Mason immediately grabbed onto those facts. “Is it possible she decided to make her way north to meet you both?”
Spencer shook his head. “Oh. I don’t think?—”
Tabitha cut him off, her eyes suddenly alert. “Idothink. Yes! She liked you, Spencer. And she told me that boyfriends and girlfriends aren’t supposed to live in different places. She was worried I would have to come home because of her, and that I’d leave Spencer behind, not the other way around where I’d abandon her. It would be just like her to decide on the spot that she’d be the one to relocate.”
“I’d say it looks like she’s trying to make her way here, then,” Kyle interjected. “What are the chances she’ll be able to do that on her own?”
Tabitha swallowed, hard. “Sheila is brilliant, computer savvy beyond anything you can imagine, but as far as social skills and understanding societal cues goes, she’s not good. Not good at all,” Tabitha sighed shakily. “I don’t have any doubts that she’ll be able to find her way here, eventually, if that’s her trajectory, but it’s the ‘what happens along the way’ that worries me. She’ll get easily distracted and might wander off course. She’ll trust anyone who tells an interesting story. If someone she meets has travel suggestions or an agenda for seeing something that intrigues her…”
Tabitha lowered her head to her hands and rocked back and forth.
“Let’s not borrow trouble,” Spencer attempted to calm her. “She wasn’t having any problem when she was talking to me on the phone about knowing her own mind. She seemed fairly good at steering our discussion. Maybe, and I’m not asking this so you question yourself at all, but has she actually made progressin the social department over the past few years? Perhaps you’re still seeing her through the lens of her behavior when she was younger?” He posed his suppositions as questions, so that Tabitha didn’t feel pressured, or as if she’d somehow failed her sister.
Tabitha’s eyes were tear-filled when she raised her head to look at him. “M…maybe?”
Spencer put his arms around her the best he could from his position squatting next to her chair. He hugged her tightly. “We’ll find her, Tabitha.”
Mason was on it, already. “Cousin Maygan’s husband Prez works for a search and rescue team based in Boston,” he said, standing up and pulling his phone from his pocket. “I’m going to give him a call.”
Tabitha watched Mase with hope in her eyes while Spencer kept her firmly in the circle of his arms.
“Hey Mayg,” Mason greeted. “Yeah. I wish this was a social call, but it’s business. Is Prez around? Can you put him on?”
A few seconds passed.
“Prez. Hi. This is Mason. We have a situation.” He went on to outline what Tabitha had told them, then paused. “That sounds good. Let me ask.”
“Do you think she has her phone with her?” Mason questioned Tabitha.
“I’m assuming she does. She’s never without it. But when I called it went right to voicemail, so I think it must be dead. Wait.” She snapped her fingers. “Sheila has that ‘find my phone’ feature, because she’s always misplacing it in her house. Oh,” she deflated. “That won’t do us any good if her battery died.” She wrung her hands.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Mason sounded upbeat. “Prez has got his colleague, Sarge, on another line. Sarge wants Sheila’s phone number. He says he can at least get her last known locationfrom before her phone went dark, then he’ll access any cameras nearby that position that might pick her up.”
Tabitha rattled off the digits, then they all waited.
Mason brightened, and Tabitha leaned forward expectantly.
“Her phone last pinged in a bus station.” Prez named a place in Orlando, a few towns over from where Sheila lived.
“How did she manage to get there?” Tabitha whispered, almost to herself.
Mason disregarded her question. “Sarge is hacking into their cameras right now.”
Spencer was never more thankful for all the smart people in his life.
“That gives me an idea.” Tabitha jerked her head up again. “Her bank account. She has one that I helped her set up. She would certainly have needed more money than what was in our swear jar. Maybe she’s accessed it from somewhere on the road.”
Eyebrows went up over the swear jar comment, but Tabitha ignored them as she scrambled for her phone in her pocket. With shaking hands, she brought up the account in an app. “Oh, wow. It’s…been nearly wiped out. This morning. At the branch near Sheila’s home.” Tabitha gulped in a breath and tried to smile. “That’s good, right? It means she has plenty of money to get here?” She glanced around at all the concerned faces with a semblance of expectancy, but nobody was looking very positive. Yet.
Mason began again. “Sarge says he needs a picture of your sister.” He gave Tabitha an email address. “He’s going back through the day’s footage to find her, concentrating on her phone’s last ping.”
With Spencer’s help, Tabitha located a head-shot of Sheila in her photo-files, and sent it along.
Minutes ticked by.
Tabitha twisted the hem of her shirt in her hands nervously before addressing the group. “I’m… I’m so sorry. I’m ruining your lovely dinner.” Tabitha turned devastated eyes toward Spencer’s mom who was still standing behind her.
“Honey, don’t you worry about that at all. Your sister is far more important than some overcooked slab of beef.”
