Changing Fortune Cookies Read online

The woman gave a sympathetic smile and went back to her work. Vic and Erin walked slowly back to the truck.

  “One more down,” Vic said bracingly. “It’s only one place. We can still check with the Chamber of Commerce, pop into the coffee shops with Wi-Fi, maybe check with the paper. They must have a weekly.”

  “Yeah, that sounds good,” Erin agreed, trying to be cheerful about it.

  After all, they hadn’t found out anything negative—no hint of any violence. Joshua just hadn’t been to the library. There were plenty of other places he could be.

  If he were even in Whitewater.

  And he probably wasn’t.

  Chapter 4

  Their search petered out after a couple of hours. Neither could think of anywhere else to go, and no one they had talked to had seen or heard from Joshua. Some of them knew him from when he had been doing the research for his school project. Vic downloaded a picture of Joshua from Facebook to show people who didn’t recognize him from their description. But no one had seen him recently. It would appear that Joshua hadn’t gone back to Whitewater Junction after all.

  They even drove around for a while, methodically covering all of the streets that crisscrossed the town. As if they might see Joshua walking down the road or be inspired by a storefront. But there was still no sign of him.

  On their drive into the city, they focused on lists of what they needed and how they would tackle the various stores. They worked out an efficient plan of attack to get done as quickly as possible and return home to Bald Eagle Falls.

  They were, Erin knew, avoiding the real issue.

  They hadn’t gotten a call from Mary Lou saying that she had found him or that he had called.

  He wasn’t in Whitewater. He wasn’t anywhere obvious in Bald Eagle Falls.

  It would be a lot more challenging to find him in the city. They couldn’t just drive all of the streets there. It was a small city, but it was still too big for two people to search in one vehicle.

  They shopped like they were on a mission. Like that was the more important thing. As if everything would magically fall together if they could get everything done, like the pieces of a puzzle fitting together.

  When they were finished their errands and eating the second round of sandwiches, they avoided looking each other in the eye and admitting their failure.

  “Should we see Campbell while we’re here?” Vic suggested. “He might know something. Joshua might have gone to him.”

  “I’m sure Mary Lou must have called him by now,” Erin pointed out. “He’ll be out of bed and able to answer his phone. If she wanted us to go see him, she would have let us know.”

  Besides, Erin remembered the last time they had gone on a search in the city. Not looking for Campbell, but for his girlfriend Brianna. That had turned out to be a dangerous proposition. Erin had no desire to go back to any of the flophouses they had searched for Brianna. Or to run into anyone from the Russian mob. That was off the table.

  “I suppose,” Vic agreed with a sigh. She wadded up her sandwich wrappers to throw them out. “I’m worn slap out. I don’t think we could manage much more today anyway.”

  Erin nodded. She needed to get back home. She needed to see Terry and to make sure that she was prepared for the next day at Auntie Clem’s Bakery. She would only have a little while to relax, and then it would be time for bed. Bakers had to rise before the rest of the world to get the daily bread in the oven.

  Erin wasn’t quite sure how to handle their report to Mary Lou. They could make a call to her on the way back to Bald Eagle Falls. Or they could go back to Erin’s and ask Mary Lou over. But calling her seemed way too impersonal, and making her come to them after she had spent the whole day stressed out and waiting for Joshua seemed cruel. They had exchanged a few quick texts during the day to report. Still, Erin thought it was important to see Mary Lou face-to-face and go over everything they had done, in case something turned out to be important. She didn’t think they had discovered anything of consequence, but Erin knew that the outcome of an investigation could hinge on the tiniest of details. Sometimes just a gut feeling about how it all fit together.

  “Do you think it’s okay to go by her house?” Erin asked Vic tentatively. “I know that she might not want us there… but I don’t want to drag her out somewhere else.”

  “We can go by. If she doesn’t want us there… she can tell us so.”

  That didn’t make Erin feel much more confident about going to Mary Lou’s house. But it seemed like the only reasonable solution, so once they arrived at Bald Eagle Falls, she pulled to the curb in front of Mary Lou’s house. They walked up to the front door and knocked.

