Part 16

“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul

-and sings the tune without words, and never stops – at all.”

            -Emily Dickensen

Part 16

Tove and David had kept all thoughts to themselves as they traveled back to the family home, but speculation coursed through their veins.

"It must have been on a stack of linens," Ally blurted out as the men walked through the door. "We found it in between some we had stacked up earlier."

Taking the note, Tove read it aloud.

While it should have comforted them, no one seemed comforted. There were still those burning questions of why she wasn’t answering her phone or returning pages.

"Why don’t we check motels along the highway?" Kaylen suggested. "We can start with Motel 6’s, that’s where we stayed on the way out since they would take Kona."

"If it’s just her, she sleeps in the truck," Ally sighed with more than a hint of regret. "I told her she shouldn’t but she assured me that with Kona, she never worried about her safety."

Tove flipped open his cell and dialed. Melissa’s phone still rang and still went to voicemail. Leaving another quick message, he ended the call and looked back at the family looking to him for guidance. "The only people who believe that something is wrong are the people who know her. She wouldn’t write this," he waved the note, "if she didn’t mean it." A collective mass of heads all nodded none of them sure where to go from that point when his phone rang displaying a call from Eric.

"We found a note." This really wasn’t a time for useless pleasantries like ‘hello.’ Tove read the note again and waited.

"Mo’s passport was scanned at customs in Port Huron, Michigan around 6am. We’re on a flight out of here soon. Have you told Hayden anything?"

The lump Tove swallowed was audible. This was a conversation he had tried to push from his mind but it was becoming obvious that he needed to prepare for it. "No, but I did talk to Cecilia. She had been trying to get him home before, but now…"

"Yeah…" He thought for a moment, the silence understood. "Meet you there?"

Tove’s answer was more a sigh than a yes as he hung up and scrolled to Cecilia’s number one more time.

The hum of the airplane was a sound that had always lulled Hayden. Blindly toying with the small bracelet that never left his wrist, his mind spun creative scenarios of his homecoming. A few of them made him blush. All of them made him smile. Talk is cheap compared to holding his wife and it had been far too long since she had been in his arms.

As the airplane touched down, the bump jarred him back to reality. With a mental note to do something special for Cecilia for handing him a surprise plane ticket a week ahead of schedule, he turned on his phone, shoved papers into his backpack and dug out his passport.

Maybe because he was traveling light or because he was returning to the country of his birth, but the normally treacherous trip through customs went more smoothly than in some of the other countries he’d passed through recently. Kaylen would say that it was karma, the forces at work to get him where he needed to be. As out of sight as it sounded, whatever got him through faster was fine by him and, at least for today, he wasn’t going to question it.

During the last couple of months, he had begun to realize he spent a fair amount of time scanning for paparazzi in much the same way that the FBI scans for snipers. For such a public figure, he led a scandal free existence which seemed to only make them try harder to find one. Not only did the persistence of the rouge photographers astound him, but so did their network. Someone always knew where he was going to be seemingly even before he did.

Just outside of customs he started his usual check for the photographer trying to look like a vacationing tourist who just *had* to capture pictures of baggage claim for the vacation album. What he saw instead was a tall, lean figure, with their hands shoved as deep into their pockets as possible. He hadn’t been aware of his smile until it fell at the sight of his brother. Now they wore nearly matching expressions. "What’s happened?"

He had practiced all the way to the airport and the entire time spent waiting, but Hayden had gone off of the mental script. Too distracted to scramble, he looked down trying to adlib and failed in the attempt.

Tove was always a guide and example, seeing him at a loss for words was peculiar. Softening his tone and trying to ignore the burning sensation building in his throat, he tried again. "Hey, whatever it is, just tell me. Did she get paged? I know that team north of Mom and Dad are always calling Karen when we’re in town."

"She wasn’t paged," he offered in a tone so flat it floated right past Hayden’s ears.

"Did she ask you to come get me? She knew I was coming in earlier than when I told you."

"She knew when you were coming in? You told her?" It was tiny soap bubble of hope and clinging to it was automatic.

"Well, I left her a voicemail." The bubble, like so many before it, burst.

"Melissa didn’t tell me, Cecilia did. She knew…" his tone was even softer than Hayden’s and faded more with each word. "She didn’t want you waiting."

"Why would I have waited?" There was no ignoring that burning sensation now. "Look, she hasn’t answered any of my messages. You know she wasn’t paged, she’s not here, and you’ve been in touch with Cecilia. Tove, what’s going on? Where is she?"

Looking into the pained eyes of his little brother he found the strength necessary to say what he hated to admit. "We don’t know." Through the confusion staring back at him he told the condensed version. "We found a note that said she was headed home. We know her passport was scanned at an Michigan customs station around 6 o’clock this morning but she’s not answering her phone, returning messages…"

"Just call Karen," he interrupted. "Have her paged."

"We did that. She hasn’t responded."

Hayden felt himself go pale as the blood drained from his head to keep his heart pumping. Only faintly aware of his brother’s hands on his arms, he tried to focus on what was said.

"No one in any hospital along the way fits her description. The police can’t list her as missing just because she doesn’t answer her cell phone, but Eric and Beth talked to Detective Landess. He’s the…"

"I know who he is." How could he ever forget the officer who had stood in the emergency room and told him Melissa was fighting for her life because of him?

"Yeah… Well, he spoke to the local police and they’ve agreed to look for her truck – off the record. Highway Patrol is as well."

Feeling like he was on a baggage carousel, watching the room circle around him, Hayden could only muster "Why?"

"Search and Rescue…Fire Department, brothers in arms…the Detective…take your pick. I called Cecilia to see if Melissa might have called to get a flight to come to you. That’s when I found out that plans were already under way to get you home. She let me know about your flight change tonight. George and Adam know what’s going on. They are booked on your original flight."

Adam was in charge of public relations and the very idea that he would be needed sent a wave of nausea through Hayden, or maybe that was the result of the spinning. Regardless of the shock, the burning, or the hefty dose of denial he wanted to hide behind – something was wrong. "You said she passed through customs in Michigan?"

"Yeah. Beth and Eric are there now."

"We’re leaving." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes. Our flight leaves in 45 minutes." It was only then that Hayden realized Tove had a duffel bag at his feet.

Digging the phone from his pocket and hitting the speed dial, Hayden waited as it rang. Closing his eyes, he listened to her voice, soaking in every nuance. "I love you," he whispered. "I’m coming." Disconnecting, he looked to Tove, finally centered. "Let’s go."