“Lou, give her that rain jacket from behind the counter,” Billy called.
“I forgot about that! Here ya go, sugar.” Louanne ducked behind the counter, produced a red and white hooded rain jacket with the name “Harold’s” emblazoned in big white letters on the chest.
Rebecca slipped it on and buttoned it all the way up.
Louanne grinned at her. “Well, if that newspaper thing don’t work out, least you know you can sure fit in here.”
Rebecca giggled, then surprised herself by leaning over for a quick hug. Louanne hugged her back, patting her softly.
“It’ll be all right, sugar. The good Lord will keep an eye on that one. We’ll be praying. You let us know if they’re gonna organize some sort of search, all right?”
“Yeah, Louanne’s right—we’ll come search if it calls for that,” Billy said.
At the station, Rebecca answered Deputy Zane’s questions, feeling more than a little helpless as she stared back at the balding man with the kindly eyes and stubby fingers as she sat in one of the chairs in front of his small metal desk. No, she hadn’t seen Devon since she’d dropped him off at school Thursday afternoon. No, she hadn’t driven him home. He hadn’t wanted her to. Yes, she’d accepted that. No, she didn’t know his family. No, she didn’t know his interests beyond church and helping others and riding his bike. Some friend you are.
Marla and Granny had joined Rev by the time she came out of Deputy Zane’s office. Granny took one look at her face and enveloped her in a hug, her skin soft and smooth and smelling like baby powder and daisies. Josh walked in then, stood beside her without a word. Rebecca saw Granny glance up at him, nod approvingly.
“Deputy Zane, think you can put the word out around town about a Dahlia-wide search for Devon Robinson?” Rev told the officer.
“Sure can,” Zane said. “But we better get rolling before the storm blows in. I think three hours tops.”
“On it,” Rev said.
“Here.” Josh slung a backpack from his shoulders, unzipped it to pull out four walkie-talkies. “Take one, pass the rest around.”
Zane nodded. “Good. Use channel five, and share what you find.”
Rev stood. “All righty, friends, time to spread the word: Dahlia’s searching for Devon!”
News spread quickly. Rebecca and Josh headed back to the diner to tell Louanne and Billy, who clearly had their finger on the pulse of Dahlia. By the time Rebecca and Josh walked into theDahlia Weeklyten minutes later, Millie already knew and was telling Tiff and Dinah.
“I take it this is your family emergency?” Millie’s face was creased with worry.
“Yeah.” Rebecca swallowed. “Listen, let’s close up shop the rest of the day and see if we can help with the search. Tiff, can you cover it as a story? I’m too … close.”
Her voice caught on the last word, and Tiff’s eyes welled in sympathy.
“You got it, Boss.”
“My Granny’s heading back to the school to tell the other kids, see if they can help. Rev Bryant’s organizing a town walk-through and has a couple members checking the hidey-holes in the fellowship hall, and his wife Marla’s going to the hospital to talk to Devon’s Memaw, see if she knows anything.”
“I’ll hit the shops, ask around, spread the word to my counterparts over in the surrounding towns,” Dinah said.
“And I’ll hop on the phone to all the churches, then hit some of the kid hideouts I remember from my younger years,” Millie said, picking up the phone. “Maybe I’ll ask my grandson, see if he has a ten-year-old perspective.”
The fire scanner sounded with a warning about high gusts of wind, and Rebecca shivered. She hoped Devon wasn’t out in all this.
“Be safe,” she told her staff.
“We will,” Tiff said, shouldering her camera and grabbing a notebook and keys.
Rebecca turned to Josh. “Didn’t Devon go fishing a couple times with you and JJ? Maybe JJ has some ideas. Perhaps Devon sharedsome kid-to-kid information, something we wouldn’t think of.”
“That’s a good point,” Josh said. “I’ll call from the truck. He’s at my sister’s.”
Rebecca pulled up the hood on the Harold’s Diner rain jacket, grabbed her keys and phone.
“Actually, how do you feel about having JJ tag along with us?” she asked when they got in the truck.