  Hospitality in Bald Eagle Falls dictated that if someone was expecting you or had opened up their home to you, it was fine to simply knock on the door or ‘yoo-hoo’ and walk in. But while Mary Lou had previously welcomed them, she had not been keen on them lately, so Erin didn’t think it would be a good idea. Vic apparently agreed, because she didn’t push the door open and walk in ahead of Erin. She stood to the side and slightly behind Erin. Erin hoped that was just reticence and not concern that Mary Lou might welcome them with a shotgun blast.

  It was a few minutes and a few more knocks and a doorbell later that Mary Lou finally came to the door. She looked Erin and Vic over, her face pale and drawn, looking like she had been sitting up for days waiting for Joshua to come home. Erin’s heart hurt. She wanted to take her former friend in her arms and give her a comforting hug. But she refrained, waiting to see whether Mary Lou would even allow them in or be interested in hearing what they had to say.

  “Nothing?” Mary Lou asked dully.

  “No,” Erin confirmed. She was prepared to leave. That was really all Mary Lou needed to know. Erin’s search had not come to fruition, Joshua had obviously not returned on his own. It was up to Mary Lou to take the next step.

  Mary Lou sighed, rubbed her hand over her face, then turned slightly and motioned the other women in. Erin led the way, Vic trailing behind her. Erin had a strong feeling of deja vu on entering the front room. She remembered arriving there on Thanksgiving, seeing the cops outside taking Campbell away, walking in to find Joshua there comforting Mary Lou.

  Joshua should have been there with Mary Lou. But he wasn’t.

  They sat down and looked at each other, silently working out who would speak first.

  “We went everywhere we could think of in Whitewater,” Erin offered. “And when we couldn’t think of anywhere else to look, we just drove up and down the streets. All of the streets.”

  “Was there any sign he had been there? Any hint at all?” Mary Lou asked.

  “No. No one had seen him since he did the research for his report on the contest. People remembered him. The librarian. Other people he had talked to when he was tracking information down. But they hadn’t seen him for the last day or two. Nothing since he wrote the article, I guess.”

  “He’s been at home since then. He didn’t say anything about going back to Whitewater or doing a follow-up story. He’s been at home… going to school and doing homework…” Mary Lou shook her head. “He’s been here. Everything was normal. And then, just… gone. How could he be gone?”

  “I don’t know.” Erin looked at Vic, raising her brows. “He never said anything to you either?” They were, at least, closer in age than Erin and Joshua. Both still teenagers, even if Vic was legally an adult.

  “No. I haven’t seen him at all. We weren’t close friends.” Vic wasn’t even from Bald Eagle Falls. She had probably seen less of Joshua than Erin had. But Erin didn’t want to reveal to Mary Lou that Joshua had been by to talk to her more than once since Erin had been told to stay away from him and not involve him in any more police investigations.

  That wasn’t Erin’s fault. She had never contacted him or encouraged him to talk to her against his mother’s wishes. He had just shown up, and would not be dissuaded by any of her arguments.

  “Well, that’s it, then,” Mary Lo
u sighed. “I was hoping it would be something simple… that you were right and he just wanted to get some more research done. Off being an intrepid reporter.” Her eyes moved to the newspaper that she had previously brought to Erin’s house, which now resided on her dining room table. “Except for that.”

  “It could still be something innocent. Maybe he just… lost track of time.”

  “For an entire day?” Mary Lou snapped. “No. He didn’t just wander off in the middle of the night and forget to come home.”

  “No.” Erin looked down, her eyes suddenly swimming.

  “Are you going to call the police?” Vic asked.

  “It looks like I don’t have any other choice now,” Mary Lou said. She squeezed her lips together tightly, trying to keep her own emotions under control. “I guess I’ll do that now. The two of you can see yourselves out.”

  “Don’t you want us to stay with you?” Erin protested. “At least until the sheriff gets here?”

