"I'm sorry you had to come over here so late,” Aiden said.
"Heavens, boy, it's not your fault. We're all concerned about Carla and Wendy. You two go. Find Carla. I'll be fine here. I'm going to go upstairs so I'll be close if Wendy needs anything."
"Thank you,” Harriet said and hugged her.
Aiden repeated the sentiment and hugged Beth before guiding Harriet back out to the Bronco.
"Let's go up to the park and have a look, and if we don't see anything, I say we go down to the factory and check it out,” Harriet said as she buckled her seatbelt.
Aiden drove down the long driveway and again began the series of turns onto back roads and alleys that cut a direct path across the peninsula and up Miller Hill to the park.
"If Carla or Terry is up here, they must have come on foot,” Harriet said as she looked around the empty parking lot.
"Unless they hid their vehicles."
"Somehow, I can't see Carla doing that unless she found Terry and he helped her."
Aiden pulled a camouflaged optics case from behind his seat and got out. “Let's see if we can see anything at the factory from here,” he said, and took out a pair of high-powered binoculars. “My dad used to hunt with these."
They crept to the rock they'd hid behind when they had followed Terry. Aiden's father's hunting binoculars were much stronger than the ones Terry had shared with them the last time they'd been up here. Aiden handed them to Harriet after he'd looked, sweeping the lenses from right to left across the whole factory below. Harriet repeated the process.
"Wow,” she said. “It almost looks abandoned."
"You'd think there would at least be a night watchman's car in the parking lot."
"Let's go down and have a closer look."
"We can try, but if no one's working, the gate might be locked."
"What gate?"
"The one that's always open. It goes across the road when you first turn onto the property."
They returned to the truck and drove to Foggy Point Fire Protection. As Aiden had feared, the gate was locked.
"Can we climb over?” Harriet asked.
"We could. We could also get arrested for trespassing. Besides, as we saw from above, the place is locked up tight. I don't know about these guys, but the night shift at my parent's factory worked Sunday through Thursday, so I guess I'm not surprised they aren't open."
"Okay,” Harriet said with a sigh. “Let's go back to your house and see if Carla has shown up. If not we can figure out where to go from there."
This time he took the usual route home. “Looks like we've got company,” he said as they came up the drive and passed three cars parked along its edge.
"Aunt Beth must have cracked and called the Threads,” Harriet said. “That first car was Robin's and the one closest to the house is Lauren's. I'm not sure who the other one is."
"Apparently, the police won't take a missing person report on Carla until she's been gone forty-eight hours,” Aunt Beth was saying to Robin, Lauren and DeAnn, who were sitting around the kitchen table when Aiden and Harriet walked in.
"What car is she driving?” Robin asked.
"One of my mom's,” Aiden replied, “One of the Mercedes sedans."
"You didn't give it to her, did you?” Robin pressed.
"I gave her permission to drive it, if that's what you're getting at,” Aiden said. A hard edge was creeping into his voice, but Robin didn't back down.
"Report it stolen,” she said.
"It's not stolen. I just told you, she has permission to use it while she's working for me."
"Report it stolen,” Robin insisted, this time holding out her cell phone.
The muscle in Aiden's jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth in an effort to control his anger.
Harriet put her hand on his arm.
"Aiden,” she said, “Listen to Robin. They won't look for Carla till she's missing for forty-eight hours, but if you report that your car has been stolen, they'll start looking for it right away. If we find the car, we'll either find Carla or we'll have a starting point."
He pulled his own phone out of his pocket and dialed the Foggy Point Police Department non-emergency phone number.
"They said they'll start looking immediately,” he said after he ended the call.
"I'll call Darcy,” Robin said, and started dialing.
By the time Robin clicked the end button, she'd extracted a promise from Darcy to make sure and let the patrol supervisor know this was no ordinary stolen car. Like many of the forensic lab people, Darcy had been a street cop before entering the specialized training that led to her current career, and she still maintained a close relationship with them.
"There must be something else we can do,” Aiden said.
"We can ask the Threads to drive the streets before the funeral, but I'm not sure how effective that would be, given that the police are going to be doing the same thing,” Harriet said.
"We should all go home and get some rest,” Aunt Beth said. “Let's let the police do their job and lets us concentrate on seeing what we can find out at the funeral. I'll stay here with Wendy tonight, and I'll get one of the ladies at church to watch her during the funeral."
"I'm not sitting around,” Lauren said.
"Now, honey,” Aunt Beth said. “I know you want to help, but…"
"I'm not going anywhere physically. I can get my computer friends on the search. Someone's bound to have access to real-time satellite pictures of Foggy Point. I'll need to know exactly what the car looks like, and the license plate number, too."
"Let me go find that,” Aiden said.
"Do you really think you can access satellites?” Harriet asked.
"I can't. I'm saying there's a good chance one of my cyber-friends can. It will take a little time, but we have a couple of heavy hitters in our group, and they're usually up for a challenge."
"Let's hope so,” Harriet said.
Aiden came back with the requested information, and the group agreed to meet before the funeral to review their assignments and exchange updates. DeAnn volunteered to call people, and with that everyone but Beth, Harriet and Aiden left.
Harriet took the plastic wrap off a plate of brownies Aunt Beth had brought. She took out three and put them on paper towels she pulled from the dispenser attached to the underside of the cabinet next to the sink. She handed the first one to Aunt Beth and another to Aiden and brought the last one back to her place at the table.
"I thought we needed some chocolate,” she said and sat down.
The trio ate in silence.
"I wish I could think of something else to do,” Harriet said when her brownie was gone; she began shredding her paper towel, pulling off little pieces and rolling them into balls she then lined up in a neat row.
"Me, too,” Aiden said, and leaned back in his chair. “I have to work in the morning, but I took time off to go to the funeral."
"Let's hope Carla's back by then,” Aunt Beth said. “In the meanwhile, you, young lady, need to go home and get some rest. And you, too,” she told Aiden. “I'm going to go check the baby.” She got up and crumpled her paper towel, dropping it in the kitchen wastebasket before going upstairs.
Harriet stood, and Aiden stood with her.
"Come here,” he said, and pulled her into his arms. She leaned against his chest, and he rested his chin on her head.
"I don't know what I'm going to do if something's happened to Carla,” he said.
Harriet willed her muscles not to tense.
"This house was just starting to feel like a home again. And I can't even think about what will happen to that baby upstairs."
"Let's not go there,” she said, and pushed back so she could look into his pale eyes. “We'll find her. Carla's tough. She's survived some pretty hard stuff already. She was the one who led us out of the burning building when we were locked in at quilt camp. She'll figure out a way to get back to her daughter."