Chapter 12
A wheezing sound in her ear woke Amelia from a deep slumber. As her mind struggled toward consciousness, her brain tried to make sense of the steady, shrill rhythm. Had she set an alarm? Her eyes opened and slowly adjusted to the weak light provided by the glow of the bedside alarm clock. A large, heavy white lump on her chest came into focus. Amelia bolted upright, sending the cat, Sabrina, tumbling off of the bed and onto the floor.
“Jesus!” Amelia exclaimed. “How the hell did that cat get in here?”
Roused out of his own sleep by his wife’s outburst, Rob sat up confusedly. “What? What cat?”
“That cat!” Amelia pointed at Sabrina, who was stalking out of the room irritably.
Still in a daze, Rob said, “Oh, that cat.” He sat there, rubbing his eyes and staring as the cat’s tail disappeared around the doorframe. “We have a cat?” He looked at Amelia innocently, and she burst into laughter as she took in his appearance. His wiry bronze hair stood on end and his face had a deep red line going across it from where it had been pressed against a wrinkle in the sheets.
“We’re watching those damned cats from the vet’s office, remember? Vi must have left the bedroom door open.” Amelia stood up and stretched, glancing at the clock on the bedside table. It was just after six, so they had a little while before they needed to get back to the hospital for Meredith’s operation. “Just enough time for a cup of coffee,” Amelia said to herself with a smile. Her morning coffee ritual was one that she treasured.
Amelia shrugged her fluffy leopard print robe up over her pajamas and walked down the hall toward the kitchen. The sun had an hour or so before it would rise, and the air in the house was chilly. In the kitchen, Amelia started the coffee maker and got two mugs down from the cupboard. Hers had a picture of a cactus flower on it, while Rob’s had a print of an old family photo on it. It had been a gift from Meredith when she was in middle school, and the picture featured the four of them grinning broadly at the camera.
While the coffee brewed, Amelia headed outside to bring in the newspaper. She wondered what news the day would bring in the wake of all the rain and earthquakes. She opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch, pausing as she took in the scene outside. Her beautiful garden was littered with debris and drifts of dust, flowers were missing half of their petals, and a broken tree branch from a neighbor's yard had pummeled one of the cacti. Under the streetlamp across the street, she could see that the neighbor’s large mesquite tree was uprooted and had come to its final resting place on top of the old van that had been parked in the driveway. “Rob, come look at this,” she called back into the house.
A few moments later, Rob shuffled down the hall. He stood next to Amelia and looked dumbly at the van for a moment before a look of irritation overcame his features. “You mean I went and closed the window on that damned van for nothing?”
Amelia chuckled. “It would appear so. At least now Frank and Lydia will finally have to get rid of that eyesore.” She smiled and stepped down the driveway, picking up the paper and returning to the house.
Rob followed her back in, closing the door firmly behind him. “We must have had one hell of a storm last night.” They had both fallen into bed when they’d gotten home from the hospital utterly exhausted. Meeting Amelia in the kitchen he asked, “Did you hear it?”
Amelia shook her head as she poured them each a cup of coffee. She jumped, startled when she felt something brush against her leg, nearly tripping over in the process. At her feet, the black cat rubbed her cheek against Amelia’s ankle. The cat mewed a greeting, walking between Amelia’s legs and curling her sleek, furry body around the opposite ankle. “I never knew cats were such murderers,” she said irritably. “The white one tried to suffocate me to death this morning, and now this one’s determined to trip me. Thank God we don’t have stairs in this house.”
Rob gave her a small smile in acknowledgment. He looked down at the cat with distaste. “How long are they going to be here?” He accepted the mug of coffee that Amelia handed to him, and they both went out to the living room to sit on the couch.
After they’d been sitting there a moment, blissfully sipping their warm beverage, the black cat jumped up onto the couch between them, purring loudly. She shoved her head under Rob’s free hand, demanding to be petted. “Oh for God’s sake,” he said, giving in. He stroked the cat along the length of her body. Thrilled with the attention, the cat climbed onto his lap and settled in.
Rob leaned his upper body away from the cat, looking at Amelia in dismay. She laughed at his discomfort. “Aw look, you made a friend,” she crooned.
Amelia leaned forward and picked up the paper that she had tossed onto the coffee table a few minutes earlier, unfolding it. The top headline was about the earthquakes the day before, but there was nothing about last night’s dust storm. “It must have gone to press before the storm hit,” Amelia mused.
