Disappeared Read online

  “Did Mom ever mention a guy named Richard?” he asked her suddenly. “Or Rick or Dick or whatever?”

  Emily narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t think so. Why?”

  “He was someone else she was talking to online. She met him in a cooking class.”

  “She did talk about some guy who was hopeless in the kitchen. I think he exploded a sauce. Maybe that was him?”

  “Maybe.”

  “And when you say talking, you mean just talking, right?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “Then why are you so concerned about him?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, it’s not like Mom and Dad know all our friends.”

  “Right.”

  “But—”

  “But what?” she asked.

  “Nothing.”

  This was getting old. She wasn’t a kid. She stared Jared down until the silence got awkward. But it also gave her time to think, especially about that thing Josh had told her. She hadn’t mentioned that to Dad. She didn’t even want to think about it herself.

  Maybe Jared wasn’t the only one holding back.

  “Show me,” she said.

  “Show you what?”

  “The guy’s picture. The messages. Whatever you’ve got.”

  “On what? Dad took everything, remember?”

  Emily held out her phone and waggled it in his direction. He grabbed it out of her hands and opened her browser. She’d uninstalled the Facebook app that came pre-loaded on her phone—who used Facebook anymore?—but he was there within seconds.

  “Here,” he said, holding the phone back out to her, screen first. She took it, using her thumb and forefinger to enlarge the picture. It wasn’t a close-up shot, but full-body, a guy squatting beside his big, fluffy black-and-white dog that looked something like a husky, but with a big loopy tail. She thought they were called akidas or akitas or something like that. The guy was definitely silver-haired. And yes, attractive, if you were into old guys.

  “That’s him,” she said, amazed it had been that easy to find him. Could he lead them to Mom?

  “Who?” Jared asked. “The guy from today?”

  He took the phone back and stared at the picture, as if memorizing the guy’s face.

  “No, the man Josh saw Mom out with,” Emily answered.

  “Little Josh?”

  “Not so little anymore.”

  Jared eyed her like he might ask, but then he didn’t. At least, not about Josh. “What did he see?”

  She didn’t want to tell him. It was like ratting on Mom. Jared was angry enough at her already. This would send him over the edge.

  “Mom has a boyfriend?” he asked when she was done. His voice was cold. Hard. Like a frozen block of ice. But his fists were clenched. Hard. She wondered if he was digging his nails in as she had earlier.

  “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe she just needed someone to talk to. What did the messages say?”

  He chewed his lip and didn’t answer.

  “Jared, that silent thing makes me nuts. Talk to me.”

  “They didn’t say much. I think he and Mom were talking another way. Maybe text. Maybe phone. But I don’t think she’s with him. He sounded like he hadn’t heard from her. He was worried.”

  Damn, damn, damn. She didn’t realize how much she was hoping that this guy knew something.

  Jared unclenched his hands and reached for her phone. She surrendered it, and he started typing.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I told him I’m Diane’s son and we have to talk.”

  He kept staring at the phone even after he’d sent the message, maybe hoping for an immediate response. Then he started typing again.

  “What did you say that guy’s name was—the one who came looking for Mom? Jake Cassuary?”

  “That’s what it sounded like.”

  “Huh.”

  “Huh, what?”

  “He said he was a friend from high school and they reconnected on Facebook?”

  “I think so.”

  “He’s not on her friend’s list.”

  She grabbed his hand and tilted the phone so she could see for herself. As if Jared wasn’t perfectly capable of reading the screen.

  “That’s weird.”

  He grabbed the phone back and scrolled around a bit more, swiping and typing. Then he stopped. “Mom blocked him.”

  “What?”

  Again, she grabbed the phone and tilted it.

  “Maybe he creeped her out as much as he did me,” she said.

  Jared clicked on the guy’s profile. His picture was some kind of cartoon cat who looked like all his fur had been rubbed the wrong way. The background was a cartoon desert. That was all they could see. Apparently, the whole profile was marked private, and since they weren’t friends …

  “I don’t like this guy already,” he said.

  “If I see him again, I’ll snap a picture with my phone. Or get his plate number.”

  Jared looked up at her sharply. “If you see him again, you get the hell out of there. Right away. You call the police. Or run to the Meyers again.”

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

  “Emily.”

  “Jared,” she mimicked.

  He huffed in frustration, stabbed at the screen a few times, and started typing again.

  “Now what are you doing?” she asked, frustrated because it was her phone and it was about time she had it back.

  “Texting Aaliyah. I need to make sure she’s okay.”

  He’d moved on from Mom that easily? Yes, they’d hit a dead end, but there had to be some way to track these guys. If only she knew how to jailbreak their information on Facebook, if that was even the right word. She was no hacker. Neither was Jared.

  She hated being helpless, but even if they could turn up current addresses or something, how would they get to their suspects? Neither she nor Jared could drive yet, and he was grounded on top of it. Dad might never let him out of the house again, and there was no way they could ask Dad to drive them. Maybe Aaliyah …

  Something occurred to Emily just as Jared hit Send on his epic text. “Won’t the police or Aaliyah’s parents have taken her phone?”

