Driftwood Bay (Hope Harbor #5) - Irene Hannon Page 0,87

or stay outside?” Mariam tossed the question to the dog as she ascended the steps.

He dashed over and scrambled up past her.

She chuckled. “I guess that is my answer.”

The instant she opened the door, he zipped through and charged down the hall.

No reason for her to follow and wake the girls. Toby would take care of that job.

As she closed the door and moved over to the counter, the beagle began to bark.

Mariam frowned.

He’d been much less prone to yap for no reason since Thomma had begun training him. Why would he revert to his old ways now?

“Toby! Kunn hadyaan!” Hopefully her son’s magic command would quiet him and he’d come running for a treat.

It didn’t work today.

She huffed out a breath.

Were the girls egging him on?

That wasn’t their usual style—but who knew what the two of them were up to, after that cookie pilfering stunt they’d pulled earlier in the week? It was fortunate she’d found the stash they’d been hoarding in Molly’s bedroom, or one of these days she’d have been dealing with two very sick youngsters after a cookie orgy.

“Toby! Come in here!”

He hurtled back down the hall and began dancing around her legs, barking at full volume.

She put her hands over her ears. “What is wrong with you today? Be quiet!”

He ran over to the hall, turned to her, and continued to bark.

When she didn’t respond, he dashed back and nipped at her pants leg.

“Toby! Stop that!” She waved him off.

He tried again, this time tugging on the fabric. Like he wanted her to follow him.

“Fine. I’ll come. I need to see what those girls are up to.”

He ran ahead, disappeared into Molly’s room—and fell silent.

At the threshold, she found him waiting beside the bed, panting as he twisted his head back and forth.

Now she understood what this was all about.

The girls weren’t in the room.

A tingle of panic raced along her spine.

But they had to be here somewhere.

They must be playing a game. Hiding and waiting for her to find them.

“Elisa! Molly! Come out!”

Even as she issued the order, her stomach began to churn.

And the roiling worsened after she looked in the closet, peered under the bed, and broadened her search to the whole house with no results.

If the girls were inside, they’d hidden themselves well.

She did another circuit, noting details that hadn’t registered on her first pass.

A slightly open drawer in Molly’s dresser.

The absence of Molly’s ratty blanket and Elisa’s Raggedy Ann doll.

Crumbs on the kitchen counter.

As a suspicion began to form . . . and gel . . . she pulled open several drawers in Molly’s room.

The clothing had been disturbed, and there were gaps.

Same with the clothes in her closet.

In the kitchen, she yanked open the refrigerator.

The jelly bottle and jar of peanut butter weren’t in their usual places.

All at once the reasons for the secret stash of cookies became clear.

Mariam closed the door and slumped against the counter as suspicion morphed to sickening certainty.

The girls had run away.

This was a disaster.

As Logan sped out of town toward home, he tried to put the brakes on his racing pulse.

Failed.

Molly was gone.

How could this have happened?

Susan hadn’t been able to get many details out of the distraught Mariam before she phoned him, but she’d promised to call the woman back and try again while he drove home.

Maybe the girls were somewhere on the property. Or had ventured down to the beach. Or were hiding in the house in a spot Mariam hadn’t checked, playing one of the make-believe games they liked to concoct.

Please God, let this have a simple resolution.

Even as he said the silent prayer, though, every instinct in his body told him they had, in fact, run away.

But why should that surprise him? He’d failed miserably in his efforts to connect with his niece, and she’d told him Elisa didn’t think her father loved her anymore.

There couldn’t be two better runaway candidates.

And while they were too little to get far on their own, there were people in the world who would find the temptation of two young girls alone hard to resist.

A wave of nausea swept over him, and he jammed the accelerator to the floor. If Lexie or one of her patrol officers wanted to give him a ticket, so be it. They were next on his list to call anyway if this wasn’t resolved within ten minutes.

He zoomed down his street, tires squealing as he swung into the driveway and barreled toward the back of the house. After setting