Page 8 of Be Courageous

The artless confession took her aback.

Mark cocked his head. “Any chance I could take you on a date sometime?”

Faith sent him her most professional smile. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. It’s a violation of my patient policies.”

“What if I wasn’t your patient anymore?”

Her cell phone, now sitting on the desk between them buzzed a third time, saving her from having to answer him. “I should really get this.”

Smiling ruefully, Mark pushed to his feet. “See you next week, same time.”

“Great. Bye.” Faith waited until he’d reached her door before answering. “Hello.”

“Mrs. Saunders?”

“Yes.”

“This is Mabel from John F. Kennedy Middle School. Is Grayson out sick today?”

A drop of concern fell into Faith’s stomach. “Um, no. He should be in school.”

“Nope, he’s not here.”

“Oh?” Faith’s thoughts went to his best friend. Maybe they were skipping school together. “Is Cameron Potts in school?”

“I’m not supposed to tell you that but, yes.”

“Huh.” Faith shot a worried gaze out of her many windows. “Would you call me, please, if Grayson shows up?”

“Sure.” Given Mabel’s tone, she was certain Grayson was skipping.

Faith hung up, then remembered the calls she’d received earlier and checked the source. Cameron Potts had called her twice. Unease twisted her insides as she put her phone to her ear and listened to his message.

“Hey, Mrs. Saunders. I’m just looking for Grayson. He didn’t get on the bus this morning, and his phone bumped me over to voice mail. Can you tell him to text me? Thanks.”

Faith’s mouth went suddenly dry. She could tell by Cameron’s tone alone he was telling the truth. Grayson hadn’t gotten on the bus. She remembered him leaving the house a minute late. Had he missed his ride and was now walking to school?

She speed-dialed his cell phone, but as it had for Cameron, Grayson’s voice mail answered. His phone was probably still on DO NOT DISTURB, a setting she insisted he use at night so his friends wouldn’t wake him up.

Faith checked the time on her phone. Her next client wasn’t due to arrive for another half hour. She could jump into her van and drive toward the school, hopefully to encounter Grayson along the way. The urge to share her concerns led her nowhere. She couldn’t bother her twin sister, who was probably already at the elementary school where she taught. Jerry was dead, and Fitz wasn’t talking to her.

Faith left word with the babysitter, grabbed her purse, and slipped into her van. With no time to scrape off the layer of frost on her windshield, she sprayed wiper fluid on it and used her wipers to clear it away. But as she traveled up her long driveway, a fresh layer of frost began to form, obscuring her vision. She cranked on the defroster to combat it.

The country road on which they lived was completely devoid of traffic when she emerged from her driveway. She lowered her windows to look each way, then turned left, peering through the widening bit of clear glass to keep from driving into the ditch on the side of the road. God forbid Grayson had decided to walk to school and been hit by a driver like her, whose windshield wasn’t clear.

But she saw nothing to indicate that was the case. She drove all the way to his middle school, twelve minutes away, without seeing him. It was hard to believe he wasn’t in the ugly two-story brick building, but Mabel hadn’t called her back.

Before turning around in the empty bus lane, Faith tried Grayson’s number again. Again, it bumped her over to voice mail. With a heavy weight in the pit of her stomach, she started back home. Maybe on the way back, she would run into Grayson. Maybe he’d stopped into a convenience store somewhere to spend some of the money he’d gotten for Christmas.

But when she didn’t see him in or around the little market at the gas station, her thoughts became more frightened. Had Grayson run away? She knew he was still lost without his father, still unhappy about changing schools. Had she driven him to this?

Or could he have been kidnapped? Who would want to abduct a thirteen-year-old boy?Don’t answer that.Deviants of every kind lurked in this world.

She arrived back at her big farmhouse with a prayer on her lips. “Oh, Father, please let him be here.” Perhaps Grayson simply didn’t want to go to school today. Yes, that made the most sense. He was hanging out in the woods around the house. She didn’t have to be so fearful. Besides, her next client would be showing up any minute.

An hour later, as her second client pulled away, Faith went into the house where the babysitter was sitting in the outdated kitchen feeding Mary Mae squash from a jar. The sixty-something grandmother type lived not five minutes up the road. Sonja glanced over at Faith and did a double take. “Everything okay, dear?”

Faith sighed. “Not really, no. Grayson didn’t show up for school this morning. I think he might be hanging around the property. I don’t suppose you’ve seen him?”

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