Part 22 (2/2)

I drove straight home, keeping an eye out for both Faye and Gertrude Whitmire along the way, pulled into the drive, and ran into the house. I needed some heavenly help, and fast.

”Augusta!” I called her name over and over again, checking every room, but she wasn't there. I knew she wasn't there as soon as I walked inside, but I had to hope.

”How could you do this? How could you leave me when I need you most?” I yelled aloud to an echoing house.

Pausing in the hallway, I called the school to see if Faye had turned up. The police had completed their search there with no success, the princ.i.p.al told me. And Gatlin and Dave had collected Lizzie and gone back to their place with Mildred.

Mildred answered when I phoned there and told me she was staying with Lizzie while her parents were out scouting for Faye.

”Do you have any idea where they've looked so far?” I asked.

She hesitated. ”The school, of course, and the neighborhood around it, and I think they went to your place, too.”

”What about the shop?”

”That's the first place Dave checked,” Mildred said, sounding more like Eeyore than ever.

I felt like Eeyore, too. ”I'll keep in touch,” I said, and then went out and sat behind the wheel of my car and closed my eyes.

”Think blue,” Augusta had advised me once when I got all worked up about something. ”It calms you, helps you think straight.” I could almost sense her beside me now.

I pictured a sky with clouds drifting, misty blue mountains framing a crystal sapphire lake. Where would I go if I were five years old, cold, hungry, and scared?

I would go home, of course, but obviously Faye hadn't done that. For some reason she was afraid to go there.... So what would she do then?

Knowing my little cousin, I was almost sure she felt guilty for taking Mildred's zebra, and perhaps felt she would be punished for not returning it. Yet Mildred had said they had already checked the shop.

Checked it first!

R. T. Foster was getting ready to leave for another job when I pulled up in front of the bookstore, but the door was still unlocked.

”Any news about the little girl?” he asked, loading tools into his truck.

I shook my head. ”Not yet. I was hoping maybe you'd seen her.”

”No, they came by here earlier looking. Of course, I've been busy on the other side trying to get rid of some of this clutter, but good Lord, I would've called if I'd have seen her!”

I told him I thought I'd hang around for a while just in case Faye might turn up, and before driving away, he showed me how to lock up without a key using the entrance to the empty building.

The books that remained in the bookshop were shrouded in sheets to protect them, and the floor was littered with plaster dust and jagged pieces of wood. The place would have given me an eerie feeling even if I weren't already scared out of my skin.

Still I searched the rows of empty shelves, boxes of books, lifting covers to peer underneath, hoping to glimpse a frightened, runaway child. I even wandered into the empty room where R. T. had been working but found only sawdust, brick fragments, and dirt. The place smelled of damp and mildew, and I couldn't imagine it ever being a restaurant, but if R. T. Foster said it was possible, then we'd have to hope he knew what he was talking about.

The restaurant seemed unimportant now. I didn't even care anymore who murdered Otto or tried to dump me over a railing. The only thing that mattered was finding Faye alive and safe.

Back in the bookshop I noticed R. T's large footprints in the snow of plaster. He had made a trail going back and forth, in and then out to his truck. And then I saw something else. Small footprints. Very small footprints leading to the back of the shop. In my hurry to look under covers, I hadn't noticed them before.

I also hadn't noticed the scent. Strawberries-faint at first, and then stronger as I followed the footprints to the door of the small back office. Augusta was here, and so, I hoped, was Faye.

But when I opened the door, the office was empty. And so was my heart. Was this some kind of rotten trick? I could almost visualize the missing child curled up in the old armchair that had belonged to my grandfather. But the chair was empty. The office was empty. Yet the smell of strawberries remained.

”Don't play with me, Augusta Goodnight!” I said, stamping my foot. And since that didn't get results, I stamped it again.

”Minda?” A sleepy voice spoke from underneath Mildred's big old desk, and Faye, clutching the celebrated zebra, crawled out, dragging a fringed throw behind her. ”Did you bring me anything to eat?” she asked.

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

It looks to me like you've already eaten,” I said, noticing the chocolate on her face and the candy wrapper under the desk. It was all I could say for the moment. I held her on my lap in the big armchair and let the tears flow.

”Why are you crying, Minda?”

”Because I was worried about you, you silly! We didn't know where you were. Why did you run off like that?”

”That man-he was mad at me for taking Mildred's zebra.”

”What man?”

”The man back at school-on the playground.”

”What makes you think that, honey?”

”He wanted to know where I got it; I think he wanted to take it away from me.”

”Why didn't you tell your teacher? You know she wouldn't let anyone do that?”

” 'Cause I was scared...” Faye rubbed her eyes and began to cry. ”Mama told me not to take it, and I did anyway. I was afraid I'd get in trouble, so I hid in the bushes until the man left, and my cla.s.s had already gone inside.”

”Don't cry now, it's all right. And then where did you go?”

”Home. Well, I started home, and this lady came up in a big car and asked if I wanted a candy bar.”

”Faye! You know better than to take candy from strangers!”

”But she wasn't a stranger, Minda. I've seen her lots of times. Besides, it was chocolate.”

”So you accepted the candy?”

”Yeah, and then I ran away and hid.”

”Where?”

”In Mr. Thompson's garage. He's got lots of neat stuff in there, but I didn't bother any of it. Besides, it was cold. I just hid in there till that lady left. She wanted my zebra, too,” Faye said, snuggling closer.

”She said that-that she wanted the zebra?”

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