I hope everything is okay.”
“Does she have a cell phone?”
“If she does, I don’t have the number.”
Julie got more and more concerned. What did she really know about this woman? Even though she had trusted her, maybe there was more to the story she didn’t know. All kinds of scary scenarios were running through her mind.
“Maybe I’ll start walking around and see if I can find them. You wait here,” Dawson said. As she watched him walk away, she continued scanning the crowd.
One of her favorite things to watch on TV were those true crime TV shows. Even though they never ended well, she always found them to be very interesting with all the twists and turns. Now, worrying about where Dylan was, she found herself coming up with every scary proposition imaginable.
“They’re about to light the tree!” Janine said, giddy with excitement, as she ran over. Janine had always loved Christmas, and even as an adult she got just as excited as she had when they were little.
“Have you seen Dylan? Or Tina?”
“No. Why?”
“I let Tina take him to the booths while we were busy, but she was supposed to meet me here before the tree lighting. Now we can’t find her or Dylan, and Dawson has gone to look for them.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. Maybe he’s getting his face painted or they ran to get another hot chocolate.”
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right.”
As she stood there, the mayor walked over to get prepared to light the tree. He made some speech that she didn’t pay attention to because she was still too busy looking around in the darkness. Suddenly, the mayor hit the switch, lit up the tree, and everybody cheered. But Julie didn’t cheer.
She felt her heart rate quicken as it pounded in her chest. Where was her son?
As soon as the tree was lit, Julie made a beeline out of there and started walking up and down the sidewalk looking. She finally ran into Dawson.
“Did you find them?” she asked, her voice shaking.
He shook his head. “I can’t find them anywhere.”
“Oh, my goodness. What do we really know about this woman? She could’ve taken off with our child!”
Dawson put his hands on her arms. “Take a deep breath, Julie. I’m sure everything is fine. There’s just been some kind of misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding? Dylan wanted to see the Christmas tree lighting. He would’ve never missed this on purpose!”
The two of them started walking and eventually met up with Janine, William, Colleen and Tucker. They all fanned out in different directions before finally meeting in the middle of the square again, and none of them had Dylan.
The tree had been lit ten minutes before, and she had no idea where he was.
“I think we need to speak with the police,” Dawson finally said. Hearing him say those words meant that things were serious because Dawson was one of the most levelheaded people she knew.
“Okay, let’s get over to the local precinct…”
Just as they all turned around to head toward their cars, Tina and Dylan appeared at the other end of the sidewalk. She was holding his hand, but he looked fine.
Julie’s anxiety overcame her as she ran ahead of the group, anger welling within her.
“Where did you take my son? We were about to go to the police!”
Tina looked shellshocked. She stopped, her mouth dropping opening and her eyes widening. “The police?”
“He was supposed to see the tree lighting! Were you trying to kidnap him?” Julie reached out and took Dylan’s hand, pulling him close to her.
“She wasn’t trying to kidnap me,” Dylan said, laughing.
“Then why did he miss the tree lighting? Why didn’t you meet us where you said you would?”
“If you would just let me explain,” Tina said, holding up her hands. She looked truly apologetic, but Julie couldn’t think of a good reason she hadn’t met them when and where she said she would. The entire group of them, including Dawson, stood there waiting for an explanation. “I don’t mean to be gross, but Dylan had way too many treats today. And he got a pretty terrible stomachache.”
“A stomachache?” Julie said.
“I ate a bunch of stuff,” Dylan lamented, holding his stomach.
“Anyway, all the shops around here are closed. I thought about trying to find your mother to see if she could let us in to the bakery, but I never did figure out where she went. So we walked down to the gas station so Dylan could use the restroom. It’s a pretty long walk…”
“You