  “Crap, I should have thought of that.” He threw Emily’s phone onto the bed and followed it down, sinking onto the other end from Emily, then looking to her in an appeal for help. “So, how do I get in touch with her?”

  “You’ll see her tomorrow at school.”

  “Yeah.”

  He sounded so sad that Emily skootched over to give him another hug, and he let her … until the phone rang on the bed between them and he reached for it before she could. She squawked as he grabbed it, indignant because it was her phone. But maybe it was Aaliyah and he had a good reason.

  He glanced at the read-out, and when his face fell she knew that it wasn’t his girlfriend. But still, he answered it.

  “Hey,” he said without any enthusiasm. “Oh, hey, Aunt Aggie. Yeah, this is her phone. Here she is.”

  He started to pull the phone away from his ear then yanked it right back. “Oh, sorry. Um, yeah, I don’t have a phone anymore. For now. That’s why I couldn’t get back to you.”

  Emily reached for the phone in Jared’s hand, but he held onto it. He was getting entirely too entitled with her phone. She could let it go or she could make it an issue. She decided to go for it, and swiped so fast he didn’t have time to tighten up. She enjoyed the shocked look on his face when it was suddenly gone and launched herself up from the bed so he couldn’t easily retake the phone, pressing it to her ear. “Aunt Aggie, he was arrested. The police have it.”

  She realized as she was saying it that Jared would be pissed off that she told. But, really, how could she keep something like that to herself?

  “What!” her aunt said. It was probably meant to be a question, but the exclamation point came straight through the phone. At full volume.

  “Well, he went
by Mom’s place—”

  She didn’t even register that Dad had flown into the room until he latched onto her hand and squeezed hard enough that she let out a gasp and dropped the phone. He caught it as it fell and put it to his ear. Emily didn’t even recognize his face. It was twisted up, mouth misshapen into a snarl. Eyes narrowed and blazing, as though they could shoot tightly focused lasers. He didn’t look at all like himself.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he snarled into the phone.

  Emily was so stunned she reached for the phone like she could take it back as she had from Jared. She wanted to protect Aunt Aggie from Dad’s wrath, but he stopped her with a glare and she fell back. It was like she didn’t even know him.

  “You started this witch hunt,” Dad said into the phone. “From now on, if you want to talk to the kids, you go through me. Do you know you got Jared arrested today?”

  He was blaming Aunt Aggie?

  Her aunt must have said something, because Dad paused, but not for long.

  “You have them half out of their minds with fear that something happened to their mother. Jared went looking for her today. He broke in to her apartment, and some nosy neighbor called the cops. Was that you too? Do you have the whole neighborhood on watch?”

  He listened for, like, half a second.

  “No, I don’t want to hear it. You’re getting the kids all riled up. It’s bad enough that Diane left. They don’t need you turning their lives upside down.”

  He pulled the phone away from his face and glared at it before punching the End button and throwing the phone back onto the bed.

  “No more calls from Aunt Aggie,” he said, catching Emily’s gaze in a way that made her feel trapped. Like she couldn’t look away. “She calls, you give the phone to me. She texts, you show me. You do not respond.”

  Emily just stared.

  “You got it?” her father asked.

  Emily had been afraid for others before, but never herself. For the first time ever, she feared giving Dad any answer but the one he wanted. She didn’t know what he’d do if she argued, and she didn’t want to find out.

  “Got it,” she said, her voice small.

  She risked a glance at Jared, but he was staring at Dad. His jaw was tight. He’d break teeth if he clenched any harder. His hands were fisted. She willed him not to say anything. Not to challenge Dad. Not now.

  “Good,” her father said, and whirled straight around to march out of the room. He turned back almost as quickly, making her jump. “And go back to your own room. Jared needs to think about what he’s done. And he’s probably got homework. You do too. Neither of you are to use this as an excuse to let your grades slip, you understand me?”

  Jared started to open his mouth, and Emily grabbed one clenched fist to stop him.

  “We understand,” she jumped in. Jared’s fist was like stone under her hand, and yet she felt it compress like he was trying to squeeze out a diamond.

  Her father stomped off, but he left the door open, denying them privacy to talk about what had just happened.

  As soon as he left, Jared hissed. “What the actual hell?”

  Emily was shocked. He hardly ever swore in front of her.

  “What shouldn’t get to us?” Jared went on. “That Mom is gone? That he’s forbidden us to talk to her sister who’s worried sick? That the police are investigating? Are we supposed to be hard like him and not give a damn?”

  Emily started to say something, but Jared wasn’t finished. “You’d better go,” he said. “Before things get ugly.”

  She didn’t know whether Jared was talking about himself or their father. He was so tightly wound.…

  He grabbed her phone off the bed and tossed it to her before escorting her to the door with a hand on her back. She was out in the hallway with the door shut hard before she could protest. Her head was spinning. Mom was gone; Dad was acting crazy; and Jared was starting to scare her. What if he stopped holding himself back and he and Dad came to blows? Would the police take Jared away? Dad? What then? Her whole world was a house of cards in gale force winds.

