Chapter 231

Heart suddenly thudding, Andy went into his and Scooter’s room, their bathroom. The sewing-and-junk room, in case she was looking at pictures again. The hall bath stood dark and empty. So did the spare bedroom. “Billie!” he called, sharp.

No answer.

Shit. Where had she gotten to? Andy ran back down the stairs and around to Dockside’s front porch, to see if she’d wiggled herself a spot at the bar to watch the ocean. There was no one there under the age of fifty.

He pushed into the restaurant. “Kat, you haven’t seen Billie, have you?”

She shook her head. “Not since you got back. I thought she was upstairs.”

“So did I, but she’s not there.” A dozen terrifying scenarios flashed through Andy’s head all at once, each more horrifying than the last. “Oh my God, where the hell did she go?”

Kat grabbed his arm. “You must be calm, Andrushka,” she admonished. “To think, to look!”

Andy only just stopped short of yanking his arm free. “Yeah, well, if you figure out how to do that, you let me know. How the hell am I supposed to be calm when my—”Daughter, he almost said, and swallowed it down. She wasn’this daughter, even if he wished it could be. In point of fact, she was Simon’s daughter. Fuck.

He put a hand over his eyes. “Sorry,” he apologized. “I’m worried.”

She nodded. “You go look; I will get Scooter to help.”

Andy nodded. He took a deep breath, then pushed back into the kitchen to allay fears of her being trapped in the big walk-in fridge. There was a handle on the inside, it wasn’t actually possible to get stuck in there without something holding it shut from the outside, but that didn’t stop the gruesome images scrolling through his brain. Luckily, the fridge contained nothing that wasn’t supposed to be there.

Nor the freezer, or the pantry, or the storage room.

Jesus. If she wasn’t in Dockside, it was going to be exponentiallyharder to find her.

Scooter was out a few moments later, strangely calm. He had a pair of binoculars in one hand and his cell phone in the other. “Yeah, hey, Sarah. I don’t suppose Billie was over to see Kendra today? Hmmm. Yeah, okay. Oh, could you? I’d appreciate that.” He was walking out of the building and up the stairs, not to the house, but up to the balcony and then up again, onto the widow’s walk.

Andy followed him only as far as the bottom of the stairs before realizing he was going to look out to sea.

Andy shuddered; they’d gotten her up to an inefficient little dog-paddle level of swimming, but she had no chance against the current. Though there was a lifeguard station right by the dock, so probablythey would have spotted her if she’d decided today was the day to break the rules about going in the water without an adult.

The beach wasn’t a bad idea, though; Andy ran down the path onto the sand to see if she’d started playing with some tourist kid and wound up wandering out of sight by accident. He didn’t see her, and only a couple of groups in easy range had kids anywhere near her age. He’d have to walk all the way down the beach to be sure, though, and he wanted to check in with Scooter before that, see if maybe she’d turned up at one of her friends’ houses.

Scooter turned with the binoculars, slowly, then came back down the stairs. “No one’s seen her since we got back from ice-cream. Sarah’s on her way here, in case Billie was headed to Kendra’s. She’s still wearin’ that dress your mom got her—leastways, it ain’t on the floor in her room. That oughta make her easier to spot.”

Andy tried to smile at that, but it was hard with his heart pounding and his lungs feeling like all the air was being squeezed from them. “You think we should call the police?”

“Do we know how long she’s been gone?” Scooter asked. He was still twisting his head from side to side, eyes steady. “She knows she ain’t supposed to go down the beach or cross the street without one of us at least watchin’. Not that she’s what I’d call biddable.”

“No, but she was having a pretty good day earlier.” Andy checked his phone. “It’s been at least half an hour, maybe as much as three hours.”

Scooter shoved a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I wish Jeff was here. Dammit. He’s good at…spotting shit. I ain’t half so. A’ight…here’s what we’re gonna do. Sarah’ll be here soon, she can sweep the beach north. You go south. Coordinate with Kat here. I’ll check the Baskin Robbins and the candy store. Call Raniesha, she might be able t’help look. Give it…another half hour. If we don’t find her by then, we’ll call the police.” 17

Billie’s legs were tired. She didn’t know how long she’d walked, but it was hot, and her beautiful dress was starting to feel prickly and heavy instead of swishy and sparkly. The tiara was poking into her head above her ears, and sand kept getting inside her shoes and scraping at her feet.