MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

“I can’t drink it lying down,” Johnny said.

“Tell you what. I’ll pop the trunk all the way open so you can sit up and get some fresh air for a bit. But you got to promise not to try to run away or yell or any of that nonsense, okay? There’s no one around to hear you, and remember what I said I would do if you act up. Deal?”

“I’ll be good, mister. I promise.”

“Just like I knew you would be. Such a good kid.”

Chapter 14

In the honeymoon suite at the South Shore Resort, Leo had asked the babysitter Kara to recount every single moment of her day on the beach in minute detail. In Leo’s police experience, the exercise might lead to the discovery of an important detail that may otherwise have been overlooked.

Kara was recalling the Buckley kids continuing to practice for Laurie and Alex’s wedding ceremony after Timmy and Ramon had left the hotel to shop for a birthday present for Alex. It broke Laurie’s heart picturing Johnny standing in for Timmy as her best man. As she listened, it was obvious that the boy looked up to his older future cousin.

The chirp of a cell phone interrupted Kara’s narration of the day. Marcy glanced at the screen with a perplexed expression and excused herself from the room.

From his spot on the sofa next to Kara, Timmy brought their attention back to the beach. “The twins were teasing Johnny before we left, saying he wanted to be so much like me that they were going to call him ‘Timmy.’ ”

Something about Timmy’s comment tugged at the back of Laurie’s mind, a thought trying to come to fruition. She was about to get ahold of it, like pulling at a loose thread, but then immediately lost her grasp.

“That’s right,” Kara agreed. “Chloe and Emily continued like that the whole time at the beach, calling him Tim or Timothy more often than his own name. He seemed to enjoy the game. It was all in good fun.”

They had been calling their brother Timmy on the beach. Laurie felt that nagging feeling again, and then pictured little Wyatt, the boy on the beach who had been sharing the skim board with Johnny and Timmy.

“Kara, did you happen to notice anyone else addressing Johnny by that name? Or hear someone calling out the name Tim , or some variant of that?” Wyatt had heard a woman yelling the name Tim, like maybe he was in trouble or not paying attention or something .

Kara shook her head.

“No, not that I heard. It was just the girls playing around.”

Marcy re-entered the living room, her cell phone still in hand. “Do you mind if we take a break for a second? Ramon said the girls are famished. Timmy, maybe you and Kara can meet them downstairs and make a final decision about where to go.”

“They’re going to ask about Johnny,” Timmy muttered.

Laurie could tell that Marcy was trying to get Timmy and Kara out of the room so she could speak alone to Laurie and Leo about whatever phone call she had received. She could also tell that her son did not agree with the decision not to tell the girls directly what was going on, but he was only ten years old. This wasn’t his decision to make.

“No one’s asking you to tell a lie,” Laurie said. “Marcy and Andrew will decide what’s best as far as the twins are concerned.”

He nodded his agreement, and he and Kara went to find Ramon and the girls.

“That was our priest, Father Horrigan,” Marcy said, placing her phone on the coffee table. “He decided to contact Johnny’s biological mother after I called him, just to be absolutely certain she had nothing to do with this.”

“And?” Leo prodded.

“Her mother said she died of a drug overdose six months ago.”

Silence fell over the room.

“I guess in some ways, we didn’t even know her,” Marcy said. “But it still feels so… sad. And surreal. But Father Horrigan made a point to tell me that her mother—Johnny’s grandmother, I guess—said her daughter never had any regrets at all about having Johnny and making him part of our family.”

Marcy wiped away a tear as Laurie patted her on the back, trying to comfort her.

The somber moment was interrupted by the sound of a rumble outside the hotel. They turned to face the windows and spotted a small-engine plane above the shoreline. HELP FIND MISSING CHILD: FINDJOHNNY.COM. WE U, JOHNNY!

Marcy placed a hand over her mouth. “I need to track down the twins. Now!”

Chapter 15

Marcy rushed from her suite, anxious to tell the girls about the search for their brother before they learned of it on their own. When she opened the door, Alex was standing in the hallway, his knuckles raised to knock.

He must have recognized the panic in Marcy’s face. “You saw the plane, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m just praying that somehow Chloe and Emily didn’t.”

“They’re only four years old. They can read?”

“Their brother’s name probably, plus the shape of the heart. We don’t want to risk it.”

Alex held up both hands to calm her. “It’s okay. They were in the hotel lobby with Ramon. We saw them just now when we walked in. Andrew took them to my room so the two of you can break the news to them in private. I’m so sorry, Marcy.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m the one who wanted the plane banner to get the word out. I just never imagined they’d be able to do it so quickly.”

“We were surprised, too. I guess custom images take longer, but they have these big red letters all ready to be strung together. When we saw they had a heart symbol, we added that, too, hoping that Johnny might see it. We told the flight company to wait an hour to give us a chance to get back here so you and Andrew could talk to the girls, but obviously the message didn’t make it to the pilot.”

“It’s not your fault, Alex. I appreciate everything you’ve all been doing.” Marcy turned around to face Laurie. “I have no idea how to tell the girls their brother is missing. Any advice?”

The worst day of Laurie’s life was the day Greg died. It was as sudden and as violent as anything that could be imagined. She didn’t even have the luxury of losing him to natural causes, or to know that his killer would be brought to justice. And the worst part of all was telling Timmy that his father was gone and their lives would never be normal again.

Laurie rose and gave Marcy a quick hug. “Kids are stronger than you think. Tell them how everyone loves Johnny and is working to find him, but don’t make any promises you can’t keep.”

Marcy nodded her appreciation, and Laurie could see that she was strengthening her resolve. She was hopeful that this would be the worst news Marcy would ever have to deliver to her girls.

Alex wiped his face with both hands once the door closed. “I still can’t believe this is happening. I feel so helpless.”

“We all do,” Leo said. “Missing children cases were always the hardest ones to work on the job. You feel a giant clock ticking over your head, knowing that the chances of a happy ending are decreasing with every tick. Sorry, I know that’s gloomy, but I figured the two of you should know what we’re dealing with.”

“I keep trying to think of things I can do to help,” Alex said, leading Laurie toward the living room sofa, where they took a seat beside each other. “Marcy texted Andrew earlier that she had tried calling their priest to find out the identity of Johnny’s birth mother, just in case the adoption had something to do with this, but the priest said the information was confidential. I thought I could do some legal research to see if there’s a way to access the records through the court system.”

When he reached for Laurie’s hand, she held on to it tightly. He always had a way of calming her, just with his presence.