Child on His Doorstep by Lee Tobin McClain

Author:Lee Tobin McClain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Mikey was missing.

Heart pounding, Samantha spun 360 degrees to study Corbin’s yard. The trees and bushes that lined it had always seemed to be a good thing, but now they were just so many hiding places.

“He can’t have gotten far,” Reese said. “Let’s search the perimeter of the yard, front and back. And somebody go out front and look up and down the street.”

That last idea chilled Samantha. What if Mikey were hit by a car? “I’ll take the street,” she called, and ran to the narrow lawn in front of Corbin’s house. People usually drove slowly around here, but if Mikey ran out suddenly, as he tended to do...

She jogged along the sidewalk, scanning the area. “Mikey! Mikey, where are you?”

How had he gone missing so fast? Reese was right, he couldn’t have gotten far. They’d find him any minute, and scold him, and that would be that. Maybe he was just hiding. “Mikey! This isn’t funny. Come here right now.”

All she heard in response was the caw of a blue jay.

Maybe he’d gone into Mrs. Hutchenson’s yard to play on her grandchildren’s swing set. He wasn’t allowed to leave Corbin’s property, but suddenly that seemed like a wonderful thing for him to have done. She ran around behind Mrs. Hutchenson’s house.

No Mikey.

All the things that could happen to a little boy flashed through Samantha’s mind like a horror movie. He could have run out into the street, gotten hit by a car. He could have made his way into someone’s yard who had an unfriendly dog. He could have fallen into a hole, got into a patch of poison ivy. God forbid, he could have been abducted.

But this was Bethlehem Springs. So safe, so little crime. Who would come to a place like this to abduct a child?

Then she thought of the creek that curved from beyond Mrs. Hutchenson’s house into the woods behind Corbin’s place. Mikey had loved it on the couple of occasions she’d taken him down there to explore.

Why on earth had she done that? What if he’d fallen in? The water was shallow, but everyone knew it didn’t take much for a child to drown.

She ran toward the section by Mrs. Hutchenson’s, calculating that he couldn’t have gotten any farther in the little time he’d been missing. She made her way down one bank, calling his name, looking through the thick bushes that lined the banks. Brambles scratched her arms and legs as she searched. What if Mikey had gotten scratched or hurt? What if he were crying somewhere, all alone?

Her heart ached at the thought, and a sense of failure pressed down on her. She had been a horrible caregiver. She couldn’t keep anyone safe. She would have made an awful mother, and maybe that was why God had taken her baby away from her.

This isn’t about you. Find Mikey.

She sloshed through the shallow water to the other side of the creek, scanning for his small form in every direction. She could hear the others from various directions, calling Mikey’s name.

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