Changing the subject, Rob asked, “When do you want to head down to the hospital? I’d like to see Meredith for a little while before she heads into surgery.”
Amelia glanced at the clock on the mantel. Draining her coffee cup, she said, “We can go now.” She stood up and folded the newspaper in her hand, intending to take it along and read it in the waiting room.
The cat squawked indignantly as Rob stood, unceremoniously dumping her onto the floor in the process. Rob let out an amused chuckle as the cat looked up at him reproachfully.
“Careful,” Amelia quipped. “She looks like the type that’ll get revenge.”
Rob met her eye and they both smiled, and then impulsively, he reached out and pulled her into a big hug.
Amelia returned the embrace, enjoying the comfort of her husband’s strong arms around her waist. Releasing him, she said, “We should call James and let him know that we are headed down there.” They had called their son on the way home the night before to tell him about Meredith’s illness. James had promised to leave his daughter Ivy with her other grandparents so he could join them at the hospital today.
They quickly dressed and got into the car, heading to the hospital. Rob drove while Amelia called James on her cell phone. As they made their way through the battered streets, they were stunned by the power of the dust storm that had hit the night before. After hanging up with James, Amelia commented, “I can’t believe we slept through this.”
“We were beat. A train could have come through our bedroom and we would have been none the wiser,” Rob joked.
“Speaking of…” Amelia frowned down at her cell phone screen. “I’ve got a missed call from the hospital.”
“When was that?”
“Last night.”
“Mere probably just called to say good night.”
Amelia tossed her phone into the cup holder between them. “You’re probably right.”
Soon they pulled into a space in the hospital parking lot and were making their way inside. Rob was relieved to see that the reporters were gone, presumably having moved on to greener pastures. The security seemed to have been relaxed as well, as no one stopped them on their way up to Meredith’s room.
Down the hall from Meredith’s room, they could see that her door was slightly ajar. Amelia wondered if they had arrived too late, but a quick glance at her wristwatch showed that it was just after seven. Her surgery wasn’t supposed to be until eight. Arriving at Meredith’s room, they looked inside. The room was empty and the bed was neatly made up in preparation for another patient.
Confused, they turned around and walked back to the nurse’s station. “Excuse me,” Rob said to the nurse behind the counter.
She looked up from her computer screen. “Can I help you?”
“Yes.” Rob leaned on the counter. “My daughter was in that room over there, but now there’s no one in there. She’s having surgery at eight, and we’d like to see her before she goes in. Can you tell me where she’s been moved to?”
The nurse’s expression was unreadable. ?
??No one has been in there since I’ve been here. What’s your daughter’s name?” After Rob told her, she typed a few things into her computer. A look of confusion crossed over her face. “Can you spell the last name for me, please?”
Rob did as she asked, casting a worried glance over toward Amelia.
After a few moments, the nurse said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any record of a patient by that name.”
“That can’t be right,” Amelia protested. “Are you sure it’s spelled correctly?”
The nurse looked sympathetic. “I double checked. She’s not in here.”
Rob’s face flushed with frustration. “My daughter was here last night when we left, and now you’re telling me you have no record of her? Where is my daughter then?”
The nurse rolled her chair back, away from Rob’s piercing look. Defensively, she said, “I’m sorry, sir, I really don’t know. As I said, I just got here. Let me check if any of the nurses who were here last night are still here.” She stood up and scurried away, clearly relieved to be escaping from Rob’s anger.
Amelia’s cell phone began to ring from inside her purse. She dug around inside and found the cell phone after several rings, answering it just before it went to voice mail. “Hello?”
James’s easygoing voice came through the earpiece. “Hey, Mom. I’m downstairs. Where do I go?”
Rob could hear the question from where he stood, and he called into the phone, “We don’t know. The hospital lost her.” He sent an accusatory glance down the hallway where the nurse had disappeared.
Amelia took a step away from Rob and said more calmly, “She’s been moved, so we’re just trying to find out where she is. Once we know, we’ll call you back and tell you where to go, okay?”
They said their goodbyes and hung up just as the nurse was returning with a young man wearing jeans and a tee shirt. Amelia recognized him as the nurse who had been taking care of Meredith the night before. “Oh, hello,” she greeted him warmly, glad to see a familiar face. “You were my daughter’s nurse last night.”
The nurse smiled appreciatively. “Yeah, the cute redhead. My name’s Matt, by the way.” He stuck his hand out toward Amelia, and she shook it absently.
“Can you please tell us where you’ve taken our daughter?” Rob asked with exaggerated patience.
