“He’s right,” she said softly. “Since Sheila cleaned out most of her account, she’s certainly got the resources to change course mid-stream, and…it’s something that Sheila would do.” Tabitha focused on Spencer with a wry attempt at a smile. “You get it, just from talking to her on the phone for a half hour. One minute it’s Merchant Mariner acronyms, the next it’s cats.”
“Wait,” Spencer held up a finger. “Sheila loves technology; computers and phones, specifically. Right?”
Tabitha looked puzzled, but gave a nod.
“How about this. In case our guys don’t see her, and the police can’t catch up with her, we pay an Uber driver to go to the station at the appropriate time, hold up a brand new phone, and a sign with her name on it with a note saying it’s from you?”
Tabitha nodded.
“I’m on it.” Kyle took out his phone and walked to the other side of the room to conduct that business.
“It could work,” Tabitha replied, but with some skepticism. “For some reason she’s done everything covertly so far. Which means if she doesn’t want to be found…”
Spencer pulled Tabitha into him and gave her a full body hug. “I know. But we have to start somewhere, and we have some great minds on this, sweetheart. It all sucks, but we’ll find her. Is there anything else you can think of that we might do? Something we may have missed?”
She turned to Mason. “Is there any way we can send out an Amber Alert?”
Mason shook his head gently. “She’s not the victim of an abduction, Tabitha. She’s what we call a missing person. Sotechnically, twenty-four hours has to go by before we issue a BOLO.”
“Can I…?” She chewed her lip but looked hopeful.
“Say it, Tabitha,” Spencer urged. “We’re open to anything.”
“Can I put something on-line? On all the social media platforms? You know, a picture and a phone number to contact me if anybody sees her? I’ve seen that done a number of times before when people go missing.”
Kyle’s face soured, and Spencer knew why.
Most of those posts were scams, and if they weren’t, theycouldput a bad kind of target on the individual who was lost. Who was to say that someone wouldn’t find Sheila and take advantage of her missing person status to do something nefarious?
Kyle let Tabitha know where his suspicious, law-enforcement thoughts had gone. “Itcouldhelp, but it could also put her in danger if the wrong person decides to look for her.” He fortified himself with a deep breath. “That call, however, is yours to make.”
Tabitha once again headed to her phone and typed in a bunch of stuff Spencer couldn’t see.
When she was finished, she straightened her shoulders and addressed Kyle specifically. “It says here that less than .56 percent of men in the US are sex offenders. That’smen,not women, so it means that only one in approximately every four hundredpeopleare bad. Those are pretty good odds. And there’s something I haven’t told you about Sheila.”
They were all ears. Any bit of good news would help the frustration they were all surely feeling.
“Sheila has studied every form of self-defense there is,” Tabitha apprised them. “On-line, but still…” She heaved out a sigh. “She knows a lot. I spar with her, and she’s been able toknock me on my ass. She’s a pretty decent force to be reckoned with.”
That answered Spencer’s question as to whether Tabitha had hand-to-hand skills.
“I’m not sure whether she’d ever be able to put any of that knowledge into practice in public,” Tabitha continued, “but when we watch cop shows on TV, she’s always yelling at the actors; telling them how to fight, what they’re doing wrong, and generally that they’re too stupid to live if they don’t listen to her. Sheisfully aware that the world is filled with danger.”
“Okay then. She’s got some coping skills. That’s good. So…?” Kyle waited for her verdict.
“Yeah, Tabitha,” Spencer prodded carefully. “What would you like to do?”
“Let’s flood the internet,” Tabitha responded with newfound confidence.
Spencer nodded, as did the rest of his family.
It was a long shot, but what else did they have beside two sets of eyes on cameras up and down the entire east coast?
Spencer just hoped Tabitha’s decision hadn’t been swayed by the dearth of options at hand.
And he hoped the decision didn’t come back to bite them.
CHAPTER 25
