“Yes.” He gestures at the windshield. “Go.”
They reach an intersection and Olivia takes a left at the light. Pine is several blocks up. She goes to make a turn and a car cuts her off. She’s forced to continue straight until they come to a dead stop at a construction zone. Pylons line the painted median. A sign flashes about traffic delays. Cars idle bumper to bumper. The navigation system vocalizes her route correction.
Olivia’s hands drop to her lap. She weaves her fingers to keep from fidgeting. Her head leans back against the rest. “This shouldn’t take too long.”
Josh pivots, looking out the rear window. “There. Go back.” She hears the anxiety in his voice, sees it in the upward tilt of his brows.
“We can’t turn around until we pass this.” She leans right to see how far back they are but can’t see anything beyond the truck in front of them.
Josh groans, exasperated, and flings off his seat belt.
“Keep that on. We’re still driving.” But Josh is out the door, shouldering his pack before she realizes what he’s doing.
“I’m going.” He shuts the door and rounds the rear. “Follow.”
Follow him? She can’t. She’s stuck.
“Josh! Get back here,” she yells out the window. He jogs across the street and her heart does an erratic dance. “Shit,” she mutters.
Her phone rings. Amber’s contact information brightens the dash monitor. Olivia taps the call answer button. “Amber, oh, my god. I’m stuck in traffic and Josh just ditched the car.” She looks behind her to see where he went, cursing that the cars ahead haven’t moved. Her heart rate is jacked, constricting her chest. She can’t see him anywhere.
“Where are you?”
“Oceanside. Josh lives here.” She quickly updates Amber on Josh’s sketch and the matching photo in her book.
“Wow. Okay. Can you pull off to the side and park?”
“No room. Wait. Hold on.” She has to get out of this roadblock.
Olivia looks over her shoulder, then makes a U-turn. The front bumper knocks over a pylon. She rolls over the tip of another. A glance in the rearview mirror shows several pylons rolling in the opposite lane. Navigation adjusts its course to Lily’s street.
“Okay. I’m clear. Driving now.”
“Can you see Josh?” Amber sounds worried.
“No, but I know the general direction where he went. Sorry, did you call for something?”
“Yeah, I have news but it can wait. Will you be home tonight?”
“Late.” She turns onto Pine and coasts up the street. “Anything urgent?” she asks, half listening, her attention on the apartment buildings and townhouses she passes. Josh couldn’t have gone far.
“It can wait. Good luck down there. Call me when you’re back in town.”
A flash of red matching Josh’s backpack pops into her peripheral vision. “Will do.” She ends the call and double-parks.
“Josh,” she yells, running across the street. He’s impatient to see his mom, she gets that. But his stunt was reckless. What if he was already inside one of these apartments? She wouldn’t have been able to find him. Just thinking about losing him has her lunch turning over in her stomach.
She mounts the steps of the tiny porch to a townhouse that looks identical to the one Josh drew and Lucas critiqued. Josh picks up a small clay pot with a dead plant and cocks back his arm.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” She grabs the pot before he hurls it through the window.
“Not here,” he says angrily.
Lily isn’t here.
Olivia sags against the door, even jiggles the latch. She peeks through the window and sighs her disappointment when she can’t see past the blinds.
“I know. We talked about that.” She reminds him of what they discussed. On the way down, Josh’s hope inflated. His eyes brightened and he grew more restless. Maybe she was there, he told her in broken speech. If she isn’t, Olivia explained they’d talk with the neighbors, ask if anyone knew where Lily and Josh were headed. Maybe someone has seen Lily since she lost Josh.
She sets down the pot, brushing dirt from her hands. “There are other ways to find her.” Ways that don’t involve breaking and entering and setting off the alarm. Her gaze darts to the sticker in the window. Coastal Alarm Co. She’d rather not waste time held up at the police station talking herself out of a breaking and entering charge.
Josh probably already tried, but she checks the door latch. It’s locked. She also rings the bell and feels let down when Lily doesn’t answer.
“Is there a spare key lying about?”
He shakes his head. “Used to. Not since he—” He presses his lips tight.
“He what, Josh?” And, he who? Is Josh talking about Dwight?
“Can’t.” He taps his forehead, then punches the house siding.
He can’t call up the word.
Olivia breathes through her teeth and backs away. She’s tempted to grab his shoulders and shake the words out of him. They’d drop at their feet as though a thief were emptying his coat pockets because those words stuck in his head are gold. They’re the answers she needs to end this outrageous week.
“Was there someone harassing your mom? Is that why she removed the spare key? Is he the shadow man in your drawings?”
“Yes.”
A chill seeps into Olivia’s limbs. “Was it my dad, the bad man?” Her stomach heaves at the thought.
Josh looks at the ground. His shoulders shrug.
“You want to blame him, but you’re not sure it was him.”
He lifts his head and nods, meeting her gaze.
Who else can it be if not Dwight? What sort of trouble was Lily in?
She heaves a sigh and looks around. This drive can’t be a complete bust. “Okay. Is there another way in?”
“Come.” He leaps off the porch and she follows him to the garage.
Josh punches in a code on the remote opener. The door doesn’t budge. He punches in another code, swearing when the door still doesn’t open. While he tries to sort the number order, Olivia backs up to get a better view of the townhouse. Two floors with ocean views given the direction of the windows on the second floor.
How in the world did a sixteen-year-old pregnant runaway who didn’t finish high school afford a place two blocks from the beach in SoCal? Even if she’s leasing, it can’t be inexpensive. What does she do for a living? Someone must be supporting her.
She thinks of Josh’s father, whoever that is, which reminds her to look at the photos she copied over from Dwight’s computer. And that reminds her she hasn’t heard from Lucas. He hasn’t texted that Dwight arrived home.
Something else is odd, too. Dwight hasn’t called or texted since his voice mail the other day. Normally he would have tried to reach her again, especially since she didn’t call him back. She doesn’t know whether to be concerned or relieved. Or maybe she should be wary. Could he already know Josh is with her?
Olivia checks her phone to see if she missed any messages, but everything has been read.
“Josh?”
Olivia turns around. Two doors up, an older woman in a paisley athletic-style sundress unpacks groceries from her car. She returns a bag to the trunk and approaches them.