Free A Haunting Dream (A Missing Pieces Mystery) by Joyce Lavene, Jim

she was there. I’d probably have to start a book club and buy stickers. But that would be fine.
    It wasn’t
rational
that she’d be here. I imagined all kinds of scenarios that would allow her to be at school, despite her father’s death. Perhaps she didn’t yet know that Chuck was dead. Maybe she didn’t even live with him. Maybe she’d been visiting her mother, who’d dropped her off this morning. Anything would work for me.
    Please let her be here.
    “You said Betsy transferred recently,” I said to Cathi.
    “Yes. She came to live with her father. I haven’t met her mom, so I assume she’s out of the day-to-day picture.”
    “Do you know where she transferred from?”
    “Somewhere on the mainland. I don’t remember right now. Chuck didn’t want to talk about it when he enrolled her.”
    We got to a classroom where the little sign card on the door read “Miss Ames—First Grade.” Cathi smiled, knocked and opened the door.
    “Ms. Connor!” Miss Ames looked a little frazzled to see her there. “What can I do for
you
?”
    “The mayor wants to see Betsy Sparks. Is she here today?”
    Both women and all twenty children in the classroom looked around. There was one empty desk with a nameplate on it that read “Betsy.”
    “No.” Miss Ames frowned. “She wasn’t here yesterday either. I haven’t heard anything from her father. I suppose someone from the office should check on her.”
    Cathi thanked her, and we left the classroom, walking back toward the office. “I really don’t like it when teachers don’t follow our student-absence procedures. She should have called home yesterday. Putting it off on the office isn’t the answer either.”
    I was too stunned, wondering what I should do next, to reply.
Help her.
Chuck’s words brought fear stealing into my soul. I knew he was talking about Betsy now. Something had happened to her when he’d been killed. Had she been with him that night?
    “Dae, what’s going on?” Cathi demanded.
    It took me a moment to realize that she’d stopped walking. “I’m not sure yet. I’m sorry. I can’t tell you any more right now. I will when I know something definite.”
    I left her there with her mouth compressed into a very thin line. I wanted to tell her what I knew, but Betsy’s disappearance might be the very reason Chief Michaels had kept Chuck’s death quiet. It seemed likely Betsy had been kidnapped.

Chapter 8

    I called Chief Michaels. He wasn’t at the office. Scott Randall said he’d gone to Manteo to talk with Sheriff Riley about Chuck’s death. I asked if the chief was purposely keeping Chuck’s death a secret. Scott didn’t seem to know anything about that—or about Betsy.
    If the chief didn’t know about Chuck’s daughter, telling him I saw her in a vision wasn’t going to make a big impression. I could use the fact that she hadn’t been at school for two days. I could save the chief some time by seeing what else I could find out.
    There was only one thing to do. I could go and take a look at Chuck’s house. I needed some proof, besides visions and dreams, if I was going to convince Chief Michaels to search for Betsy right away.
    I wasn’t sure what that proof would be. I hoped it would be something obvious. Chuck was dead. Betsy appeared to be missing, though I couldn’t know for sure she wasn’t with her mother. I didn’t how those two things fit together. But if there were any answers, I was sure they’d be at Chuck’s.
    I drove the golf cart up to Chuck’s cozy little brick house on Sand Dollar Lane. There was no car in the driveway, no sign of the burgundy Lincoln—
if
that was Chuck’s car.
    The yard was neat, grass and bushes carefully trimmed. Everything outside seemed to be in perfect order. The front door was locked, of course. Mail was sticking out of the box, like no one had checked it for a few days. Apparently, the police had left it as they’d found it.
    I walked around the back, hoping to find the back