Wife by Design

“It’s just not like him. Darin doesn’t ever leave familiar territory. He got lost once and wet himself. He’s never forgotten….”

“Then he’s someplace familiar,” she said, hoping she was right. “We just have to figure out where that is.”

He was still holding her hand, and she gave his fingers a squeeze. “Let’s go check my place. He seems to be thinking of that as home. Maybe something upset him or spooked him. He wouldn’t have been able to run to you or your truck since you weren’t here. I was in back-to-back appointments all morning. And Maddie’s out with her folks. She walked Kara back to day care after lunch and her folks were picking her up from there.”

“Angelica already called Maddie and confirmed that she’s with her parents. She didn’t know where Darin was.”

Another alarm went off. “Did she let Maddie know he was missing?”

“I’m not sure.”

“She’ll be frantic if she knows. And her folks aren’t great about helping her through her panic. They tend to panic about her panic.”

Which was one of the reasons why Maddie wasn’t living with them. Pulling her phone out of her pocket she called the slender blonde.

“Maddie? This is Lynn.” Still holding Grant’s hand in hers, she hurried with him across the sidewalk that meandered through the grounds and across the grass toward her bungalow.

“Hi, Lynn, I’m with my parents shopping right now.”

“I know. That’s why I’m calling. I wanted to make sure you remembered that you wanted to get some more of that special soap you like.”

Cherry-scented hand soap. Lynn had extra that she intended to give Maddie, but she’d needed a reason to call.

“Yes, Lynn, I remembered. And I thought you were calling about Darin. I didn’t walk him to therapy today because I’m with my parents right now.”

“Okay, sweetie. We just forgot to tell Angelica about your visit with your parents. You’re fine.”

“I don’t want to get into trouble.”

“You aren’t in trouble.” The woman was obviously not worried about Darin, either. Which meant that she hadn’t put Angelica’s phone call together with the idea that Darin might be missing.

“Did Darin tell you if he had anything to do after therapy today?”

“He was going to miss me. And help his brother, Grant, with yard work because he can do it all now because he can bend over and lift things.”

Darin had been released for full activity a couple of weeks ago.

“That’s right. Good. I thought maybe I’d see if he wants to make his spaghetti again for dinner on Friday night.”

“Okay, Lynn, I like his spaghetti, and Kara does, too. I have to go now. I’m shopping. And please tell Darin I’m sorry I didn’t walk him to therapy. And…tell him I miss him, too,” she added in almost a whisper.

“I will,” Lynn assured her.

They’d reached her house.

“I take it she doesn’t know where he is.”

“She doesn’t know he’s missing.” Which wasn’t all that reassuring. As much as Grant and Maddie talked, if he’d intended to stray from his normal itinerary, surely he would have told her.

And Maddie would have told Lynn. Or at least confessed that she knew something she couldn’t tell her.

* * *

DARIN WASN’T AT Lynn’s house. Or anywhere on the secure premises of The Lemonade Stand. All residents had been put on alert—a one-shot text to their cell phones covered most of them. A message over the speakers installed in all of the bungalows and at the main house covered the rest.

The atmosphere at the complex wasn’t one of panic. Everyone at The Lemonade Stand was taking the situation seriously but no one was panicking. It was far more likely that Darin had just wandered off—and a grown man of his size, even mentally handicapped as he was, should be able to keep himself alive until he was found.

Grant was panicked, though.

“This just isn’t like him,” he said, running fingers through hair that was already standing on end. He felt like a fool.

And a failure, too.

There had to be something he could do.