Page 28 of Final Approach

The man winked at him. “I’ll sleep with my laptop under the mattress.”

“Dad—”

“Son, let it go. This is a choice we’re making in the hope of helping a young man who needs it.” The door chimed and his father stood. “Now, let me get back to work and we’ll chat when you come to dinner on Friday.”

Friday. Right. Andrew stood. “All right. But just think about this? Promise me?”

“Of course.” His dad hugged him and then Andrew found himself out on the sidewalk.

He shook his head and headed for his car.Okay,God,here we are again. Back to this thorn in myside. How can Corey coming here be a good thing? I’m all for helping someone out,but if hetakes advantage of Mom and Dad,you and I aregoing to have a lot to work on. He paused.Okay,a lot more than what we’re already workingon. He sighed.I know you’ve got this.Just help mefeelit. Please?

Again the sensation of being watched crept over him and he stopped to look around. Nothing seemed out of place or—

The guy in the hoodie was back. And looking in his direction. Andrew debated for a fraction of a second before heading across the street. He’d just ask him if he could help him with something. But the guy turned and walked away, vanishing before Andrew could reach him. For the next ten minutes, he looked for him, checking stores and restaurants.

Finally, he gave up but was tempted to get some security footage to see if he could get a look at the guy’s face.

He checked his phone and found a message from Hank. He deciphered it and came up with“Time changed to10:00PM to besafe. See u soon.”

SEVEN

Kristine had let Tabitha sleep for a little while. She’d texted her supervisor about the suspension, and he said lawyers were handling the discussion with the family and she was to stay out of it.

Of course she would, but she still wanted any updates available.

Apparently, there were none.

So, she’d focus on doing what she could do without overstepping or being in the way. Lainie had stopped by and visited for a few minutes, and Kristine couldn’t bring herself to tell her about the suspension. It nagged at her that she should trust her friends, but why burden them with it? They couldn’t do anything about it.

But they could offer support, a little voice whispered.

She sighed and glanced at the time. The longer Kristine waited to wake the sleeping mother, the more trouble Jacob could get into.

She gave the woman’s hand a light squeeze. Nothing. Slightly firmer pressure did the trick.

Tabitha’s eyes fluttered opened and she yawned. “I fell asleep.”

“Your body’s been through a rough time, and emotionally ... well, we all know our emotions can drain us.”

“Jacob. What did you find out?”

Kristine hesitated a moment, then sighed. “There’s no easy wayto say this, but Jacob ran away from the social worker. The police are looking for him, but right now, we don’t know where he is.”

“What!” Tabitha shoved the sheet aside and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Hang on a second and just think for me.”

Tabitha paused. “Think what?”

“Where would he go? He seemed desperate to be with you. So why take off? Why would he do that?”

She blinked, then shook her head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. Unless...”

“Unless?”

“I mean, Marcus and I weren’t big fans of the system. We talked openly about it and our dislike of it. We did say there were good people that truly wanted to help kids like us, but they were few and far between and we never stayed with many of them.” She picked at the blanket. “He might not have believed the social worker would bring him here. Or he thought they’d put him into the system afterward. If he thought either of those things, then that’s probably why he hasn’t come here on his own.”

Made sense. The kid was smart. “Do you know a safe place that he’d run to?”