  Dad couldn’t be serious about them not talking to Aunt Aggie. He was just upset. He’d calm down. And Jared …

  She didn’t know what Jared would do. She couldn’t even believe what he’d done already. So, Dad had taken his electronics; that wasn’t the only way to reach the outside world. He had a window. Would he sneak out next? Could she stop him? Should she? Or would that bottle him up until he exploded? Or tip Dad off and get him into truly massive trouble. What if she didn’t stop Jared and he got himself arrested again?

  “Jared?” she said through the door, trying for just loud enough for him to hear.

  “What?” he asked, his voice as tight as his fist had been.

  “You won’t … do anything stupid, right?”

  “Like what?” he challenged.

  She didn’t know what to say to that. She didn’t want to give him any ideas. “Anything,” she said after too long a pause.

  “No,” he said. “I won’t do anything.” His voice seemed softer now. “I won’t leave you alone.”

  She believed him. She had to.

  Jared

  Dad was right about one thing; Jared had a lot of thinking to do. Dad was cutting them off. He couldn’t talk to the police, which was okay. He didn’t want to talk to the police. He couldn’t speak to Aunt Aggie. He couldn’t communicate with anyone—not without his phone or computer or Xbox. Not until tomorrow at school, anyway.

  It made him feel a weird, crazy kind of vulnerability. What if something happened? He considered picking up one of those pay-as-you-go phones, but without a car, he had no way to get to a store. He could catch a ride, but if Dad found out he didn’t come straight home or skipped practice … there’d be hell to pay, and these days hell seemed like a literal thing.

  But mostly he was worried about Emily. She’d already lost her mother—their mother. She couldn’t lose her aunt too.

  He had to fix this. He had to find out what had happened to Mom. Despite his father. Despite the police. He needed to know what he’d heard that night before it ate him alive. Because if there was anything he could have done …

  It hurt so damn much he wanted to curl up on his bed and—Die, he thought. But only for a second. He’d never leave Emily alone like that. And it wouldn’t solve anything. What he really wanted was to sleep through the pain. To wake up and find out the horror had passed. Mom was back. He would be so glad to see her, he’d forgive her for ever leaving. Emily was happy. The police were off his case. Aaliyah was speaking to him again and her parents were okay with it. Dad was … well, Dad still wouldn’t be happy, except maybe that he’d been proven right and everyone could give it a rest.

  He lay down on his bed. He wanted to turn his back to the door, curl up facing the wall, and shut out the world, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He didn’t know who he thought might sneak up on him, but he faced the door anyway, ready to spring out of bed in a second if Emily called out or he heard any odd noises. He was so tense he might as well have been crouched at the starting block.

  With nothing to distract him, thoughts spun in his head. He relived every second of the afternoon, from dragging Aaliyah into things through the break-in and interrogation and Dad’s strange outburst with Aunt Aggie. The thing that really stuck with him was what Detective Anderson had said after she’d accused him of having something to do with his mother’s disappearance and he’d asked her why, if that was true, he’d left her messages and texts. “That only proves you’re smart enough to leave that trail.”

  He’d told Emily that he didn’t think Richard knew anything about where Mom was, because his Facebook messages sounded worried, but what if he was leaving a false trail, like Detective Anderson had said? Or maybe the guy who’d shown up looking for Mom was returning to the scene of his crime. Maybe he’d kidnapped Mom or … worse. If Mom wasn’t gone under her own steam, Dad wasn’t necessarily the
only suspect.

  He had to take comfort in that. He didn’t want to think about how angry he was lately. About how when Dad ripped the phone away from Emily he wanted to rip into something.

  He did not want to think even for a second that he might be like his father. Or that Dad was worse than they knew.

  He had to focus on that innocent-until-proven-guilty thing. Especially for his own father. Especially because of what Dad’s guilt would do to Emily. If they lost him too, where would they go? Gram couldn’t take care of them. She could barely drive, could barely hear anymore, listened to her television loudly enough to wake the dead. And after her fall a few months ago, when, luckily, she’d only bruised and not broken her tailbone, Dad was worried about her taking care of herself. He’d considered moving her in with them. But she’d refused.

  Aunt Aggie and her one-bedroom apartment? She loved them, he knew that, but she preferred people in small doses. He didn’t get it, because he was a people person, but she really liked to be alone.

  And he was too young to take care of Emily by himself. Even if he had his license. There was no way he’d be able to afford the house and the car and electricity and whatever else his parents had to pay for.

  His muscles started to cramp, and he realized he was as stiff as a board. He had to calm down. For that, he needed a plan. He needed to know he wasn’t helpless, that there was something he could do.

  Maybe that Dick guy would have some answers. He should never have pushed Emily out before checking again for a response.

  His door clicked open, and Jared was immediately up, poised like he was going to karate chop any danger. Like he’d taken martial arts instead of track.

  Emily poked her head in. The rest of her followed quick like a fox. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, as though that would keep Dad out if he’d caught her entering after he’d told her to leave.

  “It’s all gone,” she said, tensing him up before he could even relax.

  “What is?” he asked, feeling her tension but at a complete loss what was behind it.