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  He wanted more, though. To hear her laugh. And watch her move around her kitchen in a tight black skirt with a towel tossed over one shoulder. To see her eyes, content with pride, when she watched her brother shovel in his spaghetti.

  None of that spelled danger for Ms. Jimenez. Sawyer was worried about nothing.

  Robert checked his watch and decided to wait another five minutes. He didn’t want to appear overanxious, yet he wanted to be prompt.

  That was respectful.

  Sawyer would be proud.

  At seven minutes before seven, Robert pulled into a parking space in front of Carmen’s building. He opened the main door of the three-story building and walked up the stairs to the second floor. Then, as he had the night before, he knocked on the door.

  Carmen opened it. She wore a high-necked, long-sleeved cream-colored sweater and matching slacks. She’d left her dark hair down and it fell over her shoulders to midback.

  She looked fabulous.

  And she smelled even better. Something spicy that hinted that there was more to Carmen than met the eye.

  Or was that wishful thinking on his part?

  “Hi,” he said. “You look nice.”

  She blushed. “I wasn’t sure where we’d be going.”

  “Maxine’s.”

  She frowned. “That’s expensive, isn’t it?”

  He waved a hand. “They’re running a winter special,” he said. “Where’s Raoul?”

  “In his room. I’ll get him. Excuse me,” she said.

  Robert stood near the door. He could see the cat. She was scrunched under the couch, watching him. “I’m not here to steal the silverware, Lucy,” he said, trying to sound friendly.

  No response from the cat.

  He could hear the murmur of voices from the back room. They went on. And on. And he was just about to barge down the hall and fix whatever needed to be fixed when Carmen appeared.

  “Raoul is sick,” she said. “He thinks it’s something he ate for lunch.”

  Okay. Plan B. “No problem. We can order in,” Robert said.

  The words were no more out of his mouth when Raoul appeared behind his sister. He was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt and his hair was sticking straight up on his head.

  “I told you, sis. I want you to go. I’m not three. I can take care of myself. You deserve to have a nice dinner.”

  Robert could see the indecision in Carmen’s eyes. He kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to take the chance of reminding her that the dinner invitation had been about the three of them bonding.

  “You’re sure?” Carmen asked.

  Raoul rolled his eyes.

  “I’ll bring you back some chicken noodle soup,” she said.

  “Fine.” He turned and went back into his room.

  Robert worked hard to keep the smile off his face. “He probably just wants to get some sleep.”

  Carmen grabbed her bright blue cape from the closet. She stuffed her hands into dark gloves. “I know that I need to treat him more like an adult. It makes him crazy when I baby him. It’s just that I’ve been taking care of him forever,” she said, her voice quiet.

  “You have been. And you’ve done a great job. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s the story behind Raoul’s leg?”

  “He’s had it from birth. It’s actually a problem with his hip but it looks as if his legs are not the same.”

  “Doesn’t look as if it slows him down much.” Robert wrapped an arm loosely around her shoulder. “Give him some space. It’ll be fine.”

  They had barely pulled away from Carmen’s apartment building when she dug her feet in. “If we go to Maxine’s, I want to pay my half.”

  Robert counted to ten. “That’s not necessary.”

  “Yes, I insist. I wouldn’t be comfortable any other way.”

  Well, hell. She’d been right earlier. Maxine’s could get a little pricey. There was no way that he was imposing that kind of expense on her budget. He had some idea of what social-worker types made and he doubted there was much left at the end of the month.

  “Maybe we could go somewhere else?” he suggested.

  “Gordon’s is close. I love their soup.”

  He made a quick right. Gordon’s had been a neighborhood favorite for years. It had a tile floor, worn booths, surly waitresses and great comfort food. Sometimes he and Sawyer had lunch there.

  It wouldn’t break anybody’s budget. “Whatever floats your boat,” Robert said easily. He found a seat as far away from the door as possible, knowing that every time the door opened, cold air would blow in. They read the plastic-covered menu, and then he ordered the meat loaf special, and Carmen got a turkey club with broccoli soup.

  There was a young couple in the corner with a squealing baby. An old couple was in the next booth, both reading sections of the newspaper. A young black man, wearing a white apron that came to his knees, was unloading clean glasses and cups onto the shelves.

  He’d never brought a woman to Gordon’s before. Never even considered it. The women he dated were generally successful in their own careers, had discretionary spending and expected him to have the same.

  Both Mandy and Janine would have been severely disappointed in Gordon’s.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked.

  He hadn’t realized that he was smiling. “Nothing,” he said. “Just thinking that Sawyer will be jealous. He loves the hot beef sandwiches here.”

  She glanced around. “I imagine it’s not your usual place for dinner.”

  There was an underlying message in her simple words. It went sort of like this. I realize you had something different in mind, but this place is really more me, which is just one more sign of how different we are.

  She wasn’t the only one who had studied human behavior in college.

  “I think I’m ready for the unusual,” he said.

