Last Seen. Rick Mofina

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       8

      Faith stared at a glass bead rosary on a silver chain.

      Her friend, Pam Huppkey, had pressed it into her hand when the news conference ended. Pam was active at Saint Bartholomew’s where her son, Colton, went to school with Gage and their other friends.

      “I called Phyllis with the school association at Saint Bart’s.” Pam blinked back tears. “They’re making up color fliers with Gage’s picture and putting a group together to go door-to-door around the park right now.” Pam hugged her with a tiny clinking sound. Pam was partial to hoop earrings and bracelets. “We’re going to find him. Okay?”

      Faith nodded, still staring at the rosary’s Madonna and Child while running her fingertips over the crucifix. “Thank you, Pam.”

      Michelle Thompson, Faith’s ever-poised Realtor friend and Marshall’s mom, hugged her. She gestured to her husband, Jack, the other half of “the Terrific Thompson Realty Team,” according to the ads on many of River Ridge’s bus stop benches. He was several yards away talking with Cal and making calls on his phone.

      “Jack’s getting the community association and ball team parents involved in the search. We’re here for you, honey. We’ve got your back. We’re gonna find him.” Michelle glanced at the newspeople lingering near the exit chutes. “Come on, let’s talk over there.”

      Faith’s friends took her away from the press to a quiet corner under the search center canopies where they continued comforting her.

      “Tell us, what do you think happened?” Michelle asked.

      “I don’t know, I swear I just don’t know. We were in the spinner part, the last section. Gage was with us. There was loud music, flashing lights. The floor spins in a circle and this guy with a chain saw is chasing you. It’s chaotic and confusing. I glimpsed Gage with Cal before I got on a slide to leave. Oh God, where is he?”

      “He just can’t disappear like that.” Michelle threw a look toward the chutes, then to Cal in the distance. Faith and Pam followed it to see Cal with Michelle’s husband. Now the men were talking to police and security staff.

      For her part, Pam looked long and hard at Cal, bit her bottom lip, then took quick inventory of their immediate area. She drew in close to the other women, dropped her voice.

      “I thought I saw someone, but I’m—” Pam stopped, as if catching herself thinking out loud. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure.”

      “What are you talking about?” Faith stared at her.

      “I thought I saw someone in the crowd at the press conference.”

      “Who?” Faith shot at her. “Someone from where? From what?”

      Pam caught her breath and swallowed hard, shaking her head.

      “I’m sorry, I’m not sure.”

      “Who do you think you saw?”

      “I’m confused.”

      “For God’s sake, Pam!” Faith chastised her. “If you saw something important, it could be a lead! So march over there and tell the damn police who or what you think you saw right now.”

      Pam waved her hands in front of her. “No, no, I’m sorry! I’m confused! I didn’t see anything!”

      “So you didn’t see anyone?”

      “I didn’t. I’m so sorry.”

      “It was either real, or it wasn’t, Pam—one or the other.”

      “It wasn’t!”

      “You better be damn well certain.”

      “I didn’t see anyone. I’m just upset for you!”

      “You’re upset for me?” Faith’s condescending glare, her eyes scanning Pam head to toe in icy assessment, barely masked what she was thinking: that while Pam, a stay-at-home mom, was a loyal friend, Faith regarded her level of intelligence to be somewhat lower than hers and her other friends’.

      “Christ, Pam,” Michelle said. “As if Faith isn’t facing enough pain now.”

      “I’m sorry,” Pam continued. “It’s just that nothing adds up, nothing makes sense. How does a little boy just disappear?”

      “There could be any number of explanations,” Michelle said. “We just don’t know.”

      “Stop it,” Faith said. “It’s my fault. I should’ve been holding his hand. I’m his mother! Why wasn’t I holding his hand?”

      “Don’t blame yourself. Cal was there, too. Anything could’ve—” Michelle stopped when she saw Cal approaching.

      He quickly acknowledged Michelle and Pam, sensing his presence had abruptly ended a serious discussion. Then he took Faith into his arms and kissed the top of her head.

      Faith made a display of rubbing his shoulders with affection, subtly glancing beyond him to the dispersed crowd to secretly confirm the man had left.

      “We’re going to check the lot where we parked,” Cal said. “Gage might’ve tried to make his way to the car. You stay here, in case he returns.”

      “You really think Gage went to the car?” she asked. “Would he even know how to find his way back to it?”

      “I don’t know. Maybe. We have to check.”

      Cal noticed that Faith, a lapsed Catholic, had a rosary in her hand.

      “What’s this?”

      “Pam gave it to me.”

      “Oh, I see.” Cal glanced at Pam, then looked at the rosary briefly before closing his hands around Faith’s and the rosary. He squeezed encouragement, then she cupped her hands tenderly to his face before he left with a small group for the parking lot.

      * * *

      They didn’t find Gage at section B, space number 23, southwest of the fairgrounds where they’d parked their Ford Escape.

      And as the afternoon passed, no sign of Gage had surfaced in the ongoing search of the fair and the surrounding neighborhoods, some of which had been canvassed four times by ardent volunteers. The periodic announcements appealing to fairgoers for help continued but to no avail. Alerts had gone to Amtrak and bus terminals, to O’Hare and Midway airports and to the Chicago Transit Authority, but nothing had emerged.

      Gage’s disappearance had become Chicago’s top news story, drawing national interest. Some networks used footage recorded by fans across the country from inside the Chambers of Dread, noting that it was billed as America’s Biggest Traveling World of Horrors. Every news report also included footage of Cal and Faith, who, even in their heartbreak, were a photogenic couple.

      Tips began flowing to River Ridge СКАЧАТЬ