“Is Ty still asleep?”
Todd whirled around. “He got up hours ago. I figured he’d be watching TV by now.”
The coffee in Lucky’s stomach roiled. “I haven’t seen him. Oh, shit.” The icy leaden ball in his stomach gave an awful churn. “What?”
Todd didn’t answer, but raced through the house, checked the front and back yards, and the garage, Lucky trailing behind him.
Todd scrubbed a hand over his face. “He kept saying he was going back home. I thought he was just running his mouth. He left his cell phone on the dresser.”
Fuck. No tracking him, then.
Lucky spent the rest of his day making phone calls and hunting his nephew.
“No response on the missing person’s report,” Bo said, busy helping Lucky pace holes in the living room carpet. “Everybody and their brother on the force is looking for him.”
“Atlanta’s no place for a teenager alone. Anything could happen.” Lucky’d worked in this city for over a dozen years. A sixteen-year-old could find plenty of trouble.
Or trouble could find him.
Bo interrupted Lucky’s pacing with a hand on his shoulder. “Look, he’s a smart kid. Chances are he’s someplace totally safe and he’ll be back once he calms down.”
“Maybe we should check the mall again.” Doing something, anything, beat hanging around the house doing nothing. They’d called the few friends Todd named to no avail. Rett and the Smiths hadn’t seen Ty either.
“Maybe we should wait. Did you ever run off when you got mad at your parents?”
“No.” Not the total truth. “Yes. Maybe.” Lucky’d always managed to sneak home without his parents knowing, or managed to blackmail a cousin into covering for him.
“You always came back, right?”
“Yeah.” No matter what horror lurked outside the door, Lucky could hold his own. While his mother taught him to shoot with the best of them, did Ty know how to fight?
“Then let’s give him a bit more time. Where did you look?” Bo touched a finger to his iPad and glanced up expectantly.
“The mall, the skating rink, bowling alley, the parks, anyplace young people hang out.”
Bo tapped at the iPad screen. “Where else?”
“I drove through the neighborhood six times, checked the Smiths…” Lucky shuddered. “I called every precinct in Atlanta, and the teen shelters. Rett’s looking, and I checked with Mrs. Griggs. Everyone he knows in town.”
“Todd and I went door to door asking the neighbors. We checked the club house and community swimming pool, the school campus, and the places we went to play Pokémon, but without his phone he can’t be gaming.”
Ty should be there. Lucky would gladly put up with his lousy attitude if the kid just came home.
Tongue between his teeth, Bo keyed information into his tablet. “Let’s go check again.”
Bo drove slowly up and down the streets, taking them to the malls and any establishment still open.
What if Lucky had talked to Ty sooner, or taken time off earlier to help him adjust? What if, what if, what if…
He’d put off telling Charlotte about her missing son long enough. In the morning he’d go to the police department personally, even if it meant blowing his cover story of being out of town.
Five minutes passed, then ten, twenty, thirty.
After four hours they had to go home, empty-handed.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to wait up with you?” Bo asked, letting the dog and cat in for the night.
“No. I’d love you to stay, but we both know it’s something I have to face myself. It’s not you he has a problem with.” Come hell or high water, he’d solve this problem, one way or another, before Charlotte returned.
