From his spot on the sofa next to Kara, Timmy brought their attention back to the beach. “The twins were teasing Johnny before we left, saying he wanted to be so much like me that they were going to call him ‘Timmy.’ ”
Something about Timmy’s comment tugged at the back of Laurie’s mind, a thought trying to come to fruition. She was about to get ahold of it, like pulling at a loose thread, but then immediately lost her grasp.
“That’s right,” Kara agreed. “Chloe and Emily continued like that the whole time at the beach, calling him Tim or Timothy more often than his own name. He seemed to enjoy the game. It was all in good fun.”
They had been calling their brother Timmy on the beach. Laurie felt that nagging feeling again, and then pictured little Wyatt, the boy on the beach who had been sharing the skim board with Johnny and Timmy.
“Kara, did you happen to notice anyone else addressing Johnny by that name? Or hear someone calling out the name Tim, or some variant of that?” Wyatt had heard a woman yelling the name Tim, like maybe he was in trouble or not paying attention or something.
Kara shook her head.
“No, not that I heard. It was just the girls playing around.”
Marcy re-entered the living room, her cell phone still in hand. “Do you mind if we take a break for a second? Ramon said the girls are famished. Timmy, maybe you and Kara can meet them downstairs and make a final decision about where to go.”
“They’re going to ask about Johnny,” Timmy muttered.
Laurie could tell that Marcy was trying to get Timmy and Kara out of the room so she could speak alone to Laurie and Leo about whatever phone call she had received. She could also tell that her son did not agree with the decision not to tell the girls directly what was going on, but he was only ten years old. This wasn’t his decision to make.
“No one’s asking you to tell a lie,” Laurie said. “Marcy and Andrew will decide what’s best as far as the twins are concerned.”
He nodded his agreement, and he and Kara went to find Ramon and the girls.
“That was our priest, Father Horrigan,” Marcy said, placing her phone on the coffee table. “He decided to contact Johnny’s biological mother after I called him, just to be absolutely certain she had nothing to do with this.”
“And?” Leo prodded.
“Her mother said she died of a drug overdose six months ago.”
Silence fell over the room.
“I guess in some ways, we didn’t even know her,” Marcy said. “But it still feels so… sad. And surreal. But Father Horrigan made a point to tell me that her mother—Johnny’s grandmother, I guess—said her daughter never had any regrets at all about having Johnny and making him part of our family.”
Marcy wiped away a tear as Laurie patted her on the back, trying to comfort her.
The somber moment was interrupted by the sound of a rumble outside the hotel. They turned to face the windows and spotted a small-engine plane above the shoreline. HELP FIND MISSING CHILD: FINDJOHNNY.COM. WE U, JOHNNY!
Marcy placed a hand over her mouth. “I need to track down the twins. Now!”
Chapter 15
Marcy rushed from her suite, anxious to tell the girls about the search for their brother before they learned of it on their own. When she opened the door, Alex was standing in the hallway, his knuckles raised to knock.
He must have recognized the panic in Marcy’s face. “You saw the plane, didn’t you?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m just praying that somehow Chloe and Emily didn’t.”
“They’re only four years old. They can read?”
“Their brother’s name probably, plus the shape of the heart. We don’t want to risk it.”
Alex held up both hands to calm her. “It’s okay. They were in the hotel lobby with Ramon. We saw them just now when we walked in. Andrew took them to my room so the two of you can break the news to them in private. I’m so sorry, Marcy.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m the one who wanted the plane banner to get the word out. I just never imagined they’d be able to do it so quickly.”
“We were surprised, too. I guess custom images take longer, but they have these big red letters all ready to be strung together. When we saw they had a heart symbol, we added that, too, hoping that Johnny might see it. We told the flight company to wait an hour to give us a chance to get back here so you and Andrew could talk to the girls, but obviously the message didn’t make it to the pilot.”
“It’s not your fault, Alex. I appreciate everything you’ve all been doing.” Marcy turned around to face Laurie. “I have no idea how to tell the girls their brother is missing. Any advice?”
The worst day of Laurie’s life was the day Greg died. It was as sudden and as violent as anything that could be imagined. She didn’t even have the luxury of losing him to natural causes, or to know that his killer would be brought to justice. And the worst part of all was telling Timmy that his father was gone and their lives would never be normal again.
Laurie rose and gave Marcy a quick hug. “Kids are stronger than you think. Tell them how everyone loves Johnny and is working to find him, but don’t make any promises you can’t keep.”
Marcy nodded her appreciation, and Laurie could see that she was strengthening her resolve. She was hopeful that this would be the worst news Marcy would ever have to deliver to her girls.
* * *
Alex wiped his face with both hands once the door closed. “I still can’t believe this is happening. I feel so helpless.”
“We all do,” Leo said. “Missing children cases were always the hardest ones to work on the job. You feel a giant clock ticking over your head, knowing that the chances of a happy ending are decreasing with every tick. Sorry, I know that’s gloomy, but I figured the two of you should know what we’re dealing with.”
“I keep trying to think of things I can do to help,” Alex said, leading Laurie toward the living room sofa, where they took a seat beside each other. “Marcy texted Andrew earlier that she had tried calling their priest to find out the identity of Johnny’s birth mother, just in case the adoption had something to do with this, but the priest said the information was confidential. I thought I could do some legal research to see if there’s a way to access the records through the court system.”
When he reached for Laurie’s hand, she held on to it tightly. He always had a way of calming her, just with his presence.
“There’s no need,” she said. “The priest called Marcy back later. He did some digging on his end and found out that the mother passed away.”
“So that’s a dead end,” Leo said dryly.
Laurie shot him a look with squinted eyes and pursed lips.
He shrugged. “My gallows humor. Sorry.”
“Not in front of Marcy and Andrew, Dad. Please.”
“Of course not. Only among the three of us twisted souls.”
“The police are on it now, at least,” Laurie said. “At this point, what else can we do?”
“Well, we got lucky and found a tech guy when we were at the print shop. He heard us writing up the text for the fliers and offered to help. He’s the one who suggested setting up a website with photos of Johnny, a place to submit tips, a contact phone number—basically an informational clearinghouse. It only took him a few minutes to get a domain name and build a very basic site with the photos we gave him.”