MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

The detective paused, and Marcy nodded that she understood the implication.

“And when Judge Buckley referred to ‘natural suspects,’ I’ve got someone running a list of high-risk registered sex offenders in the area. Also some EDPs—emotionally disturbed persons, in the parlance. We’ll be looking for any matching MOs or other red flags.”

“I see.”

The possible explanations seemed to grow worse at every turn.

As if her mind needed a break from the darkness, Marcy found herself thinking about a trip to Anguilla ten years ago, shortly after their first anniversary. She had planned a long weekend trip for her and her best friends from college, Alicia and Liz. Alicia had gotten her MBA and was on her way to becoming a CEO, but Liz had been the one to move to Hollywood with Marcy to make their names as actresses. They were having lunch at a delicious French restaurant on Meads Bay when the sound of a small prop airplane interrupted the maître d’s explanation of the daily specials.

The maître d’ was bemoaning the flight’s deviation from the airport’s mandated path for visitors’ private jets when Liz let out a loud “ WHAT did he do?! ”

The entire restaurant looked up to see a plane flying a banner above the ocean: Liz, Be My Leading Lady. Marry Me. Unbeknownst to any of them, Liz’s boyfriend, Nic, had asked Andrew to snoop in Marcy’s calendar for their itinerary. The happy couple were married on that same beach a year later.

Her mind had pulled her back to Anguilla for a reason. Like an acting coach once told her: Pay attention to what you know, because every experience you ever had might be important right now.

“A plane banner,” Marcy called out. “Can we do that? Something that says there’s a missing child. Or maybe just a message for Johnny that we’re looking for him? In case he sees it?” She heard the desperation in her voice.

“Of course,” Andrew said, sitting down next to her on the sofa and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “That’s a great idea.”

“We’ll of course put out an announcement for the public to be on the lookout for your son,” Detective Langland said. “But we’ll get more attention if you as the parents follow up with a press conference. It’s too early to go that route now, but if we haven’t found him by tomorrow, the news teams will turn up.”

“ Tomorrow? ” The idea of not having her son with her by nightfall was unimaginable.

“If it even comes to that,” the detective said.

She heard a fast but quiet tap on the suite door. Alex opened the door, and Emily and Chloe spilled into the room, followed by Ramon. “Sorry, even I had a hard time stopping them.”

The girls jumped on the sofa on either side of her and Andrew. “What have you been talking about? It’s mean to keep secrets,” Emily said.

“We haven’t seen you all day,” Chloe grumbled. “Where’s Johnny?”

What am I going to tell them if their big brother is gone?

“I’m sorry, girls. We were just talking about what we should do for dinner. What sounds good to you?”

“Hamburgers,” the girls replied.

“Hamburgers?” Marcy asked incredulously. “If you two eat one more hamburger, you’re going turn into two giant hamburgers!”

Andrew spread his arms wide, as if in an unsuccessful effort to put them around his supersized daughters. The girls squealed with delight, temporarily forgetting the unanswered question about Johnny.

Chapter 9

Laurie turned the corner toward her hotel room to find Alex removing the key card from the door next to hers. She looked at him expectantly, hoping to hear good news. He shook his head.

She followed him into his room, and he pulled her into an embrace and gave her a quick kiss.

“Are you holding up okay?”

“Me? Of course. I’m sick for Marcy and Andrew, though.”

“Obviously. But I know this can’t be easy for you either.”

Nearly three years ago, the man who had murdered Greg had made good on his lingering threat to return to kill the rest of Greg’s family. In the process, he had abducted Timmy and tried to shoot Laurie before being killed by police.

“This isn’t about me. I just want to help.” She told him what she’d learned from Wyatt, the boy on the beach. “At least it’s a possible explanation for the skim board being in the water. It sounds like the kids were all sharing it, and may have left it where the tide pulled it out.”

“Better than bad news at least. Honestly, I think Marcy could use anything to give her hope right now. Can you go tell her? She’s in their room. Andrew’s pulling the car around for me. We’re going to the copy shop to print out some fliers with Johnny’s picture. The police already put us in contact with a pilot who can fly over the east end with a missing child banner.”

“That’s a good idea. How are the twins?”

“Ramon took them down to the lobby to get a soda.”

“They don’t know yet?”

He shook his head. “What are you going to tell Timmy?”

“I’m about to talk to him now. I’ll make sure he knows not to say anything to the twins, but I have to tell him. You know Timmy.”

“Of course. He’s got your and your dad’s ability to sense when something’s wrong. If you don’t shoot straight with him, his imagination might come up with something even worse.”

Laurie was beginning to wonder if fiction could be any worse than their reality.

Marcy pulled Laurie into a quick hug when she walked into their suite.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Marcy said tonelessly. “I hate to say this, but I feel like you’re the only one who really understands what I’m going through right now. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have even said that.”

Laurie pulled Marcy toward the sofa so they could take a seat. Laurie understood the point she was making. In one sense, Laurie had experienced a worse tragedy, losing her husband to a violent crime and living for five years under a threat of more harm to come to her and Timmy. On the other hand, Laurie’s loss was in the past, while Marcy still didn’t know the extent of hers.

“How are the girls?” Laurie asked.

“Too smart for what I can handle right now,” Marcy said. “Ramon’s watching them, but I’m not sure how long I can keep them at bay.”

“I told Timmy.”

“Is he all right?”

“I can’t tell. But he at least knows. He’s in our room and was planning to say a prayer for Johnny.”

“I know this sounds crazy,” Marcy said, “but I think at some level I was always expecting something like this to happen. Like he was never completely mine. We always thought of Johnny as our miracle child.”

Laurie had never pried about the details surrounding Andrew and Marcy’s decision to adopt their first child, but she empathized with the situation. She and Greg had tried for more than two years after they married to become pregnant with Timmy. In the back of her mind, she had been wondering if she and Alex might face similar hurdles once they began trying to add to their family.

“By the time Andrew proposed to me,” Marcy said, “I had already accepted what I had been told by my doctors—that I would never be able to conceive. We simply assumed it would be just the two of us. Plenty of couples opt not to have children.”

“And yet now you have three.”

“Funny how that works,” Marcy said. “We adopted Johnny as a newborn, and two and a half years later, he started saying he wanted a sibling. And not just any sibling. He was very specific: two baby sisters. Obviously, he was too young to understand why that was impossible, but nine weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. Then a few weeks after that, we learned we were having two twin girls. It’s as if Johnny predicted the family’s future.”