  “No.” Mary Lou’s words were clipped. “I will be fine by myself. You have had a long, unproductive day. You’ll want to get some rest tonight. I know I won’t.”

  Erin forced herself to her feet. Her legs were shaking and she hated to leave Mary Lou like that. She must have been screaming inside. Erin couldn’t imagine how terrified she must be about what had happened to Joshua. If Erin could feel so worried for someone who was nearly a stranger to her, she couldn’t imagine how badly Mary Lou must be taking it.

  But Mary Lou didn’t crack. She watched Erin and Vic head back toward the front door, looking down at her phone to make the call she had been dreading making all day. The call that would mean she could no longer deny being worried that something had happened to Joshua.

  Something terrible.

  Chapter 5

  Josh awoke groggily. He lay still for a long time while waiting for his brain to start working and to join the real world again. After a while, he wondered what time it was and if his alarm was going to go off soon. It seemed like he always hit that floaty, unreal feeling just a few minutes before his alarm went off. If he looked at his clock, then he would be awake, but if he could just maintain that floatiness, he could get a little more sleep. Or at least a little more rest.

  Then he started wondering what day it was. Maybe it wasn’t even a day that he had to get up early. He still had to get himself out of bed on Saturday and Sunday, but he was allowed to sleep in for a couple of hours. His mother said that she understood that teenagers needed more sleep, but he had to do his part and go to bed in good time. He couldn’t just stay up all night and then sleep all day just because it was the weekend.

  He liked it when he woke up early on a Saturday morning and realized he could go back to sleep for a couple more hours. It was a great feeling.

  But he wasn’t feeling great.

  He couldn’t remember what day it was.

  Maybe that in itself told him that it was a weekend. He wasn’t a big drinker, but he had gone to a couple of parties where alcohol had been snuck in. Or he had dipped into Campbell’s stash when Campbell was still living at home. He didn’t particularly like alcohol and was just as happy to leave it alone. Especially if it left him feeling so rocky in the morning. Who needed that?

  It was still longer before he started to wonder where he was.

  He was still so close to sleep that he couldn’t be sure, but nothing in his environment felt familiar. He wasn’t in his bed. There was a bad smell. There were strange noises that were both close and far away at the same time.

  It wasn’t his house.

  Chapter 6

  Erin and Vic drove back home in silence. What else was there to say? They had done their best to help Mary Lou, but they had failed. Neither had any idea where Joshua was, or why Erin had been named in the cryptic note left in Mary Lou’s paper.

  A day that should have been a calm, relaxing, regenerating day had ended up being dark and depressing.

  And she wasn’t allowed to tell Terry about it. Mary Lou had made it abundantly clear that Erin was never to bring Joshua or Campbell up with Officer Terry Piper. Not ever. Not a casual comment in passing. Not pillow talk. Not saying she was worried about him.

  Not telling anyone that he was missing.

  That wasn’t Erin’s place. She needed to just stay out of it and mind her own business.

  She pulled Terry’s truck in front of the house, and she and Vic got out slowly.

  “I’ll see you in the morning,” Vic offered.

  “Sure. It will be good to have a normal day at the bakery tomorrow.”

  Except Erin didn’t feel good about it. She felt horrible. She would be working, baking, pretending that there was nothing wrong, knowing that Joshua was missing and that Mary Lou’s heart was breaking.

  While Erin walked up to the front door, Vic took the sidewalk around to the back, where she had a loft apartment over Erin’s garage. Erin hadn’t even thought to ask whether Willie would be home. Or would Vic be sitting over there all by herself stewing about what had happened to Joshua and if he was okay?

  Just like Erin would be stewing, even if Terry were home.

  She raised her hand to unlock the door, but it opened in front of her. Terry smiled and took a couple of bags from her.

  “You must have had a successful time in the city,” he observed. “You were later than I expected you to be.”

  “Um… sorry about that,” Erin apologized, without answering his comment. She carried the rest of her bags into the house and put them down. Orange Blossom meowed loudly, rubbed against her legs, and then started thrusting his head into the various bags, checking to see if she had bought him any treats. Or just because he liked to stick his head in bags.

