Page 71 of Megan's Mate
Megan rushed in. “I can’t find Kevin,” she blurted out. “No one’s seen him all morning.”
Chapter 11
She was pale as ice, and struggling to be calm. The idea of her little boy running away was so absurd that she continued to tell herself it was a mistake, a prank. Maybe a dream.
“No one’s seen him,” she repeated, bracing a hand on the doorknob to stay upright. “Some—some of his clothes are gone, and his knapsack.”
“Call Suzanna,” Nathaniel said quickly. “He’s probably with Alex and Jenny.”
“No.” She shook her head slowly, side to side. Her body felt like glass, as though it would shatter if she moved too quickly. “They’re here. They’re all here. They haven’t seen him. I was sleeping.” She said each word deliberately, as if she were having trouble understanding her own voice. “I slept late, then I checked his room, like I always do. He wasn’t there, but I thought he’d be downstairs, or outside. But when I went down, Alex was looking for him.” The fear began to claw at her, little cat feet up and down her spine. “We hunted around, then I came back up. That’s when I saw that some of his things... some of his things...”
“All right, dear, now don’t you worry.” Coco hurried over to slip a supporting arm around Megan’s waist. “I’m sure he’s just playing a game. There are so many places to hide in the house, on the grounds.”
“He was so excited about today. It’s all he could talk about. He’s supposed to be playing Revolutionary War with Alex and Jenny. He—he was going to be Daniel Boone.”
“We’ll find him,” Nathaniel told her.
“Of course we will.” Gently Coco began to ease Megan along. “We’ll organize a search party. Won’t he be excited when he finds out?”
An hour later, they were spread throughout the house, searching corners and hidey-holes, retracing and backtracking. Megan kept a steel grip on her composure and covered every inch, starting in the tower and working her way down.
He had to be here, she reassured herself. Of course, she would find him any minute. It didn’t make sense otherwise.
Bubbles of hysteria rose in her throat and had to be choked down.
He was just playing a game. He’d gone exploring. He loved the house so much. He’d drawn dozens of pictures of it to send back to Oklahoma so that everyone could see that he lived in a castle.
She would find him behind the next door she opened.
Megan told herself that, repeating it like a litany, as she worked her way from room to room.
She ran into Suzanna in one of the snaking hallways. She felt cold, so cold, though the sun beat hot against the windows. “He doesn’t answer me,” she said faintly. “I keep calling him, but he doesn’t answer.”
“It’s such a big house.” Suzanna took Megan’s hands, gripped hard. “Once when we were kids, we played hide-and-seek and didn’t find Lilah for three hours. She’d crawled into a cabinet on the third floor and had a nap.”
“Suzanna.” Megan pressed her lips together. She had to face it, and quickly. “His two favorite shirts are missing, and both pairs of his sneakers. His baseball caps. The money he’d been saving in his jar is gone. He’s not in the house. He’s run away.”
“You need to sit down.”
“No, I—I need to do something. Call the police. Oh, God—” Breaking, Megan pressed her hands to her face. “Anything could have happened to him. He’s just a little boy. I don’t even know how long he’s been gone. I don’t even know.” Her eyes, swimming with fear, locked on Suzanna’s. “Did you ask Alex, Jenny? Maybe he said something to them. Maybe—”
“Of course I asked them, Megan,” Suzanna said gently. “Kevin didn’t say anything to them about leaving.”
“Where would he go? Why? Back to Oklahoma,” she said on a wild, hopeful thought. “Maybe he’s trying to get back to Oklahoma. Maybe he’s been unhappy, just pretending to like it here.”
“He’s been happy. But we’ll check it out. Come on, let’s go down.”
“Been over every bit of this section,” Dutch told Nathaniel. “The pantries, the storerooms, even the meat locker. Trent and Sloan are going over the renovation areas, and Max and Holt are beating the bushes all over the grounds.”
There was worry in his eyes, but he was brewing a pot of fresh coffee with steady hands.
“Seems to me if the kid was just playing and heard all this shouting and calling, he’d come out to see what the excitement was all about.”
“We’ve been over the house twice.” Nathaniel stared grimly out the window. “Amanda and Lilah have combed every inch of The Retreat. He’s not in here.”
“Don’t make a lick of sense to me. Kevin’s been happy as a clam. He’s in here every blessed day, getting under my feet and begging for sea stories.”
“Something’s got him running.” There was a prickle at the back of his neck. Rubbing it absently, Nathaniel looked out toward the cliffs. “Why does a kid run? Because he’s scared, or he’s hurt, or he’s unhappy.”
