Page 78 of The Banned Books Club

“Yes, but then that’s it.” And if they had Disneyland waiting at the end of the trip, she just might be able to encourage them through another long day in the car.

Once again, Greydon leaned forward to see around his brother. “We’re stopping at Disneyland?”

“Yes, we’re stopping at Disneyland, and we’ll rent a house in LA.”

Matthew handed her water bottle back to her. “What does that mean?”

It meant she saw no reason to go any farther. There were four million people in Los Angeles—she could certainly get lost in a place like that. The weather was gorgeous most of the time, an improvement over the cold they would’ve experienced had they stayed in Wakefield for the winter. And there were plenty of fun things to do to keep them all busy.

Rent would be high. But hopefully, there’d be plenty of job opportunities, too.

“It means we’re going to stay there for a bit and see how we like it,” she said.

He looked even more confused. “What about Dad?”

“I think he’s going to be hunting for a while.” She left it at that, and they didn’t seem to have a problem with it. But then...they didn’t understand that he’d be hunting forthem.

21

Gia had refused to let her mother answer Sheldon’s call, but he wasn’t giving up easily. He’d called Ida probably five more times throughout the day. He’d tried to reach Leo, too. When he couldn’t get either one of them, he’d finally deigned to try Gia. Like her parents, she let the call transfer to voicemail. Although he’d left both her parents a message asking them to call him, he’d left a much longer one for her.

Hey, do you know where Margot is? Is she staying there with you and your folks? I’ve been trying to check in with her the last couple of days, but she’s not picking up. I assumed she was just busy and would get back to me when she could, but then the school called, asking why the boys weren’t in class. Can you go over to make sure everything’s okay?

Gia had just finished the dinner dishes and was folding towels in the laundry room off the kitchen as she listened to that message. She played it three times, trying to decide how to respond. She didn’t want to alarm him. Then he might cut his hunting trip short and come home sooner than Margot was expecting, and Gia guessed that wasn’t what her sister would want. It stood to reason that she’d left when Sheldon did because of the lead it gave her.

But maybe Margot had only needed a few days. She’d already had the chance to get far away from Wakefield...

Still, just to be safe, Gia was about to call him back and try to buy more time by claiming she’d drive over and check first thing in the morning, when there was a knock at the front door.

The volume of the TV went down as voices floated to her ears from the living room.

“I’ve been over there twice. It didn’t look as if anything had changed, so I asked some of the neighbors if they’d seen her, and the guy in the white house told me she left right after Sheldon did and hasn’t been home since.”

That was Sheldon’s mother. Gia easily recognized her voice. Apparently, he’d gotten his family involved, too. And why wouldn’t he? It made sense that he’d rope in whomever he could to check on his family.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Gia heard her father say and hurried out of the laundry room to find that Peggy hadn’t come alone. Ron, Sheldon’s father, was standing next to her.

“Hey,” Gia said to them.

Sheldon’s parents turned toward her, but neither one of them offered her a smile or moved to embrace her. That didn’t surprise her, though. She never got a very warm greeting from Sheldon’s family, not since she’d called him out at the wedding. “Have you seen your sister?” Peggy asked.

“Not for a few days,” Gia replied.

“Do you know if your mother’s spoken to Margot more recently?”

“Maybe.” Gia shrugged. “But Mom’s already taken her pain pills and gone to bed. We’ll have to ask her in the morning. Why? Is something wrong?”

“She’s gone,” Peggy replied.

Trying to come off as authentically surprised, Gia looked questioningly at her father before returning her gaze to Sheldon’s mother. “What do you mean she’s gone? Where’d she go?”

Ron was obviously as agitated as his wife. “That’s just it,” he said, jumping in. “We don’t know. You haven’t heard from her?”

“Not lately.”

“Do you have a key to the house?” he asked.

Gia pressed a hand to her chest. “Idon’t. But then, I don’t even live here, so I’d be unlikely to have something like that.”

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