  “Nothing for you, sir,” Erin told Blossom, scooping him up and cradling him in the crook of her arm. “How is my furry baby today?”

  He meowed, objecting to being treated that way. Still, when she didn’t release him, he chirped and yowled and huffed at her like he was telling her all about his day. Erin encouraged him with little noises and questions, as was her usual routine. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss Terry in greeting without letting Orange Blossom go, squashing him between their bodies. He complained loudly and squirmed away. Erin let him go, putting her arms around Terry to give him a squeeze.

  “Thanks. I needed that,” she said, putting her head on his chest and relaxing in his arms.

  It was nice to see him on his feet at the end of the day. So many times recently, he had been knocked down by a migraine by the end of the day, unable to enjoy himself or the time they had to spend together.

  “How was your day?” she asked him.

  Terry released her from his grip. Erin stooped to pet Marshmallow, the brown and white rabbit patiently nibbling at her toes.

  “And hello to you too.”

  She and Terry made their way over to the couch to cuddle.

  “Do you need anything?” he asked. “A drink? A cookie?”

  K9 was sleeping beside the couch, and Erin saw his head jerk up at the suggestion of a cookie. He looked hopefully in Erin’s direction.

  “Oh, you said one of those words. Now you’re going to have to get everyone a cookie.”

  “Fine with me. I want one too.”

  Erin sat down and let him do the honors. Terry gave K9 one of Erin’s gluten-free doggie biscuits, fished treats out of Orange Blossom’s treat can and slid them across the floor for him to chase, and got a couple of small carrots out of the crisper for Marshmallow. He opened the freezer to check out the supply.

  “Chocolate chip or ginger snap?”

  “Chocolate chip. Today has definitely been a chocolate chip day.”

  Terry got a couple of chocolate chip cookies from the freezer and put them on a plate to be microwaved.

  “Been a long day?”

  Erin nodded. “Yeah. Kind of.”

  “Well, you did it to yourself with all of that shopping.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Half a
minute later, the microwave beeped and Terry brought the melty-chocolate-chip cookies out to the living room. They each took one and tried to eat them over the same plate so that no crumbs or drips of chocolate would get into the couch and carpet.

  “Sorry,” Terry said through a mouthful of cookie. “I should have brought two plates.”

  Erin just laughed.

  She should have known that the idyllic moment wouldn’t last. She wasn’t going to be able to forget about the rest of her day that quickly. Terry sat back as his phone started to buzz and pulled it out of his pocket. He thumbed the fingerprint unlock button and his eyes moved quickly over the words on the screen.

  “Uh-oh.”

  Erin’s stomach clenched again, and she regretted having just topped it off with chocolate and sugar. “Is everything okay?”

  He looked at her, thinking about what he could tell her, and decided that he wasn’t free to give her any information yet. “No… I’m going to be needed.”

  “Will it take long?” Erin asked, pretending she didn’t know exactly what it was. “You already put in a shift today; you don’t want to push it with your health.”

  “I put in a half shift,” he corrected. “And I’m feeling okay. I can put in a few more hours.”

  “Not too long, though, right? You can’t pull an all-nighter. You need to make sure you get enough sleep.”

  He evaded her concerns. “I don’t know how long it will be tonight. I won’t stay any longer than necessary, but I am needed.” Terry stood up, licking chocolate off his fingers. “I’ll put this in the sink.”

  Erin didn’t say anything as she watched him get ready to go. K9 was on his feet and prepared to follow, recognizing Terry’s body language and eager to work.

  She carefully avoided saying anything that would indicate she knew he was going to Mary Lou’s house and that Joshua was missing.

  It wasn’t a lie.

  She just wasn’t allowed to tell him that she already knew what was going on. As soon as it became public knowledge—and gossip spread quickly through Bald Eagle Falls—then she wouldn’t have to pretend she didn’t know anything about it.