was silent. She checked the time and decided to go upstairs, stick her head in both of the boys’ bedrooms and let them know what was going on.
Wes’s door was slightly ajar. He’d made his bed and his laptop and backpack were missing, meaning he’d either gone to community college for his advanced carpentry course or to work with Kaiden. Beth mentally replayed what day it was in her head and realized he was definitely headed to Bridgeport for college and would be back late in the afternoon.
Beth went along the hallway to Mikey’s room and knocked on the door. There was no response, which was typical, so she went in. To her surprise, Mikey’s bed was also made, and his blinds were up. As Beth paused to consider where he might have gone, her gaze fell on his desk where a note with her name on it was propped up against his lamp.
She picked it up, her fingers suddenly shaking, and started to read, only to have to stop and start twice over because her brain refused to make sense of what she was seeing.
“No,” she whispered. “Mikey . . .”
A knock on the front door had her sprinting down the stairs and rushing to open it.
“Mikey?”
* * *
Conner frowned at Beth. “Nope.” He took a second look at her panicked face and reached for her. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s gone.”
“Gone where?” Conner took hold of Beth’s elbow, gently led her back inside the house and closed the door behind them.
“To his father.” She thrust a piece of paper at him. “But how does he think he’s going to get there? Is he going to hitchhike?”
Conner read the short note and looked up at Beth, who was pacing the room, her hands twisted together.
“Mikey’s gone to see his dad?”
“So he says.”
He’d never seen her so agitated, but he could only imagine what she was going through, worrying about her kid.
“Does he have any money?” Conner asked.
“He has his own bank account and he has a job at a pizza place near his college, so he might have some. I try not to pry into his finances. I only get a notification if he goes overdrawn, and he’s never done that yet.”
“Okay, so he could’ve bought a bus ticket online?”
“Yes, that’s how he got home after the last semester. I picked him up in Bridgeport. But how could he have gotten there this morning?”
Conner shrugged. “Taxi, Uber, someone at the gas station he could hitch a ride off.”
She went still. “Or Wes took him.”
“Would Wes do that if he knew where Mikey was headed?”
“Probably not, but Wes does go to Bridgeport for college, so if Mikey came up with a reason to tag along, Wes wouldn’t have said no.”
“Why don’t you text Wes?” Conner suggested. “And, as your ex is in San Quentin, how does Mikey think he’s going to get in and see him anyway?”
Beth made a face. “Mikey probably thinks you can just turn up and ask to see someone.”
“What do you have to do?” Conner asked, intrigued, and she threw up her hands.
“I don’t know! Maybe you could google that while I’m texting Wes.”
“Sure.” He got out his phone, pulled up the website and started to read. “Wow, there’s a lot of stuff you have to go through before they’ll let you visit.” He looked up. “Do you know if he submitted a visitor application?”
Beth didn’t answer, her attention fixed on her cell as she typed fast with her thumbs. Eventually, she looked up.
“Wes gave him a ride this morning. Mikey said he had a job interview in Bridgeport and that he’d hang around until Wes finished his class, and they’d come home together.”
“And are you sure that Mikey won’t just do that?”
Beth stared at him like he was stupid. “If he was going for an interview why wouldn’t he have mentioned it in his note? He said, he’s going to see his father.”
“Okay.” Conner nodded. “So how do you want to play this? Do you want to head out to Bridgeport and see if Mikey’s hanging around waiting for a bus? Or do you want to stay here, call San Quentin, and give them a heads-up that he might try to get to speak to his father, and let him learn by his own mistakes?”
“Conner . . .” Beth came over and put her hand on his arm. “You don’t have to worry about any of this. I’m sure that when I explain the situation, Nate will take