A Timely Vision Read Online Free PDF Page A

building a house on Duck Landing Road after inheriting a small patch of land his grandfather had left him. I knew all of this because he told me every time he proposed to me. Last week had made the sixth occasion this year.
    “Mayor.” The chief nodded at me, then turned narrowed eyes on the house. “You say Miss Elizabeth is missing?”
    “I don’t really know.” I told him what Miss Mildred had said and threw in what Kevin Brickman had told me for good measure. “Mr. Brickman was here for a few minutes. He was concerned about Miss Elizabeth too.”
    “Are you saying you think he could be involved with this?” Tim lifted his police cap and let the breeze cool his sweaty blond head.
    “No, Tim. I was saying he’d noticed she was gone and he isn’t from here. Maybe that’s odd. I don’t know.”
    The chief laughed. “Yes, ma’am. It’s real odd for people in Duck to know what everyone else is doing. No one ever knows what’s going on around here.”
    I agreed, thinking he hadn’t needed the sarcasm.
    “But maybe if the mayor thinks something is up with that boy, we should check him out.” Tim rushed in to defend me.
    “No need. He came by when he moved in. Believe me, he’s not involved in anything with Miss Elizabeth,” the chief assured him. “But he’d be the kind to notice things, if you know what I mean.”
    “I don’t,” I admitted. “But if you think it’s fine—”
    “Not just fine, Your Honor,” the chief continued. “I can’t divulge everything Mr. Brickman confided in me on his move here to Duck. Suffice it to say, he’s the kind of citizen we want to have here. We’ll leave it at that.”
    Chief Michaels rarely spoke highly of anyone not born and raised in Duck, so his good word was enough for me. I’d known him all my life. He and Gramps had been friends since high school. I trusted the chief completely, and if the chief trusted Kevin Brickman, then regardless of the secret circumstances, Kevin Brickman was okay. I glanced back up at the Blue Whale Inn’s roof. Kevin was nowhere to be seen, but I could hear his hammer.
    “Anyway, as you can see,” I continued, “we may have a situation here with Miss Elizabeth. I think we should search her house, and if we can’t find her, we might have to issue a Silver Alert.”
    The chief scratched his head. “Silver Alert? I’m not sure I’m familiar with that term.”
    “It’s what they call it when an older person is missing,” I explained. “Like the Amber Alert when a child is missing.”
    “No need to panic, Mayor. We’ll find her.” The chief looked back at the increasingly angry horizon, where bright streaks of lightning were stabbing at the sky. “I suggest we do it before this weather hits too. Looks like a nasty one brewing.”
    Tim came over to hold my hand. “Don’t worry, Dae. We’ll find her.”
    I don’t have anything against Tim. We went to school together and even kissed a few times back then. But I don’t have those kinds of feelings for him either. Each time he’s proposed I’ve told him as much. I don’t think he was listening.
    I smiled as I took my hand back. “I’m not worried. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

    B ut two hours later, things were far from fine. The storm was sweeping the town streets with rain and sand. A long line of visitors was snaking away from Duck to safer and higher ground. They represented at least a third of all the business we’d see that year. And Miss Elizabeth was still missing.
    I put on a poncho and rain boots and locked up Missing Pieces. Gramps had gone to the fire station to help since he was a volunteer. I pulled the wood shutters closed over the windows to try to protect what I could. Even though the shop faces the Currituck Sound side of Duck rather than the ocean, there could still be damage. Everyone was meeting at town hall a few doors down on the boardwalk to coordinate efforts toward the storm and the search for Miss Elizabeth.
    “It was