“He was supposed to wait for me outside the locker room after the game, but he wasn’t there.I tried his phone, but then I remembered he doesn’t have it anymore.”
He’s been begging for a new one, but I’ve held off.Something else I’m regretting right now.
“Where is your security detail?”I ask, as I back out of the driveway.“Where are Frank and Debra?”
“They’re looking.They came up to me when I came out of the building and asked where Remi was.They said he’d gone in, and figured he was looking for me, but I never saw him.They told me to head back inside and wait, but I couldn’t stay there.And now I don’t know where they went either.”
His voice is high-pitched with panic, and as much as I feel my own panic clawing at my throat, I need to stay calm for his sake.
“Lincoln, take a deep breath.Where are you now?”
“By the edge of the field, near the bleachers.Most people have already left, Mom.There’s no one left in the locker rooms.”
“Listen to me; I want you to go to the concession stand, someone should still be there.”
They often keep it open to catch people on their way to the parking lot who might want to grab something on their way home.
“Okay.”
“Then stay put.I’m on my way, but I need to make a few calls, okay?Don’t move until you see me.”
“Mom?”
“Do what I ask, Linc.”
It’s hard to end the call, but I need to get hold of the team and find out what the hell is happening.
“What’s going on, Frank?”I ask when he answers.
“Does he have a girlfriend?”he answers with a question of his own.
“Who, Remi?Not that I know of.”
But then I remember the sudden increased attention to personal hygiene recently, which had been sorely lacking before.The frequent showers, the can of Axe he stole from his brother.I’d already been suspicious there might be a girl in the picture.
“But there could be.What is happening?”
“Earlier he was sitting in the bleachers next to a blond girl, they seemed to be talking.Then the girl left with maybe a minute left in the game, and shortly after, your son was up and making his way over to the locker rooms.I saw him go inside, but he never came out.”
“So how long ago was that?”
There is a lengthy pause, telling me he’d rather not answer that question.
I help him out.“At least twenty minutes, but probably closer to thirty, by my calculation.”I’m guesstimating the length of time between Linc’s first call about the pizza and now.
“I’ve already got the sheriff’s office en route and school security is helping us look.”
“You’d better find my son, Frank.”
“I will,” he states with far more confidence than I can bring myself to feel right now.
“I told Linc to go to the concession stand and wait there for me.I’m right around the corner.”
I end the call and turn onto the road leading to the school and the sports fields behind it.A stream of vehicles pass me, heading back to town, and it occurs to me Remi could be in any one of them.Then I shake my head to clear out the doom thinking.It won’t get my son back.
When I turn into the parking lot, I’m fighting traffic trying to get out and end up leaving my Jeep parked on a strip of grass.I ignore Debra Stanton, the other agent, who is at least making some effort to check cars leaving the lot, and take off on foot.
I head straight for the concession stand and spot Linc from a distance.My tall son towers over the older lady who runs the stand.
