Going For Broke (36 page)

             
“Claire is going to the Park District day camp - it’s fantastic.  She’d love to have Posey there with her.”

             
Victoria stood and watched as the children were collected by their mothers, in large SUVs, on bikes, on foot.  One mother even came with a scooter.  That was too much for Victoria.  Before long the schoolyard was empty, with no sign of Parker or Posey.  She couldn’t have missed them.  She kept a vigilant eye on the front door of the school, in part to meet her unsuspecting kids, and in part to keep any stray chatterboxes at bay.

             
She went into the school, and asked the woman at the front desk if they had been kept behind for some reason.  No, she was told, but she was free to roam the school now that the children were gone.

             
The last time Victoria had been through the hallways it was on the day she enrolled Parker and Posey.  She didn’t see a thing.  Today she saw what her children saw: a happy, thriving place where her kids had found a place.  It gave her a good feeling to see the kids’ artwork on the walls, to see the handmade posters for the play, even the volunteer sign-up sheet didn’t make her shudder.

             
She didn’t know what classroom they would be in, so poked her head into room after room of tidy little desks each with a chair perched upside down on top of it.  No kids, no teachers.  Room after room was the same scene.  By the time she got to the last hallway, she was getting a little worried.

             
She berated herself for worrying.  They weren’t expecting her, and she probably missed them.  She was sure they were at home eating some godawful sugar snack.  She walked, a little faster than usual, back to the house.

             
“Parker?  Posey?” She called for them before she even got through the door.  Fritz jumped off the sofa to meet her.  “Parker?” No answer.  “Posey?”  Nothing.  She bolted to the back door to see if they were in the back yard.  If Mike had taken them back there again, she’d kill him.

             
The yard was empty.  Parker’s baseball glove was thrown against the garage wall, she had noticed that two days ago.  She went back through the empty house, and felt panic setting in.  Panic unlike any she had ever felt before.  More than the day the FBI showed up at her door.

             
FBI, she thought.  Mike must know where they are.  He knows every move we make.  She ran outside to look for his tell-tale black truck.  It wasn’t parked in front.  She ran around the block, stopping halfway to take off her heels.  Where was Mike?  Where were her kids?
             

             
Her first instinct was to call the police.  The police were hardly her friend.  What if they had just gone to a play date?  She would have called Kathy, but she didn’t say anything about having Posey come over after school.  She put Fritz on a leash and started walking.

             
She walked the neighborhood for over an hour.  She asked every kid, mother and stranger if they had seen her children.  She peeked into the backyards where she heard kids’ laughter, hoping to spot one of her towheaded babies.

             
Finally, she went home in defeat.  She didn’t know what else to do, so she made the same call she made the last time she was panicked.

             
“Mom?”

             
             
             
             
             
             
###

             
Three squad cars parked outside of Barbara’s little house, lights flashing and blocking traffic.  Victoria sat through a humiliating interrogation by one of the policemen, who seemed to insinuate that Victoria wasn’t a very good mother because she didn’t pick her kids up from school every day.

             
“We live across the street.”

             
“So it’s too far?” Victoria wanted to smash the guy right though his misaligned teeth. 

             
“Why are you still here?  Why aren’t you out looking for my children?”

             
He looked through his miniature notebook, which looked like a Hello Kitty one that Posey used when she was four years old.  “What were they wearing when you last saw them?”

             
“School clothes?  I can’t remember.  I didn’t know I was going to have to.”

             
“Do they know how to swim?”
             

             
Victoria sat down.  Swim.  There was a beach, dozens of pools have been opened for summer.  That was a parents’ worst nightmare. 

             
“Yes.  They know how to swim. Please, please.  Can you go find my children?

             
             
             
             
             
             
###

             
By 6:45, they still had no idea where her children were.   If she had a pack of cigarettes, she would have smoked it by now.  She was too freaked out to even pour a drink.  All she could do was to pace back and forth in her mother’s tiny living room, while some random cop sat on a chair and watched her.  They didn’t want to leave her alone.  She was used to that.

             
Where was Mike?  He had to have seen the lights, the police cars.  He had to have seen her running through the neighborhood like a madwoman.  Whatever had happened between them , she knew that if she really needed him, or her kids needed him, he’d be there.  So where was he?

