Free Vanished by Kristi Holl

girls.” Ms. Carter wrapped long arms around her legs. “Ten years ago, in a boating accident, she lost her husband and twin daughters.”
    Jeri caught her breath. How horrible! She’d always assumed the Head was an old maid. To think of her having a husband and daughters–to even think of her having fun on a boat–felt bizarre.
    “After their deaths,” Ms. Carter continued, “she threw herself into making good things happen for
other
people’s girls. Landmark is her whole life now.” She rubbed her chapped hands together. “I know this because she is my sister-in-law. Her husband who drowned was my brother.”
    “Oh! I’m really sorry. For you both.”
    “Later, she got me this job.” She patted Jeri’s knee. “Just try to have compassion for her heavy responsibilities. She fears lawsuits from angry parents now. An expensive lawsuit could shut down the school. Of course, her worst fear is that the girls are hurt – or worse. The headmistress hired Keith Reeves. She holds herself personally responsible.”
    Jeri was speechless. She’d been so wrong about the Head. “I’ll pray for her,” she finally said. Had she misjudged Mr. Reeves too? And Jake? Did she have the good guys and bad guys all turned around?
    “I’d better take the girls down to the search area.” Ms. Carter got up and brushed her hands on her slacks. “Keep those prayers coming.”
    Jeri deliberately stayed in the restroom long enough for the cars carrying her friends to leave. It was killing her not to go along. She pictured a half-frozen, frostbitten, starving Rosa being carried out of the woods by a rescue worker. Rosa would try to stand, but her numb legs would collapse. She’d hunt for Jeri–who was her only family now that her parents were out of the country–but Jeri wouldn’t be there.
    Washing her hands, Jeri stared at her reflection in the mirror. The Head had always reminded her of the Wicked Witch of the West. Instead, it turned out that her two children died in some terrible accident. Jeri cringed as she remembered sarcastic cracks she’d made about her during the year. And all this time …
    She finally headed back to the dorm, mentally trying to arrange different pieces of the puzzle to make sense. The school’s financial trouble, Jake’s lie about where he was when she called him, Mr. Reeves’s bank withdrawal and mysterious evening disappearances, Heather’s ability to drive … Nothing fit.
    Lord, who is the real enemy?
    When she reached Hampton House, Jeri went straight upstairs and wrote an apology to the headmistress for any trouble she’d caused. She
had
taken action on her own, without checking with anyone. Even though she’d meant well, she’d created new problems.
    As she trudged across campus to the main office, her eyes watered in the bitter stinging wind. A few flurries swirled through the air. Jeri fervently hoped the forecaster was wrong about the winter storm heading their way in a few hours.
    In the office, the secretary was on the phone. “I’m sorry,” Betty explained, her gray eyebrows arched. “I really don’t know any more than what’s on TV.” A small portable TV tuned to a local news station sat on her desk.
    Jeri stomped her snowy feet on the welcome mat and studied the secretary. Betty was fun–she painted on her own eyebrows, depending on the color of her outfit. They might be black, brown, plum, or gray – and thin, thick, straight, or arched. She changed them like she changed earrings.
    Betty hung up and slumped in her swivel chair. “The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since seven a.m.” She got a bottle of aspirin from her purse and a cup of water from the cooler.
    Jeri studied the fundraiser poster above the cooler. “So, which dorm is ahead in the competition?”
    “No idea. I’ve been too busy since Thursday night to count the money that was turned in.”
    Jeri shifted from one foot to the other. “I have a note for Headmistress Long. It’s personal.”
    “Oh.