Part 21 (1/2)
Chapter Twenty-Five.
She was here, and then she wasn't,” the young teacher said, her voice trembling. ”We were on the playground for only about fifteen minutes because we planned to rehea.r.s.e our Thanksgiving skit before being dismissed for the day. Faye and Cindy Emerson were playing pilgrim over by that big oak tree. Had some kind of stuffed animal with them.” She took out a tissue and blew her nose. ”They insisted on wearing their pilgrim hats outside.”
Not Faye, no! Please, not Faye! I felt cold inside and empty, like I had when Jarvis died, but falling apart wouldn't help Faye or any one else. Since Gatlin was in no condition to drive, I had insisted on taking her to school, and Mildred wouldn't be left behind. My grandmother had left earlier to pick up groceries for Thanksgiving dinner. I felt cold inside and empty, like I had when Jarvis died, but falling apart wouldn't help Faye or any one else. Since Gatlin was in no condition to drive, I had insisted on taking her to school, and Mildred wouldn't be left behind. My grandmother had left earlier to pick up groceries for Thanksgiving dinner.
Dave, who had arrived a few minutes after we did, turned from the window that overlooked the playground in the princ.i.p.al's office, where we gathered. ”Did Cindy notice where she went? Did Faye say anything?” His face was like stone except for a slight twitch under one eye. Gatlin was trying hard not to cry, and she clung to her husband's arm as if it might keep her from toppling over.
”Cindy said she saw Faye speak to a man,” Mrs. Grimes, the princ.i.p.al, told us, but she didn't think she went with him. Soon after that the children were called in from play, and Faye wasn't among them. Her coat is gone, and we couldn't find the stuffed animal, either, so she must have taken them with her.”
”What man?” Gatlin asked, her voice growing louder with each word. ”What did he look like? What was he doing here?”
”We're looking into that right now, checking volunteer records.” Mrs. Grimes spoke with an ”in charge” voice. ”I'm sure Faye's just playing somewhere, hiding probably. You know how children are at this age. We'll find her soon. Try not to worry.”
”Not worry? A five-year-old is missing, and we're not supposed to worry?” Mildred, in her twenty-year-old coat and smushed hat with a pink feather on it, stepped up to face the princ.i.p.al. ”If she's not on the grounds, then she's outside them. Possibly with some strange man. How did you let this happen?”
”We're searching the grounds right now,” Mrs. Grimes said, ”and the buildings, inside and out. If she's here, we'll find her.”
”And if she's not?” Dave reached for the phone. ”I'm calling the police.”
The young teacher, whose first name, I think, was Nancy, put a hand on his. ”We've already called them.”
Gatlin looked at me. ”Do you think it's about that zebra? She took it after I told her not to, and now she's run off somewhere, afraid she'll be punished.”
”Maybe she felt sick and went home,” I said. It wasn't far, only a few blocks, and Faye could have walked it easily. Had done so, in fact, with her mother. ”Did she feel all right this morning?”
”Faye wouldn't do that,” Gatlin said. ”She knows I'll come for her if she's sick, and she was fine this morning as far as I know.”
”I'll check the house again,” Dave said. ”I went by there first, and she wasn't there.”
”I'll go with you,” Gatlin said. ”No, stay here. One of us should be here...in case she turns up.” Her husband gave her a brief kiss on the forehead.
”Call,” she said, and he nodded, leaving. Gatlin went to the window. ”I'm going to check the grounds, and if she's not there, I'm turning this building upside down.”
”I'll help,” I said. ”No, please!” Mrs. Grimes stood. ”I a.s.sure you we've searched the place thoroughly. The police should be here any minute, and I'm certain they'll conduct one as well. Faye's morning kindergarten cla.s.s has been dismissed for the day, and I can't have you disrupting the others.”
”I don't care what you want or don't want!” Gatlin said, her voice breaking. ”I want my child back. I want my baby!
I have to do something something!” And she threw herself on my shoulder and sobbed.
”Mrs. Grimes?” A slender, rather colorless young woman crept in with a note in her hand, and the princ.i.p.al introduced her as Betty Ann Harris, an a.s.sistant in the media center. ”Our volunteers are all accounted for, and none of them were on the playground when the little girl wandered away...”
Wandered away? But I suppose I hoped the woman was right, that Faye did wander away on her own. But I suppose I hoped the woman was right, that Faye did wander away on her own.
