her handset, moving into the kitchen. “We need your help…”
“What can we do?” Wes asked, looking at Stella.
She gulped, her head still spinning. “I don’t know,” she said, “I can’t think straight.”
“It’s OK.” Aidan didn’t let go of her for a moment, just turned to talk over her head at the assembled crowd.
“We should split up the town into different zones, and all go search,” he said, “Earl, can you pick up Luke, and drive the highway south? Go slow, in case he’s hitchhiking. Wes, you go North, towards Provincetown. Call Jackson, and have him head to the bus station, talk to people there in case he already caught a bus out of town. Do we have a photo?”
“I do,” Jenny spoke up. “I’ll text it to everyone.”
“Good.”
Aidan kept issuing instructions, and Stella felt the first rays of hope and relief since she’d realized Matty was gone. There was a plan; Aidan was taking care of it.
“What about me?” Stella asked, when the rest of them had dispersed.
“You should stay here, for when he comes back,” Aidan said. He gave her a reassuring smile. “I bet you a hundred bucks he’s going to stroll in, an hour from now, not even realizing the drama he’s caused.”
Stella nodded slowly. She wanted so desperately to believe him.
“You should stay here, with Stella,” Aidan told Jenny.
“Of course. I’ll make some tea,” Jenny agreed. “I know it won’t help, but it’ll make me feel like I’m doing something.”
Aidan finally released Stella. She gulped. “You’re leaving?”
“I’m going to head out and search,” he said, giving her shoulders another squeeze. “Call me the minute you hear anything, OK?”
She nodded.
“It’s going to be alright,” he said, kissing her forehead. “I promise.”
Then, just as quickly as the house had filled up, it was suddenly empty again. Stella sank down on the couch, clutching her cellphone. Jenny took a seat beside her. “They’ll find him,” she said, squeezing Stella’s hand. “And then you can ground him for a month.”
Stella nodded slowly, praying to God it was true.
Where was he?
Aidan drove, forcing himself to go slow on the dark roads. He scanned the hedgerows and shadowy woods, looking for a glimpse of something, any sign of Matty, as he did a slow loop towards town, and then back again, towards the shore.
Nothing.
Aidan gripped the steering wheel harder, keeping panic at bay. Stella was depending on him, and he couldn’t let her down.
He’d never seen her like this before. She’d been trying to keep it together, but her fear was palpable. He could only imagine what she was feeling right now, and he would have done anything to take that pain away.
But he only needed to do one thing for her: Find the kid.
“Any luck?” he called Jackson to check in.
“No sign of him at the bus station,” his brother replied. “The clerk has been here all night and would have seen him come through. But that’s a good thing, right?” he added. “At least we know, he must be somewhere in town.”
“We hope,” Aidan agreed, but he felt a wave of relief, all the same. “OK, check in with that deputy, and let them know.”
He rang off, and let out a puff of air. He was trying to think straight, and take charge; somebody had to, otherwise everyone would be running around with no strategy, but still, Aidan had a feeling like he was going about this all wrong. He’d been planning like an adult, like someone who knew exactly what he was doing. But what if Matty wasn’t trying to run away, or run to anywhere at all? What if he hadn’t thought that far ahead?
Aidan took a moment, and tried to put himself in Matty’s shoes. If he was a fourteen-year-old, and he just needed some space, where would he go?
Thinking back, Aidan would have picked the old Westerly Estate: the run-down mansion on the beach where they used to hang out as kids. It had been a hideaway, with plenty of dark corners to get lost in. But Wes had renovated it, he lived there now with Cassie, so where else was there, away from the crowd…?
Instinct drove him towards the shore. He passed the lights of the harbor, and then kept driving, following the bumpy dirt road that led parallel to the beach. It was a bright, cloudless night, but as the houses grew further apart, and the dunes rose up, there was nothing but empty sand and the distant crashing of the waves.
Damnit.
Aidan reached the