Free Vanished by Kristi Holl Page A

Well, just leave it in her office, in the middle of her desk.” She pointed to a door near the visitors’ chairs. “It’ll get lost if you leave it on
my
desk.”
    “Okay.” Jeri opened the door and stepped into the dim room. Gauzy maroon curtains filtered the light from outside. She tiptoed across thick carpet and dropped her note on the massive–and extremely tidy–polished desk.
    Back in the reception room, Betty grabbed her purse and stood. “Jeri, could you do me a big, big favor? Answer the phone while I run to the restroom? I’m gonna bust. I need a snack, too.”
    “Um, sure. If someone calls, what do I say?”
    “Just say, ‘Landmark School for Girls, Main Office.’ Say that you’re the answering service and take a message. I’ll call people back.”
    “Okay.” Jeri sat down behind the desk.
    “You’re a lifesaver, hon.” And Betty trotted down the hall.
    On the TV, Jeri watched the weatherman’s special bulletin about the winter storm coming. If only the girls were rescued before it came! A few minutes later, a phone rang. Jeri reached for it and then realized it was coming from the Head’s office.
Must be a private line.
It rang and rang. Betty had said to answer the phone. Did she mean both of them?
    Jeri ran into the office and grabbed the receiver. Before she could give her greeting, a raspy male voice on the other end spoke. “I have some information. Talk to me, or I’ll expose what’s going on. You have my number.” He hung up.
    Jeri dropped the phone as if it had bitten her.
Who was that?
He must have assumed the headmistress had answered. “Expose what’s going on” sounded like a threat–like blackmail! That voice was vaguely familiar. Could it have been Jake?
    She hurried out of the private office and closed the door. She probably wasn’t even supposed to be in there. She was back at Betty’s desk when the secretary reappeared with a candy bar. “Thanks, hon. Did my phone ring?”
    Her phone?
“No. No, it didn’t.” Jeri felt her face go red. She hated lying to her.
    Outside again, she barely felt the wind. Who had left that threatening message? It sure didn’t sound like a ransom call, but what could it mean? Should she tell the Head … and upset her even more? She already had mountains of problems to solve without adding a blackmailer to the list.

9
a nudge in the right direction
    Saturday, 8:39 a.m. to 10:23 a.m.
    Back in her room, Jeri was desperate to
do
something,
anything,
to help find Rosa and the others. She wanted to defy the headmistress and head back to the lake. They might be close to finding the girls. Rosa just had to be alive.
    Lord, can’t I go back there? Isn’t there something else I can do?
She paced, still limping, while she prayed and waited for some kind of direction or idea. One of her mom’s often-quoted verses came to her about how God “acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” Why did waiting have to be so
hard
though?
    But she waited. Eventually her heart stopped pounding, and her mind settled down. She was filled with an incredible sense that God was in charge of everything that was happening – that he had things under his control. Then a thought passed through her mind:
Go back to the woods.
    Holding her breath, Jeri waited. Was this a prompt from God? If only she could be sure that it wasn’t just her own idea! At least she’d be doing something. She didn’t get a chance to explore much yesterday.
    Okay, she’d go.
    She wrapped her ankle with an elastic bandage before jamming it into her boot. Down in the kitchen, she grabbed drink boxes of orange juice, a big box of raisins, and a bag of hard candy, just in case she found the van full of girls. They’d need some quick energy. She put it all in a heavy plastic bag with handles, which she planned to loop over the saddle horn.
    When she left the dorm, the flurries were heavier, but not accumulating on the shoveled sidewalk yet. The sun was hidden by low-hanging gray clouds.