”...but one of the fourth-grade girls said she saw a child talking to that man who helps with the newsletter,” she continued. ”You know, the one who prints it all out for us once it's put together.”
”You mean Hugh Talbot? My goodness, is it already time for another issue?” Mrs. Grimes turned to us. ”He's been such a help to organize our little newsletter. No one else seems to have time for it. They're going to republish some of his grandfather's animal stories, he tells me, and I hear one of the children's networks is interested. They're timeless, those little tales.”
”Where did she see them?” Gatlin asked. ”And when?” ”I believe it was during their playtime,” Betty Ann Harris said.
”You believe? Well, for goodness' sakes, let's get the child in here and find out. Who is she, and who's her teacher?”
Mrs. Grimes conferred with her secretary, and the little girl was promptly summoned, but she didn't remember seeing Faye leaving with the man in the brown overcoat.
”If she didn't leave with him, where did she go?” I asked her, trying to sound calmer that I was.
”I don't know, but I think she ran away. I was looking out the window, sharpening my pencil, you know, and the teacher said I'd been there long enough and to come and sit down.”
Mrs. Grimes picked up the phone. ”I'll call Mr. Talbot at his office, see if he can help.” But after what seemed like a century, she shrugged and hung up. ”n.o.body answers. I expect he's at the academy.”
I could almost feel Mildred's bright eyes boring into me, and I turned to find her trying her best to give me some kind of silent message while inching toward the door.
”Why don't Mildred and I see if Mr. Talbot's at the academy, then look around while we're there?” I suggested to Gatlin. ”I know it's hard for you, but I think you should stay right here so we'll know where to find you.” I know she was thinking of what had happened to me at Minerva Academy, and worse, what had happened to Otto. I remembered the smothering smell of the dusty drapes over my head, the helplessness of being pulled along the floor. Surely no one would do something like that to a child!
I felt the tears on her cheek as I gave her a hug, but managed to hold in my own until we were outside.
”Stop that. We don't have time for tears,” Mildred said. ”We have to find this child, and I'll be willing to bet Hugh or his sister is behind it.”
She sounded so much like Augusta, she might have been taking lessons. Still, I snuffled, imagining my small cousin s.h.i.+vering under a hedge somewhere or curled beneath a bush-hiding. From whom? At least she'd been wearing a coat, and this was one of our milder days, weatherwise. But if anything happened to Faye, I didn't think we'd be able to bear it.
The police pulled into the parking lot as Mildred and I started to drive away. The chief's nephew, Rusty Echols, was behind the wheel, and I waved them down and told them where we were going.
”After your last experience over there, I'm surprised you'd even consider going back to that place,” he said. ”You just sit tight until we've checked out the school, and we'll see if anything's going on at the academy.”
”I don't have time to sit tight. My little cousin is missing, and she was last seen talking to Hugh Talbot. If I were you, I'd get on the radio and tell your uncle or somebody to meet me there,” I said. And I didn't give him a chance to answer.
”What makes you so sure it's Hugh or Gert?” I asked Mildred, hoping I was far enough away from the police car that they couldn't tell how fast I was driving.
”Hugh was at the bookshop this morning, remember? Gatlin said he'd dropped by earlier. Hoping n.o.body would be there, no doubt, so he could get his hands on my zebra! What a shock it must've been for the old fool to see Faye walking off with it.”
”But we don't know for sure that Faye did walk off with it,” I reminded her. ”And how would Hugh Talbot know you hide things there?”
The words were barely out of my mouth before I remembered who told the secret of Mildred's hiding place. My grandmother and I had talked about it in the kitchen only the day before. And Gertrude Whitmire had been there! And Gertrude Whitmire had been there!
”Oh, dear,” I said. ”I'm afraid Gertrude might have heard us whispering in the other room when she dropped by yesterday morning.”
”Whispering about what?”
”The would-be burglary at the bookshop, and that you hide things in the zebra,” I said. ”Of course, Vesta didn't know what was in it.”
”So I suppose Gert pa.s.sed the information along to Hugh.” Mildred made a funny noise in her throat and dug in her purse for a hankie. ”I can't believe they'd hurt that child, Minda. I just can't let myself believe that. They would be my niece and nephew, you know, if what I suppose is true, but I'll be darned if I claim them!”
I almost ran off the road. Mildred Parsons said darn! darn!
”Minda, I'm sure it must have been Gert who slipped something into my drink the night I got so sick after that meeting,” she said.