Fat raindrops had just started to fall. It was going to be an interesting ride back on the Vespa if the storm didn’t blow through.
“What do you want me to do?”
Jane turned to her, despair clear on her face.
Claire enveloped her in a hug. “We’ll find her. I promise. Where do you want me to look?”
Jane pushed herself taller, sniffling. “I don’t know. Maxi took a group down to the neighbors on all sides to see if they’ve seen Mom. I want to go, too, but what if she comes back?”
Claire had never seen her friend look so lost, so helpless. She squeezed Jane’s arm. “Staying here is a good decision. If she comes back, you can text us and let us know so we can too.”
Jane swallowed hard. “With the storm, what if…?”
“We’ll find her,” Claire said with feeling.
“I’ve been sending people out in pairs, just in case something happens. You know how quickly thunderstorms can sweep up and how treacherous the beach can be, especially if there’s lightning. I don’t want anyone to go out alone. It’s dangerous.”
“Don’t worry about me. I can go alone. In fact, I know where I want to look.”
“Where is that?”
The male voice made the hairs on the back of Claire’s neck stand on end. She hadn’t realized that someone had come up behind them. She turned, back straight, to face Rob Bradford.
To her surprise, he looked as concerned as Jane was. Claire noticed the grateful look on her friend’s face. Of course another hand in the search was welcome. She would have to set aside her feelings toward her competitor for Jane’s sake. Finding Addie was the important thing.
Rob must have noticed the questioning look on Claire’s face. “I heard about Adelaide in town. I want to help. I have experience with dementia.”
He and Jane shared something unspoken, and she nodded.
When Jane turned to her, Claire was proud of the confidence she projected, even if the truth was far from it.
“You’ll go with Claire, then. Claire, you don’t mind?”
“It’s fine,” she said without looking at the man standing next to her. She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Let’s go. We’re wasting time standing here.” She turned, taking off down the beach without waiting for him.
Rob fell into step beside her without question. “Where to?”
“Addie used to take Claire and me to the beach all the time as children. There’s a spot just north of here, a pool in low tide where we would find small fish, hermit crabs, seashells, that sort of thing. It’s cut off from the ocean itself by this rocky shore, so we weren’t in danger of getting swept out to sea. We’d go every week, sometimes more often.”
As Claire spoke, she was already leading him away from the white Victorian house and down the narrow path to the beach below. She hadn’t visited that pool since she was a teenager, preferring to walk on the beach or along the Marginal Way. The spot was close enough to Tidesfor the community to consider it Adelaide’s property and tucked in between dunes and rocky outcrops, which discouraged tourists.
Thunder rumbled overhead, and the ocean spat fingers of spray at them. It slickened the rocks over which she led Rob, who neither complained nor hovered at her elbow like an overprotective mother duck. At the bottom of the path, they came to a crude footbridge of flat wooden boards. The bridge crossed over the dunes to the alcove where the pool lay.
Rain pummeled them, soaking Claire’s hair and sending bedraggled strands in front of her eyes. At least she’d thought to put on her raincoat. Despite the pounding in her heart, she moved more slowly, testing each foot in front of the other. Between the sheets of rain, she squinted, hoping to see a familiar figure.
What if Adelaide wasn’t there? What if no one found her in time and she was washed out to sea?
Lightning split the sky, sharpening the dim scenery. Not far, on a flat rock overlooking the pool, a shadow moved.
“Addie!”
Claire bolted for the pool, waving her hands for balance as she navigated the slippery rock-lined path that had changed in subtle ways since she was a girl. The entire time, she never looked away from that shape.
It resolved into Adelaide sitting on the rock with her shoulders hunched and her knees to her chest like a little girl. She’d lost one of her shoes. The other one hung impotently from her toe. When she saw Claire, she reared back, startled.
Claire stopped. Rain drizzled down the back of her neck into her shirt. The chill made her shiver. “Addie, it’s me, Claire. Jane is looking for you. It’s time to come home.”
Addie looked at Claire as if she didn’t know her. What was she supposed to do? She didn’t want to scare Addie, but the tide was coming in fast, and the rain would only make the path more treacherous.
