. These days people are used to being in constant touch. But this couple just got engaged. Maybe they decided to do something wild.”

“Maybe,” Regan answered cautiously, “but I wish Carla hadn’t been on the beach the other night.”

“I know,” Will said quietly.

“Can I take a look in their room?” Regan asked.

Will stood quickly. “Let’s go. I’m sure we have her mother’s permission.”

Inside the neat room with the king-sized bed, everything looked in order. In the bathroom Carla’s toiletries were lined up. Two toothbrushes were standing side by side in a glass.

“Wherever they are, they didn’t plan to stay overnight,” Regan observed.

“You can buy a toothbrush anywhere,” Will answered.

“You can, but-” Regan pointed at the lotions and creams and sprays that covered the marble countertop-“I don’t think Carla is the type to wing it. I’d lay a bet she’s never gone camping in her life. Certainly not without her face creams.”

Regan walked over to the desk and glanced at the notepad with the Waikiki Waters Resort logo that was next to the phone. Regan picked it up and walked to the terrace door where the light was bright. Whoever wrote the last message had written with force and left an impression on the next sheet of paper. When she saw what had been written, she inhaled sharply.

“What?” Will asked.

“It says Kona. There’s a flight number and a time.”

“You see!” Will said with relief. “They took off for a little fun on the Big Island.”

“But, Will, those twins were in Kona yesterday. I accidentally saw one of their boarding passes.”

Will’s face blanched. “It still doesn’t mean…”

Regan looked at her watch. “It’s noon. Let’s go look for the twins.”

“Then what?”

“I’ll figure it out,” Regan answered.

They hurried downstairs and looked around the pools, scoured the beach, and went in and out of all the restaurants but couldn’t find anyone from the Mixed Bag Tour group. They went back to Will’s office and called all their rooms. No answer. Regan went back outside and spotted the young girl from the group coming out of the women’s clothing store. She looked bored.

“Excuse me,” Regan greeted her.

“Yeah.”

“I was next to your table this morning when the tour leader’s purse fell onto the floor.”

“Oh, right,” Joy said. “She handled that really well, didn’t she?”

Regan smiled. “I need to talk to her. Do you know where she is?”