Abduction! by Peg Kehret

Author:Peg Kehret [Kehret, Peg]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781101661666
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2006-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

Bonnie stayed home from school on Monday, and her mom stayed home from work. They talked to reporters, trying to say something different to keep the story in print and on the air even though there was nothing to report.

Bonnie spent an hour at the grocery store handing out flyers. A light drizzle dripped from the gray sky, matching Bonnie’s gloomy mood. She wished it would either rain hard or clear up. It was as if the clouds had cried all their tears and now could squeeze out only this faint mist.

At noon, the Office of Emergency Management called off the Amber Alert.

“Why?” Bonnie asked.

“The Amber Alert is most helpful when we have a vehicle description,” Detective Morrison said. “By now Matt’s photo is on TV and in the newspapers; the public is aware of his disappearance, so using the emergency services is no longer necessary.”

Detective Morrison had other disappointing news. The search of Marymoor Park had found no evidence that either Matt or Pookie had been there.

“A crew cleaned that restroom on Saturday,” she said. “They emptied the trash cans and picked up any litter from the ground before they mowed the grass. It was a long shot there would be anything linked to Matt, but still it seems incredibly bad luck for the cleaning crew to go there that particular day.”

Ever since the report that Pookie had been seen at Marymoor Park, Bonnie had hoped Matt had been there, too, and that he would have left a clue. Matt was smart; he knew how to print his name and he knew his numbers.

Bonnie had fantasized that the police would find MATT and a license number scratched in the dirt with a stick or written in soap on the restroom mirror.

As she listened to Detective Morrison, Bonnie’s hope was erased by disappointment. Matt might have been too scared to think about leaving a clue. Maybe his abductor hadn’t left him alone long enough for Matt to write his name. Perhaps Matt had never been near Marymoor Park. It might have been some other dog who looked like Pookie.

On Tuesday, Bonnie’s grandma and grandpa arrived from Arizona. Usually Bonnie loved it when her grandparents came to visit, but this time was different. Grandma cried a lot; Grandpa looked old and tired. Instead of playing gin rummy and working a new jigsaw puzzle together—as they usually did when Grandma and Grandpa visited—Bonnie put up posters, checked all the animal-shelter Web sites for Pookie, and tried to think of new ways to find Matt.

Since Matt had twin beds in his room, Grandma and Grandpa always slept there while Matt used an inflatable mattress on the floor in Bonnie’s room. This time the extra mattress stayed rolled up in its bag, making Bonnie’s room seem empty.

The days blurred together like scenery viewed from a fast-moving car. Each day, Bonnie and her mom and grandparents traveled farther from home with their stack of posters, hanging them as far south as Centralia and as far north as Bellingham.

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