Runaway Read Online Free PDF Page B

about that.”
     
    *
     
    Peet drove back toward the city while Jan took out her phone and looked at the list of Maddy’s friends Mrs. Harrington had given them. None of the names had phone numbers.
    “This is pathetic.”
    “I think it’s sad,” Peet said. “My kids live for their friends. They’re everything to them.”
    Jan had a few friends growing up in the camp. There was only one who Jan found interesting—Holly Alvarez. She was beautiful and lively and willing to question the Colonel’s authority once in a while, which Jan found thrilling. As they grew older, Jan found thoughts of Holly thrilling in an entirely different way. She squirmed in her seat and felt nervous whenever they sat close. But when Holly was sixteen, the Colonel approved a match between Holly and a boy in the camp, the son of one of his close lieutenants. The ceremony would not take place until her eighteenth birthday, as was custom, but from that moment on, Holly was lost to Jan, and so was any remaining reason for Jan to stay in camp. She remembered seeing Holly the day before she escaped. She was tempted to tell Holly of her plans and urge her to come with. But then Holly looked up from the bread she was kneading in the cook tent. She looked right through Jan, as if she weren’t standing six feet in front of her, as if she didn’t exist.
    Jan dialed directory assistance and tracked down some numbers for families with the same last names as those on the list. By the time they’d reached the city, she’d left half a dozen messages. She was about to call Maddy’s brother when Peet took the Irving Park exit off the expressway.
    “I thought we were going back to the office,” Jan said.
    “How about we grab a bite at my house? We have to eat somewhere, and I have a sudden urge to see my kids.”
    Jan agreed, but reluctantly. She always felt overwhelmed by the normalcy in Peet’s house. At least, it’s what she supposed was normal family life. Mom and Dad still in love after twenty years of marriage, sweet teenagers, an adorable eight-year-old. A dog. They lived in Kevin’s old family home, a rambling frame structure in the city’s Old Irving Park neighborhood. Everything about it made her feel anxious.
    They entered the huge kitchen that Kevin had remodeled the year before. Kevin and eight-year-old Lily stood at the kitchen island, decorating sugar cookies. When Jan and Peet came through the kitchen door, Lily ran over and took Jan’s arm, tugging her over to the cookies. Kevin kissed Peet and then gave Jan a kiss on the cheek.
    “Sorry to barge in unannounced,” Jan said. “It was her idea.”
    “Hey, we’re thrilled,” Kevin said. “Can you eat something? We just finished off a pizza, but I can scramble some eggs or make a sandwich.”
    Peet shrugged off her jacket and sat at the kitchen table. “Eggs would be great, hon.” She pulled out her phone and started texting. “Sit down, Jan. I’m just telling Sandy to come downstairs.”
    “It’s our new version of an intercom system,” Kevin said. He looked over at Peet. “Kevin Junior’s out tonight.”
    “I know that.” Peet sounded impatient and Kevin’s eyebrow went up a tad.
    She waved her hand in front her, like she was swatting a fly. “We just had a meeting with some parents who had no idea what their kids were up to,” she said. “I don’t want Jan to think we’re anything like that.”
    “No danger there,” Jan said.
    Peet’s daughter Sandy came into the room, phone in hand, and Jan stood to accept her hug. Sandy hugged Peet even though they’d seen each other a few hours earlier. There was an awful lot of hugging here. “I wanted to ask you something,” Peet said, pulling out a chair for Sandy. “What would you think of a high school junior who doesn’t have any friends?”
    “Who are you talking about?” Sandy asked.
    “No one you know. A runaway Jan and I are trying to find.”
    “A girl?” Kevin asked.
    “Yeah. From