“Did you agree on a meeting spot?”
“We did. The table—I was bringing food. He was supposed to be there with my friend’s daughter.” She motioned toward Grace, who stood with Tess a few yards away.
“But what about a place for you two to meet up, if he got lost?”
A basic precaution. How had she missed it?
She admitted her negligence by a stiff shake of her head.
“Not a problem.” He waved his hand as if to quell her rising shame. “We’ve already got guys combing the grounds. I’m gonna go check out the carnival booths. Kids wander over there all the time. Those big stuffed-animal prizes are like magnets.”
“I’ll go with you.” She couldn’t bear staying idle. She signaled to Tess that she’d be back.
Audra and the security guard traveled past the dart balloons and shooting gallery, the milk-bottle pitching booth. Between the ducky pond and ring toss, a little boy burst into a fit. His father looked to have reached his wit’s end.
Would bystanders dismiss any child’s screams as a tantrum, even if he was being abducted?
Applause soared from the stage, the sound of celebration. A man was talking to the crowd.
A microphone ... speakers ...
She asked the guard, “Could we make an announcement up on stage?”
“We’ve actually got someone about to do that right now.”
Audra’s mobile buzzed in her pocket. The screen read: Private caller. Tess could be borrowing a person’s phone.
“Is he there?” Audra demanded.
“Audra? It’s Meredith.” A quick pause. “Is everything all right?”
The question threatened to break her. No, it’s not all right! She could hear the sound of her own heartbeat. “It’s Jack. We can’t find him.”
“What? Where are you?”
“The park. At the waterfront. He wanted to sit and he, he left—” The answer collapsed as she caught sight of the river.
She hadn’t considered that Jack might wander past the jogging path and down to the docks, baited by the boats and Jet Skis zooming under the bridges. He had taken swim lessons years ago, but only the basics. Not strong enough for a cold, deep river.
“Audra? Audra!” Meredith’s voice. “Robert and I will come down there. Tell me where exactly you are.”
“Copy that,” the guard replied over the airwaves, and turned to Audra. “I think we found him. Over by the stage—”
That was all Audra heard before she took off running. She cut around obstacles, the guard trailing behind, until the profile of a boy swam into view. Jack. It was definitely him. There he was, talking to a uniformed soldier who had just stepped down from the stage.
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” she said under her breath, a chant of boundless gratitude.
Meredith’s voice reached out from the phone, held low in Audra’s grip.
“We’ve found him,” Audra told her. “I’ll call you later.” She zipped between people reclined on their blankets, over trampled grass peppered with litter, and through wafting bubbles blown by a little girl with pigtails.
The band returned to the stage and proceeded to tune their instruments.
“Jack!” She threw her arms around him. She wanted to scold him, to shake him, to keep him close forever. “My God, you have no idea how much you scared me.”
The security guard caught up and fed a report over the radio.
Audra pulled back just enough to look into Jack’s eyes. “You can’t wander off like that. Ever, ever. Do you understand me?”
He nodded, and finally her tears dared to fall. She glanced up at the guard, then the soldier whose confusion constricted his features.
“I’m sorry,” she said to them both. “I’m ... so very sorry.” She grabbed Jack’s hand and briskly led him away, desperate to shed thoughts of what if.
With each mile that distanced them from the festival, Audra’s relief gave way to aggravation—less at Jack than herself. In a a place like that, she shouldn’t have let him out of her sight. Not for a second.
She recalled the child at the park harnessed by a leash. She and Devon used to condemn those inventions. Mostly, she now realized, because Jack never needed one. Even as a toddler, he always stayed near, always asked for permission.
So why had he ventured off?
She studied him in the rearview mirror. He stared wordlessly out his window, rubbing his little toy plane. She preferred not to relive the incident, but neither did she plan to let it happen again.
Taking the exit off-ramp, she rolled up to the red light. The ticking of her turn signal compounded the tension. “Jack?”
He connected with the reflection of her eyes.