  Her dark eyes widened. But at that moment, the waitress returned, slapped their food down and refilled their water glasses. Carmen picked up her turkey sandwich and chewed. She looked very thoughtful.

  Robert dug into his meat loaf. It was delicious. And the potatoes were equally good. Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Finally, she pushed her plate away. She’d eaten her soup and most of her sandwich.

  “I should be getting back,” she said.

  He nodded and motioned for the waitress. He ordered a large chicken noodle soup to go. Carmen unzipped her purse and started pulling out money.

  “Please,” he said. “It’s on me. Consider it payback for the spaghetti, although I certainly got the better end of the deal.”

  She hesitated and then nodded. She leaned back against the booth and yawned.

  “Tough day?” he asked.

  “Sort of. Uncooperative pregnant teens can be a bit trying on the nerves.”

  “How are things with Alexa Sage?”

  “Okay. I got a message from her today. In the presence of her father, she told her mom the news. I guess there were lots of tears but it sounds as if everybody held it together.”

  He felt a chill run down the back of his neck. Which was crazy because the air from outside was blowing in his face. “Don’t let your guard down around that man. There’s something about him that I really didn’t like.”

  “I won’t. But I’m hopeful that he’ll get past his disappointment in his daughter and give her the support she needs.”

  “I don’t think his daughter was too confident of that and she knows him best, right?”

  “Yes, but teenagers don’t have the reasoning skills to understand that adults, once they’ve had time to assimilate new information, have the capability to deal with all kinds of things. When a kid messes up, she can’t imagine that her parent will ever be able to understand why s
he did it or how she could have made such a mistake.”

  Her eyes were serious and her voice soft. There was pain in both and he wasn’t sure what had put it there. “But I bet you’re good at painting the picture that things can get better,” he said, wanting to make her smile again.

  It must have worked. She lifted her water glass. “Here’s to sharp crayons,” she said. And she took a big drink. “How was your day?”

  “Cold,” he said. “Irritating because we’re not making more progress on the case. Plus,” he added, “I had to go see my mother. Her husband is leaving her.” He wasn’t sure why he told her. He never talked about his mother.

  “Oh, no,” Carmen said.

  He waved a hand. “It’s okay. I mean, she’s sad and all. But she’s been through this before. Sometimes she’s even the leaver, not the leavee.”

  She was looking at him as if he had two heads.

  “I know that sounds bad. But she’s been married six times and she’s had a couple live-ins, as well.”

  “I see,” said Carmen.

  There was no way. Nobody could understand it.

  “She likes being with someone, being part of a pair,” Carmen said.

  That was a nice way to put it. “Yeah, well, she’s the left shoe and she enjoys the search for the right shoe very much, but then she quickly tires of wearing the same pair so she has to go shoe shopping again.”

  She smiled. “I bet she’s fun.”

  He nodded. “She is and she’s my mom so I can’t stay irritated with her for very long.”

  “Of course not,” Carmen said.

  Five minutes later, they got in the cold car and he drove to her apartment. “It will probably be hard to find parking,” she said. “You can just drop me off.”

  He smiled and kept driving. She wasn’t getting rid of him that easily.

  As they neared the building, she put her hand on the door handle. It looked as if she was ready to make a break for it.

  “I’ll walk you in,” he said. “I want to make sure Raoul’s doing okay,” he added.

  He found a parking spot, pulled in and was around the car before she could get her seat belt undone. They walked up the stairs to her apartment and she unlocked her door.

  When she opened the door to the apartment, he saw that almost every light in the apartment was on. They hadn’t been when they’d left. That was a good sign that Raoul had been up and about, so maybe the kid was feeling better.

  “I’m going to check him,” she said.

  He watched her walk down the short hallway, appreciating the view. Her slacks weren’t tight but just snug enough to hint at a nicely rounded bottom.

  He heard the door open and then slam shut. When Carmen returned to the living room, her face was pale and her eyes were big. Robert’s protective instincts shot up a notch.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, already moving closer.

  Chapter Seven

  “He’s gone,” she said. “He’s not in his bedroom.”

  “Check the other rooms,” Robert instructed.

  It didn’t take her long. There was only her room and the bathroom. She came back into the hallway and shook her head.

  “Does he have a cell phone?” Robert asked.

  Carmen nodded.

  “Okay, check your cell phone for messages and then try his phone,” he said. “I’m going to take a look at his room.”

  He supposed it was a typical teenage boy’s room. It looked a little bit like he remembered his own room. Posters on the walls. Dirty clothes in the corner. A single bed with covers in disarray.

  There were no signs of a struggle.

  No hastily prepared note propped up against the pencil container. No clue as to why a sick fifteen-year-old boy would suddenly be gone.

  He looked up. Carmen stood in the bedroom doorway, cell phone in hand. “Nothing. And he’s not answering. It went straight to voice mail.”

  “Does he ever do this? Go out without letting you know?”

  Carmen shook her head. “No. I mean, he goes out on his own, of course. But not usually at night. Not without telling me. And he was sick. Oh, my God, maybe he had to call an ambulance.” She stopped. “No, that’s ridiculous. He would call me before he’d call an ambulance.”

