“I’ve already contacted the authorities in Toronto, Maggie. As soon as they locate her cell phone, I’ll let you know.”
“You’re going to continue your search, aren’t you?”
“Of course, I am. I love that kid like she’s my own.” The line went quiet and Maggie thought she’d dropped the call. Then Roger cleared his throat. “We’ve already covered a lot of territory north of the college in Duluth, but with the storm closing in, I don’t know how long I can keep my men out here.”
“You owe me, Roger.” This year alone, Maggie had found four missing children for him and dozens of other missing persons through the years, both with her chocolate Lab and the air scent dogs who had come before him.
“I promise we’re going to do everything we can to bring Kate home.”
“Thanks. I know you will.”
Maggie wasn’t about to believe her daughter was in Canada.
She was torn between screaming, crying or racing into the night with Jefferson to start her own search. But where to start? Though air scent dogs, unlike tracking dogs, didn’t need a last known location for their search, they did need a general area as a starting point. Without one Maggie and her dog would waste precious time randomly plunging into a search in the hundred-mile stretch between college and home. Time she couldn’t afford to lose with a blizzard heading their way.
Law enforcement had questioned all the people who saw Kate last--her roommate, the guard at the campus gate, the owner of the service station just off campus where she always refilled her gas tank before starting home. Kate, the good girl, heeding her dad’s advice: Always drive from the top of your tank. You never know what will happen. Driving from the bottom is too risky.
They all remembered her, cheerful, calling out happy holiday greetings and waving as she started toward home. The service station was the last place anyone had seen her, but the manager recalled seeing her drive away and head north.
Maggie grabbed her mobile phone and tapped on her daughter’s name in Favorites. How many times did that make since yesterday morning? Ten? Fifteen?
Hi, this is Kate. Leave a message.
“Kate, where are you? If you get this, please, please call me. Even if you’ve done something you think we won’t approve. Your dad and I are worried sick.”
Maggie could barely function. The Christmas china she’d dragged out for her daughter’s homecoming lunch still sat on holiday placemats, forlorn and hopeless looking among the remnants of a meal they never ate—home baked bread getting hard on the platter, the creamed corn Kate loved, Joe’s favorite apple dumplings, his mom’s recipe for broccoli salad with cranberries and nuts. The only thing Maggie had rescued from the uneaten meal was her oven roasted turkey. Perfectly cooked, waiting for the meal that was supposed to bring them all back together again, now sitting in its own congealed fat in the refrigerator.
She broke off a piece of bread and nibbled around the edges. Yesterday morning when her life had still been halfway normal, Joe had come into the kitchen while it was baking.
“Something smells good in here.”
“Yeast-rising bread. Apple dumplings, too.” She pointed to the casserole dish cooling on the sideboard.”
“You’ve gone all out. Kate bringing somebody home?”
“No. It’ll be just the three of us. I want this holiday to be special, Joe. Like it once was.”
For a moment he looked gut punched. Then he’d smiled in a pale imitation of the way it used to be. “I think I’d like that.”
The one word, think, had said more about the state of their marriage than all those nights she’d reached for Joe only to find his side of the bed empty and him sleeping on the sofa with Jefferson on the wool rug beside him.
It had spurred Maggie to take desperate measures. She’d tried to seduce her husband in the kitchen. She didn’t care where they landed, the floor, the table, propped against the kitchen sink with the faucets poking into her hips. She’d just wanted proof the spark was still there, no matter how small. She wanted to believe their marriage wasn’t dead; it was only in hibernation until some great spring-thaw moment would make it bloom again.
Her spring-thaw moment was a disaster. She’d been clumsy, he’d been awkward, and both of them had been relieved when Maggie’s cell phone rang, bringing their pathetic attempt to a halt. He rearranged his clothes while she scrambled for her phone. By the time she found it, she’d missed a call from daughter.
Mom, something’s come up. Don’t know when I’ll get home.
Ten little words. They meant everything and nothing at all.
Kate hadn’t answered when Maggie called back. Her daughter’s message was the last anybody had heard from her since yesterday morning. And yet, they offered no details. So far search choppers had reported no accidents on the interstate to block traffic, no detours. Why had she called to say she’d be late? Where was she?
Maggie could no longer bear to sit still. She started clearing the table, stowing the clean dishes back into the cupboard, dumping the wilted salad, tossing the corn. The apple dumplings would still be okay. She put them into the refrigerator then grabbed the bread to toss. On second thought, she sliced off the hardened edges then wrapped the soft center in foil.
Joe appeared in the doorway and just stood there saying nothing, his expression speaking volumes. Everything is gone and I don’t know how to get it back.
Maggie whirled toward him, hands on her hips. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“You always say that, Joe. We never talk anymore. Not really.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“How about, has Kate told you anything that might give us a clue what’s going on?”
“Has she, Maggie?”
Suddenly her legs would no longer support her. She sank into a chair and rested her head on the table.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Yes?” Joe sat down at the table but he didn’t reach for her hand, didn’t offer her comfort of any kind. “Did you say yes?”
An unexpected fury overtook her and she jerked upright to glare at him. “Do you think our daughter’s blind? Did you think she wouldn’t notice you can hardly bear to be in the same room with me? That every time I head out the door on a SAR mission you hide deeper behind those walls you’ve built around yourself?”
“I don’t even know how to respond to that.”
“You can’t stand to be home anymore, Joe. You spend more time on the Superior Trail leading guided tours than here.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know.” Maggie buried her face in her hands, groaning. If she let herself, she could fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. She forced herself back to life, made herself look at her husband. “Roger says the GPS tracker shows Kate’s in Canada.”
“That can’t be right.”
“I told him the same thing. But I keep wondering if she decided at the last minute to spend the holidays with a new college friend.”
“She wouldn’t do that without telling us.”
“Maybe she did.” Maggie pulled her cell phone from her pocket to replay her daughter’s message. They both strained toward the phone as if they might reach inside and pull Kate to safety. “Maybe the something that came up was dread of coming home to parents who don’t even seem to like each other anymore, let alone love. Just last week she asked me what was wrong between us.”