At least it’s better than going hungry.
Sarah finished the wrap and felt better. She looked up and down Park Avenue. It was so odd to be back in Winter Park again. Everything looked the same. The same stores and most of the same restaurants were still in the same places, yet it seemed like a strange new world.
Had she ever belonged here?
Sarah walked down the street, going past a couple of restaurants where people sat at tables outside, eating and chatting happily. A couple was holding hands across the table, looking deep into each other’s eyes. How Sarah missed doing things like that, how she missed normalcy.
She walked down another block when she saw the truck and stopped, her heart suddenly racing in her chest, beating hard against her ribcage. The truck was going down Park Avenue, slowly, while approaching the place where she was standing. Sarah recognized it immediately and couldn’t move.
It was a bright red 1991 Ford Skyranger convertible. The same truck that she had been taken away in on the day she was kidnapped from her home.
This is it. It’s coming for me.
Seeing this, Sarah began to shake. She fought not to hyperventilate yet somehow managed to get herself turned around. Forcing herself to move, she walked up to a window, then stood completely still and stared in, turning her back to the road, acting like she was watching the exhibition in the window of the old toy store, the Tugboat & the Bird. While holding her breath, she watched the red truck in the reflection of the window as it slowly cruised by behind her.
Is it stopping? Have they seen me?
Heart throbbing in her throat, she stood as still as humanly possible so she wouldn’t be seen, hoping she wouldn’t be recognized.
The car slowed as it came up behind her and came almost to a stop. Seeing this, Sarah’s hands shook heavily, and she felt a chill go down her neck.
Please, continue. Please, just keep going.
The truck lingered for a few seconds behind her like it was checking her out, then revved the engine a few times before it finally began moving again and disappeared down the street. Sarah breathed, relieved. She felt her heart rate come down as she stared in the direction of where it had gone. There was no doubt in her mind that this was the same truck.
I need to get out of here. I need to find a good place to hide.
Sarah walked with long strides, moving down Park Avenue as quickly as possible without actually running, and as she reached almost the end of it, she decided to cross it. The second she did, a set of bright headlights came to life behind her in one of the parking spaces. An engine roared to life, and seconds later, she heard tires screeching. She gasped, then turned to look as the red pick-up truck jolted toward her.
Chapter 38
My best friend Melissa came to the house the next day and took me out for lunch. She grabbed Owen in his car seat when I had parked outside of Juice ‘N Java, my favorite lunch place in town. We sat at the tables outside, and Melissa went in to order us a couple of sandwiches. I also asked for a cinnamon bun. They had the best cinnamon buns here. I figured if I was being healthy and eating a spinach wrap with turkey, then I could indulge in a little sweet afterward and not feel too guilty about it.
It was all about balancing it out, right?
Melissa came back out and sat across the table from me. Angel and Owen were both heavily asleep after the car ride there. Even though it was only a few minutes, it was still enough to make them doze off. It worked every time, and it gave me a little time to breathe.
“I see you have your hands full,” Melissa said and handed me my coffee. I hadn’t slept much the night before since the two rascals had taken turns waking up, ganging up on me, making sure I didn’t close my eyes even once. Matt slept downstairs so that he could get enough rest for work today. He had come back late from his mother’s, and we hadn’t had time to talk.
“You and Matt are quarreling?” Melissa asked.
I gave her a look, then sipped my coffee.
“How did you know?”
She shrugged. “I saw his clothes and a blanket on the couch downstairs, and then I could tell from your face. I’ve known you all my life. You don’t have any secrets from me.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “I’m not buying that. He called you, didn’t he?”
She smiled. “All right. I did talk to him last night. He said he was upset because you insisted on keeping an extra baby at the house, plus—and I got the feeling this was what he was most upset about—you were helping Scott Benton with some case? Scott Benton, Eva Rae? Really?”
I blushed. “His girlfriend is missing. You know I can’t just not try and help.”
“But she’s done it before,” Melissa said. “Disappeared without a trace, leaving her family and friends behind.”
I stared at her, mouth gaping.
“You’re well informed.”
“Yeah, well, Matt needed to talk last night, and I met up with him down at Coconuts. We had a beer and a chat.”
Melissa, Matt, and I had been friends since preschool. Our little group also included Dawn, but we didn’t see her much lately since she had moved to Merritt Island. It wasn’t odd that Melissa and Matt talked and met up for a beer, even though I did feel a pinch of jealousy at this moment. Still, I would rather have him confide in her than in anyone else in the world, to be honest. Melissa was probably the one person I trusted most. And there weren’t many of those around, except for my sister, Sydney, of course, the movie actress. She was busy running a shelter for trafficked girls, and usually, I would be helping her, but now, I was a baby mama.
“Don’t you think you might be in a little over your head?” she asked as our sandwiches arrived, and we dug in. I took a massive bite of the spinach wrap while my eyes lingered on the cinnamon bun that was waiting next to me.
“I can do it. It’s just until Amy comes back. I know she will. We just need to give her a little more time.”
“That’s not what I was talking about, and you know it,” Melissa said.
“Then, what were you talking about?” I asked, even though I knew very well the answer to that question.
She tilted her head in that annoying way that she knew I hated. “I meant Scott. Of all the people in the world, how on earth did you end up helping him? Wasn’t there a drug dealer or a child molester somewhere you could throw your compassion to?”
I chuckled. I knew Melissa and Matt both hated Scott, but they didn’t know him as I did.
“He’s not a bad guy,” I said, trying to close the conversation here. I didn’t want to talk to her about Scott anymore.
She leaned forward, her eyes growing wide. “Not a bad guy? Don’t you remember high school? He was the worst. We all hated him. And he was mean to everyone, not just us—the rejects. Don’t you remember how he beat up his girlfriend once, that Hannah girl, who was also homecoming queen? She said he hit her because she wanted to leave him and that he even tried to run her over with his car. That’s not a good guy in my book. He’s bad news, Eva Rae, and you know it.”
I sighed. I had a piece of lettuce stuck between my teeth that I tried to get out by using my tongue. “We only have her word for that happening. He said she made it up because she got jealous.”
“And you believe that? You?”