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“You heard me. Lacey had a daughter. Her name is Bethany.”
“I’m a grandfather? You’re sure?”
“When you see her picture, you’ll know.”
“Well then, when do we get to meet her?”
“I need you to—um—ask for prayer for her. Maybe at your church or something. You know I’m not into the whole God thing anymore.” However, it seemed he found himself turning to God more and more. Interesting. “She’s missing.”
“What?” Confusion echoed in Mason’s ear. “What do you mean, missing?”
“I’m sorry, Dad. It’s a long story, but the basics are Bethany was kidnapped a few days ago, which is why Lacey came to me. She needed my help to find her. It’s what I’ve been working on ever since.”
He heard his father talking to someone in the background. Then, “Maggie says you’d better find that girl, she wants to meet her.”
“I do, too, Dad. I do, too.”
“We’ll be praying.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you when I know anything.”
He hung up and stared back at the shelter, the lights turned low and everyone settling in for the night.
His father had met Maggie at a church function and the woman had had a major influence on the man. He’d stopped his workaholic tendencies and had finally shown interest in another woman. It had shocked Mason, but he was glad his dad wasn’t lonely. And Maggie was a good woman.
Kind of like Lacey.
Giving up the search for Bethany for now, Mason turned his car toward home.
The dark empty house greeted him and for the first time in a long while he thought about what it would be like to have someone to come home to.
No, not just someone.
Lacey.
His gut tightened at the thought, at imagining her with his ring on her finger. She’d greet him with a hug and a kiss and…
Okay, time to turn his thoughts elsewhere. He’d seen her for the first time after sixteen years and already his imagination was running away from him.
His iPhone buzzed, and he tapped the screen to look at the next picture Joseph had sent him. The sketch.
A dark-haired man with a square jaw, wide-set eyes and thin lips. Not the monster Mason had been expecting. For some reason the mild-looking man surprised him.
He sighed, committed the picture to his memory with a side note to himself that the actual person might not look anything like the sketch.
Pulling out Georgia’s cell phone, Mason looked at the number his daughter had called from. A pay phone near the homeless shelter.
It would be one of the first places he’d check tomorrow morning.
* * *
Lacey jerked out of a restless sleep and peered at the clock—3:04 a.m.
What had awakened her?
Once the surprise that she’d actually managed to fall asleep faded, she froze and listened to the stillness.
Nothing. Slowly, her muscles began to relax.