             
She didn’t share with the local law enforcement that she came with her own Federal Agent.  She didn’t want to complicate things.  She wanted them to focus on her children, and only her children.  Her mother came into the living room with a cup of tea.

             
“Sweetheart, sit down.  Drink this.  Pacing isn’t going to help find them.”

             
“Why don’t they let me help?”

             
“You can’t help.  Not that way.  Besides, you need to be here in case they come back.”

             
“Oh mom, do you think they’ll find them?”  Victoria started to cry.  “You don’t think they ran away?”

             
Barbara took her in her arms and stroked her hair.  “I know they’ll find them.  Of course they didn’t run away.  They love you?”

             
Victoria pulled back and looked at her mother.  “Do they?  I’m a terrible mother.  I had a babysitter practically raise them in New York.  I pulled them from their only home and today I lost them.”  She cried even harder.

             
“You are a wonderful mother.  Today.  I don’t know much about your life in New York, that’s the past.  Today you are a wonderful mother.  You’ve created a fantastic life for them here and I’ve watched them thrive.  I’ve watched you thrive, too.  You have done a remarkable thing to come home and rebuild a life for you and your family.  They love you and I love you.  Now come on and wipe those eyes.  You don’t want them to see you all weepy when they come through that door.”

             
They sat on the sofa, mother and daughter, waiting.  It was almost 7:30 when their babysitter cop got a call on his walkie-talkie.  He went outside to take it.  Moments later the lead policeman came in the door, tiny notebook at the ready. 

             
“Ma’am.  We finally got in touch with the hall monitor that was on duty this afternoon.  She’s been at the movies.”

             
“And?”

             
He looked at his notebook again, to make sure he got it right. 

             
“It seems that they were picked up today by their father.”

CHAPTER 24

             
“I don’t understand,” Barbara said.  “Their father?”

             
Victoria was filled with relief and rage.  “Trip, mother.  Trip is back in town.”

             
She didn’t want to get into the whole Trip fiasco with the local police, so she just did her best to look grateful and hide her fury.  The sooner they got out the sooner she could find Trip.

Where would she find Trip?  The best person for that was Mike, and he was nowhere to be seen. 

             
By the time the house cleared out the the police had left, Victoria had already on the phone to Jack Taggert.

             
“They’re his kids too, Victoria,” he said.

             
“Did you know about this?  Did you know he was back?”

             
“Victoria, calm down.  The children are fine.  I’m sure they’re more than fine.  Trip loves those kids.  He loves you too, you know.”

             
That was more than she could take.  She slammed down the phone and hoped it burned his ear.  She called 411 to get the name and number of every five-star hotel in Chicago.  One by one she went through, asking for Trip Vernon, Robert Vernon.  Nothing. 

             
Of course he wouldn’t use his name.  He was a known felon on the run.  She tried like hell to think of any clever name that he might use, the way Andi did when she stayed in hotels.  The best she could come up with was Peter Nicol, one of Trip’s favorite squash heroes.  Nothing.

             
By midnight, her mother had gone to bed, and Bud came to talk to her in the living room.  She was sitting in the dark, Fritz at her side, staring at the door as if she could will them to walk through it at any moment. 

             
“Vicky, you’ve done enough.  You know they’re with their father.  He wouldn’t do anything to hurt them.  I’m sure you’ll hear from them tomorrow.”

             
She looked at him, thankful again for this gentle man in their lives. 

             
“Do you promise?”

             
“I promise.  Now let’s get you to bed.”

             
             
             
             
             
             
###

             
Victoria slept hard, and was surprised when she realized that she didn’t wake up until 9:30.  Her mother and Bud were at the kitchen table, talking softly.

             
“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

             
“You needed the sleep.”

             
“What if they had come home?”

             
“We would have waken you up, then.  There’s nothing you can do but wait.  Sleeping isn’t a bad idea.  Besides, you need all the energy you can get today.”

             
Victoria didn’t want to talk about it.  It was so emotional draining, and she wasn’t used to being drained in this way.  She shuffled over and poured herself a cup of coffee in her mother’s NPR mug.  She nearly spilled it when she heard the doorbell ring.