Amelia sent him a disapproving glance. “We’re just really worried about her,” she said, attempting to explain away Rob’s rude tone.
Matt shifted his weight uncomfortably, glancing around. An orderly was pushing another patient down the hall in a wheelchair. He waited until they were a little farther away before responding. “Your daughter disappeared last night. I caught her going downstairs at about eight. She said she and her friend had gotten in a fight and she wanted to go down and work it out. That’s the last time I saw her.”
“Why weren’t we called?” Rob demanded. Amelia winced. She knew that Rob was only irate because he was worried for Meredith, but she wished he could be a little more diplomatic.
Matt seemed unruffled, likely used to dealing with disgruntled patients. “We were going to, but when we tried to look up Meredith’s emergency contact information, she wasn’t in the system.”
The other nurse who had been helping them suppressed a smile, feeling vindicated that she wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been able to find Meredith’s records.
“Does that happen a lot?” Amelia asked.
Matt shook his head. “I really can’t explain it. We asked our tech support guys if there’s a virus or something, but they think that maybe her information was deleted. Trust me when I tell you that once they figure out what happened, heads are gonna roll.”
Rob seemed only mildly satisfied with that response. “I just want to make sure we’re on the same page. Our daughter is no longer in the hospital, and you have no idea where she’s gone. Her records have been deleted from your system. Is that right?”
Matt nodded.
“Why is no one out looking for her?”
“Your daughter is over eighteen and she’s not a prisoner. She’s free to leave, albeit against medical advice, if she chooses. Sorry.” After a pause he glanced at his wristwatch and said contritely, “I am coming off of a long shift and am dead on my feet. If there isn’t anything else…” He let the end of his sentence go unsaid.
Amelia waved a hand at him. “Go on, then. Thank you for your help.” She took Rob by the elbow and led him down the hall toward the elevator. She could feel the muscles in his arm tighten with frustration and worry. In the elevator, Amelia dialed Meredith’s number, but it went straight to her voicemail. Her stomach felt like it was in her throat as she tried not to consider the worst-case scenarios.
James was waiting for them down in the lobby, lounging in a chair by the window. There were a few other people sitting around, but Rob and Amelia didn’t pay them much attention.
James stood up as they approached. “Hey.”
In a lowered voice, Rob quickly explained the situation. He concluded, “Your mom and I will go to her apartment to look for her there, but we were hoping you’d go by the university.”
James looked skeptical. “The university is huge. I’d have no idea where to go.”
Tears sprang into Amelia’s eyes. “Please, James. Just go look for her.” Rob’s arm slipped around her shoulders protectively.
“I will, I’ll go. I’m not saying I won’t,” James said guiltily. “I’m just saying that chances are small that I’ll find her there.”
Rob gave him a hard look. “Okay, then if you don’t find her there, you can call us and we’ll tell you where to look next.”
James nodded, sobered by his mother’s tears. “Don’t cry, Mom. We’ll find her. She’s probably asleep at home and just forgot to charge her phone or something.”
Amelia attempted a smile, but it came out more like a grimace. “Well, let’s get going so we can find just that.”
They hugged and said their goodbyes, going their own ways to look for Meredith. The car ride to Meredith’s apartment was strained and silent. Rob tried to lighten the mood with humor, but it fell flat. “I’m going to wring her neck when we find her in her bed,” he said optimistically. It was obvious to both of them that his words were for Amelia’s benefit, and neither believed them.
Amelia offered a small, appreciative chuckle, grateful that he was trying to cheer her up. Unfortunately, nothing would cheer her up until she could see for herself that her daughter was alive and well. Unable to take the silence any longer, Amelia asked pitifully, “Why on earth would she leave before getting that surgery? What if she’s dead in a ditch somewhere?”
Rob reached over and rested a hand on her knee. “Our daughter isn’t dumb, sweetie. If she left, she had a damn good reason.”
That comment made Amelia feel better than Rob’s attempt at humor had, and she wiped the tears off of her face, willing herself to stop crying. Rob was right. Their daughter was smart and capable, and she was probably fine.
Amelia’s heart sank again when they pounded on the door at Meredith’s apartment without success. Amelia had a key for emergencies, which she used to get in. They found both bedrooms empty, without a clue as to where the girls were. Amelia refused to deteriorate into a weeping mess, and she told Rob as much. In times of stress, Amelia had to keep busy to stay sane, and she planned to do just that by looking under every rock and in every nook and cranny until they found Meredith.