  Robert could see when the full realization of the situation hit Carmen. Raoul hadn’t called her. So either something had prevented that or he simply hadn’t tried.

  There was no sign of struggle, and the door had been locked.

  “It’s possible he was lying,” she said. “Maybe he wanted to get me out of the apartment and figured he’d have a couple hours of free time. He thought we were going to Maxine’s.”

  He appreciated that she wasn’t going to refuse to consider alternate realities. Her work with teenagers had taught her that teenagers lied.

  “He had on jeans and a gray sweatshirt earlier. Do you see them anywhere?” Robert asked, sweeping his hand around the room.

  Carmen shook her head. “His coat is a red jacket with a hood. I don’t see it, either.”

  “Okay. We’ll assume that’s what he has on. I’ll call it in. Get our guys watching for him.”

  She reached out a hand, stopping him. “Robert,” she said, her voice subdued. “I don’t know what he’s up to. I want to hope it’s not something bad. And I know that I don’t have any right to ask you to look the other way. But—” her voice cracked “—I don’t want him to be arrested. When that happened to Hector, things got so much worse. It was the beginning of the end.”

  He hoped like hell Raoul hadn’t done something stupid that was going to make this woman sad. He was going to really have to kick his butt. He put two fingers under her chin and tilted her head up. “Here’s what I think,” he said. “Raoul is a good kid. I don’t think he’s involved in anything that’s going to get him arrested. Stop worrying. We’re going to find him. Now, why don’t you start with his friends?”

  He watched while she scrolled through the numbers in her phone. He believed everything he had said to Carmen. The kid was probably fine. But just in case, he called in Raoul’s description to dispatch. He felt immediately better after doing that. It wouldn’t hurt for a whole lot of eyes to be looking. He sent a text to Sawyer, letting him know. Within seconds, Carmen’s phone rang.

  She grabbed for it. “Liz,” she said, looking at him.

  Robert nodded. “I figured it wouldn’t take long.”

  Carmen answered and the women talked for a few minutes. While he couldn’t hear Liz’s side of the conversation, she evidently was volunteering to come over because Carmen repeatedly assured her it wasn’t necessary, that she should stay home with her baby. Carmen ended the conversation by assuring her friend that she’d call her if anything changed.

  A half hour later, nothing had changed and they didn’t know anything more. Robert and Carmen had both tried his cell phone multiple times.

  Carmen had talked to some kid named Jacob twice. She’d explained that he was Raoul’s best friend and that they often carpooled in the morning. After school, they each took different buses because Jacob’s house was a couple miles from their apartment. After the first call to Jacob and learning that the boy hadn’t talked to or seen Raoul since band practice had ended, she’d waited while he also tried to reach Raoul. She’d called a second time only to learn that Raoul wasn’t answering any of Jacob’s texts or calls, either.

  Carmen sat at the table, her shoulders bowed, her head in her hands. Robert pulled his chair close and put an arm loosely around her shoulders. She seemed even smaller than usual, as if she were deflated.

  He was so going to kick the kid’s butt if he was out fooling around and making his sister worry needlessly. If it was something more serious, he hoped he had the wherewithal to help Carmen deal wit
h it.

  He wanted to be out on the street, looking for Raoul. But he knew that he couldn’t leave Carmen.

  So he simply sat with his arm around her. Maybe they’d sat for ten minutes when they heard footsteps on the stairs. Carmen’s head sprang up.

  “Relax,” Robert whispered.

  They heard the key in the lock and the door opened. Raoul, wearing his red jacket, his gray sweatshirt and his blue jeans, walked in. He was carrying a bag from Walgreens.

  “Hi,” he said. He looked surprised to see them.

  Carmen ran to him and hugged him tight. He tried to duck her embrace. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Where have you been?” she asked. She held his face in her hands. “I’ve been worried sick. You didn’t answer your phone. I called you at least ten times.”

  Raoul pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “It’s dead,” he said. “I was going to charge it when I got home.”

  “You said you were sick. Too sick to go to dinner with us.”

  “I started to feel better. I remembered I needed some things for school. I’m sorry, Carmen. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

  “Don’t ever do that again,” she said, her tone gentle. “I mean it. For goodness’ sake, we had the police looking for you.”

  That got Robert a swift and unfriendly look. Which Robert might have been inclined to ignore if his gut wasn’t telling him that something was very wrong. The kid had looked like death warmed over an hour ago. Yet minutes ago, his steps on the stairs had been quick and light. His color was good.

  Maybe it was possible that within minutes of their departure, he’d suddenly felt much better and had remembered the school supplies. But it was Friday night. There was no school tomorrow. He’d have had the whole weekend to buy school supplies.

  Maybe he needed them for a project he had to complete this weekend?

  Or, maybe, as Carmen suggested, he’d heard Maxine’s, figured that his sister would be out of his hair for at least two hours and took off, fully expecting to be back before she was any the wiser.

  He’d pulled similar stunts when he was Raoul’s age.