Page 16 of The Christmas Star

‘What about Maeve?’ he asked.

The use of Mum’s name grabbed my attention and with the door half closed, I opened it again.

‘She’s okay, isn’t she?’ Theo indicated Graham’s vehicle. ‘It’s just I saw the police car and…’

My eyes narrowed. ‘How do you know my mother?’

Graham appeared at my side. ‘Is everything all right?’ he asked.

‘I’m looking for my son,’ Theo said. ‘I assumed he’d be here. He usually is.’

Realisation dawned. ‘You’re Jackson’s dad?’

My question appeared to amuse him. ‘Yes. Who else would I be?’

I failed to see what was funny and immediately went off the man. Although now he’d said it, the resemblance was obvious. With their dimpled chins, distinct lack of social manners and need to knock on Mum’s door whenever they felt like it, the two of them really were father and son.

‘Close, are they?’ Graham asked.

‘No,’ I said while Theo simultaneously claimed they were.

‘You’d better come in.’ Without my permission Graham guided Theo into the house and down the hall to the kitchen.

‘Don’t mind me,’ I said as I shut the door. The two of them were already seated, with Theo’s coat hung on the back of a chair by the time I joined them.

‘When did you last see your son?’ Graham asked.

‘This morning. Before work,’ Theo said. ‘When I nipped back for lunch he wasn’t in. He could have come home this afternoon and gone out again though. Why? What’s going on?’

Graham consulted the form on his clipboard. ‘Well, that’s that then.’ He pulled the paper free and tore it in half.

My brow furrowed and back straightened. ‘What are you doing?’ As far as I was concerned, Theo’s arrival changed nothing. Mum was still AWOL.

‘I’d have thought that was obvious. There’s no point filling in a missing person report when there’s no one actually missing.’

‘You mean Maeve’s gone walkabout too?’ Theo asked.

‘The two of them are obviously together,’ Graham continued. ‘They’re probably late-night Christmas shopping. Or enjoying an impromptu cinema trip.’

‘He’s got a point,’ Theo said.

I looked from one man to the other and unable to believe what I was hearing, their lack of concern was cause for alarm. It wasn’t as if Mum or Jackson had left a note and even if they had waltzed off into the festive moonlight, none of us knew exactly where they’d gone or why.

‘It’s a Wonderful Life is going down a treat at Settledown Picture House,’ Graham said. ‘And what woman doesn’t love a dose of James Stewart?’

‘I’m a bit partial myself,’ Theo said with a glint in his eye.

My jaw slackened. We had two missing people to find, and I seemed to be the only one who cared.

Graham got up from his seat. ‘You’d be surprised at how many people get waylaid because they’re too busy having fun and forget to ring home.’

‘You can’t just leave,’ I said. ‘What about Mum? She could be lying in the road with a broken hip for all we know. She could have been kidnapped.’ I glared at Theo and folded my arms. ‘Jackson could have taken her.’

‘Who’s to say it’s not the other way around?’ Mirroring my action, Theo crossed his muscular arms over his chest.

‘Please.’ I’d never heard anything so ridiculous. ‘We’re talking about a frail old woman, not a strapping teenage boy. Besides, what could she hope to gain? And how do you think she managed it?’ I indicated Mum’s latest knitting project that sat in the fruit bowl on the table. ‘Did she march him off at needle point?’

‘I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, Erin,’ Graham said. ‘No one has been kidnapped.’