He sounded ashamed. Like it was his fault that Darin had felt unsafe enough to hide. Lynn’s heart went out to him so completely in that moment when all aspects of normal daily life were stripped away.
If she focused on Darin and Grant, she could still breathe. Could push forward and find Darin and Kara.
As Lynn kept her gaze peeled out the window, Grant drove slowly, ignoring the honks he was getting. If he heard them he didn’t seem to notice. He stopped a couple more times. Jumped out of the truck to look behind a bin and under a stoop.
Lynn’s phone rang while he was bent over, peering beneath cement on a quiet street a mile or so from the Stand.
It was Maddie’s number.
“They told me I could call you, Lynn,” the woman said, her slow speech even more garbled than usual. The poor woman’s lip was probably bleeding from chewing on it from nerves. And would need salve for the next several days.
“Of course you can call me,” she said with a heavy ache in her heart. Why couldn’t this be a normal day? With Maddie and Kara at home waiting for her?
Why couldn’t life ever just be what you thought?
“I told them I had to call you because I think I know where Darin and Kara are,” the woman continued as though Lynn hadn’t spoken. “I know because I did a bad thing and you’re going to be mad at me, but I have to tell you now because you have to find Darin and Kara and…”
She sniffed, and Lynn, impatient and frantic, said, “Maddie, just tell me where they are.”
The other woman started to cry. “I…I…”
She took a deep breath. And glanced at Grant as he climbed back into the truck. Maddie. She mouthed the word. And tried to tell him with her eyes that she was about to fly out the window. To ask him to hold her in place and breathe life into her lungs so she could get through this.
She needed the peace that he brought her.
“It’s okay, sweetie. I’m not mad, I swear to you, Maddie. And you know I never lie to you, right? That’s our deal.”
“But you yelled….”
“I didn’t yell, sweetie. I’m worried about Kara and Darin and we need to find them in a hurry. That’s all. I’m in a hurry.”
She knew how to help Maddie express herself. It was up to her to stay calm. Her panic would incite Maddie’s.
“Please, sweetie, we’re family, right? We’ve talked about that. And right now Darin and Kara need you to be strong for them. To not worry about someone getting mad at you. For Darin and Kara. You understand?”
She hoped Sara was on the other end of the line with Maddie, listening in. Doing what she could to keep the woman’s panic at bay so she could think clearly.
“Now, tell me where they are.”
“At the beach.” Maddie’s voice was firm. A tone unfamiliar to Lynn. Something she’d ponder later.
“At the beach?”
“Building a sand castle,” Maddie said, and Lynn’s hopes dashed to the ground again.
“That’s what you and Darin did,” she said now. “Not what Darin and Kara are doing.”
“No, Lynn, Darin and I went to a different place on the beach without you and Grant, and I know that’s where they are and I told the lady police officer when she told me that I could save them, but they don’t know exactly where and you do so you could go get them.”
“I know where they are? But it’s not the same place you and Darin built your sand castle?”
She put the phone on speaker and whispered to Grant, “Head toward the beach.”
He had the truck in traffic immediately, his face lined with tension.
“Yes, Lynn. Darin and I… A couple of weeks ago Grant dropped Darin off early in the morning a long time before his therapy and he was going to pick weeds, but he didn’t. He came to my house and we snuck out the back door that Darin snuck out today. He knew where to find it because of going through it with his brother, Grant.”
“You two have left campus before?”
A heavy sigh on the line had her taking another deep breath. “Yes, and I knew that you would be mad. We’re in big trouble.”
“You aren’t in trouble,” Lynn assured the woman. “You are being a big help, Maddie. Now tell me the rest.”