couldn’t waste another second. My feet throbbed beneath me. I clutched the railing, hobbling down each step, until I reached the street, where a chilling wind blew into my face so forcibly, it took my breath away. But I pressed on, limping along the sidewalk, willing the pain away. I had to stay strong. But my feet ached so terribly, and the snow beneath them felt like acid on a wound. Keep walking. He might be waiting. The scene ahead came in and out of focus. My strength was failing me, I knew. Stay strong. Keep walking. A figure approached. Large, shadowy, pounding one fist into his palm. I fixed my eyes on his face; it sent a shiver through my body. Oh God, Mr. Garrison.
“Look who we have here,” he said, the corners of his mouth forming a sick smile. “Ran out before you paid your rent, did you?” He placed a bold hand on my forearm, yanking me toward him.
“Please!” I screamed. “My son has gone missing. I have to find him!”
“Too late,” he said without emotion. I could see the dried crust of frothy ale on his mustache. “No rent, no home.”
“But, I…” Before I could finish the sentence, I started to sway; then my vision went black.
I don’t know how much time passed, but when I opened my eyes I felt an icy wind at my neck. Blood trickled from my lip.
Mr. Garrison hovered over me, his hot, sour breath in my face. “You’re coming with me,” he said, lifting me in his arms.
“Stop!” Caroline screamed. “Let her go!”
An older man came running from across the street. “Is there a problem here?”
“This man,” Caroline cried, pointing at Mr. Garrison, “he’s done something to my friend.”
The older man puffed his chest. “Where is your sense of decency?” he shouted. Mr. Garrison released his hold on me and I slid back to the ground, into the wet snow. “Leave the poor woman alone!”
Mr. Garrison sneered at the man, then slunk back into the pub, muttering under his breath.
“Can I help you get her home, miss?” the man said to Caroline.
She lifted my arm over her shoulder and helped me to my feet. “No,” she said, “but thank you. I live just a few blocks away. I can manage.”
“I won’t stop looking for him,” I said in a weak voice.
“I know, dear,” she said. “But I won’t let you die trying. When we get back, I’ll get you settled; then I’ll go to the police.”
“You will?”
“Of course I will,” she said, squeezing my shoulder tighter. “We’ll file a report. They’ll start looking for him.” The certainty in her voice soothed me.
Back at her apartment, she tucked a blanket around me, then put on her sweater and went out to the street to flag down a police officer. Eva lay her head on my chest as I waited, listening to the old cuckoo clock tick on the wall above, aware of every second passing. I sat up when I heard footsteps in the hallway outside the apartment. The door opened and Caroline walked through the doorway with a police officer. He held a black baton and eyed the percolator on the stove, then looked at Caroline.
“I don’t suppose you have a cup of coffee for an officer who’s been in the cold all day, miss?”
She obliged, dashing to the kitchen to light the stove before emptying the last dusting of grounds from the coffee can into the percolator.
“It’ll just take a minute, officer,” she said. “Vera’s over here. As I said downstairs, her son is missing.”
The officer looked disinterested. “Miss Ray?”
“Yes,” I said. “Thank you ever so much for—”
“I don’t have much time,” he barked. “Be brief.”
“Of course,” I said, adjusting the blanket over my legs. “This morning, when I came home from work, my son, Daniel, had vanished.”
The officer raised his eyelids and took a sip of coffee from the mug Caroline had just tucked into his hands. “So you’re saying he was home by himself? How old is the boy?”
“Three,” I said. The officer’s eyes bore into me.
“She works at the Olympic Hotel,” Caroline said, jumping in to fill the silence. “She works hard to support him. I watch him as often as I can, but last night I was working too, and he—”
“He had to stay home by himself,” I said. There was no way around the truth. “I took him to work last week and my supervisor said she’d can me if I brought him again.