Reunion at Red Paint Bay - By George Harrar Page 0,15

went a few steps down. “Davey?”

They listened for his answer, but Simon figured they should be listening for something else, a moan or scratching, any odd sound at all. Amy came back up and shut the cellar door behind her. Simon tried to remain casual. “He probably went for a walk.”

“Davey?”

“Maybe a bike ride.”

“It’s dark and his bike’s in the yard. I saw it when we came in.”

Simon ducked to see out the side window to the house next door. The lights were on upstairs, a comforting sight, as always. “Maybe he got spooked by some noise and went over to the Benedettis’ like we told him. I’ll give them a call.” Simon picked up the hall phone and dialed, trying not to rush. She was watching. “Hey Bob, this is Simon next door. David’s not over at your place, is he?” Simon shook his head so that Amy could see the answer. “No, nothing’s wrong. We just got back after being out, and he isn’t here. We thought he might have gotten a little scared and gone to your place. But he’s probably just down the street at a friend’s.”

Simon hung up the phone. “All right,” he said, “let’s go over the possibilities.” She just stared at him, waiting. It was obviously his responsibility to come up with a plausible reason why their grounded son would not be home. “I guess he could be out looking for Casper.”

“She’s sleeping on Davey’s bed,” Amy said.

“Maybe a friend called him to come over.”

“He’d leave a note if he went out. I’ve told him to do that a thousand times.” She hurried to the kitchen, with Simon following. Her eyes swept across the counters for a scrap of paper.

“He’s not going to leave a note telling us he’s doing something he shouldn’t,” Simon said. “He probably thought he’d be back before we got home. We told him not to expect us before 9:30.”

She looked past him to the phone on the wall. “Check the call list.”

He picked up the receiver and punched the directory button. “There’s one at 8:15—Unknown Caller.”

She grabbed the phone from him and saw for herself. “Oh God.” She took a step toward the hall then turned around. “I knew this was too soon to start leaving him alone.”

“Girls are babysitting at his age, Amy.”

“He’s not a girl. He’s an immature boy,” she said, her voice rising. He reached toward her with a calming hand, but she jerked backward. “You just couldn’t resist the idea that someone was going to hand you a million dollars for doing something wonderful.”

A thousand dollars, Simon thought. “Look, this isn’t about me. It’s—”

“Of course it’s about you—Master Simon Howe.”

“Nobody could know we’d leave Davey alone. You could have been home, or we could have dropped him off at a friend’s, or—”

She slapped the counter with her hand. “Would you shut up and call the police?”

Simon couldn’t remember Amy ever speaking to him like this. But Davey was missing, so he did shut up and dial 911.

Of the ten men on the Red Paint police force, he knew nine. The tenth, a new patrolman barely out of training, stood in the Howe living room rocking from one leg to the other. “Which restaurant did you say it was, Mr. Howe?”

“The River View, in Bath,” Simon repeated, resisting the urge to suggest that Officer Reade write the name down this time.

“Is your boy used to you leaving him alone?”

“He’s eleven,” Simon said, “and this is his second time home alone at night.”

“If he knew you were going all the way to Bath, he might have went downtown to hang out for a while. A lot of kids skateboard in the Common in the summer.”

“Our son wouldn’t do that.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because he was grounded.”

“I see,” the young policeman said, and Simon wondered what exactly he saw. “Bath’s pretty far away. Do you go to the River View regularly?”

“No, the food’s lousy.”

“Think so? I used to live up that way. Went there all the time.”

“I guess it appeals to different tastes.”

Amy jumped up from her chair between them. “Would you two stop debating the stupid food? Davey’s missing.”

Reade rolled his eyes at Simon as if Can’t you control your wife? The truth was, no, he couldn’t. He said, “I know you’re upset, Amy, but—”

“Don’t be condescending.”

“I’m sure Officer Reade is just following the protocol for getting the information he needs.”

“Then speed up the damn protocol.”

“How did you come to go to the River View,” Reade