From a Single Seed: A Novel Read online

  They spent half an hour making a list of all Shannon’s belongings.

  “You see anything else here?”

  “Nope.”

  OLIVIA DAWSON had her phone in her lap during the entire flight. After she was reprimanded by the flight attendant for taking a call, she put the ringer on vibrate and started declining calls. But there was no way she was putting her phone in airplane mode. If Shannon or the police called, she was taking it. Airline regulations be damned.

  Olivia called the police chief as soon as they were on the ground and the Fasten Seat Belt sign was off. “Please tell me you’ve found my daughter.”

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Dawson. Not yet.”

  “Oh my God. Have you done anything to find her?”

  “We’re taking this seriously. I assure you.”

  “Then how come nobody knows where she is?”

  “My investigator has figured out that she went to a party on Friday night. He’s spoken with two of her friends, who said she met up with her boyfriend there.”

  “Jake was at Masterson?”

  “The other boyfriend.”

  “She doesn’t have another boyfriend.”

  “Apparently, she’d been dating a boy named Keenan.”

  “No she wasn’t. She would have told me.”

  “Her friend Amy confirmed it, as well as the boy himself.”

  Olivia was silent while she racked her brain, trying to remember Shannon mentioning someone named Keenan. Nothing came to her. There had to be some mistake.

  “Anyway,” the chief said, “there’s some evidence she may have been intoxicated.”

  “Nonsense. She doesn’t drink.” Now Olivia knew for sure that the chief was getting misleading information about her daughter.

  “Okay.”

  “What do you know about the boy?” Olivia said. “Maybe he drugged her.”

  “We will consider that possibility,” the chief said.

  After hanging up, Olivia filled her husband in on the conversation.

  “These backwoods cops don’t have any idea what they’re doing,” she said.

  “Maybe,” Jack said. “But let’s just hope we can get more information by talking to them in person.”

  “How long is the drive?”

  “My memory is that it’s an hour from the airport.”

  Olivia waited with their bags while Jack rented a midsize car at the Avis desk in the Burlington International Airport. There was only a middle-aged businessman in line ahead of Jack, but his transaction seemed to take an inordinate amount of time, probably because he was flirting with the attractive twenty-something at the counter. Olivia wanted to strangle him.

  JACK CONSULTED a map before heading out of the parking area and then south in the direction of Middleton Falls. It had snowed recently, and the roadway was covered in brown slush. As the rental pulled away from the airport, a panel truck came by in the opposite direction and hit a pothole, spraying them with buckets of chocolatey snow cone. Jack had to use the wipers to regain visibility.

  “What a God-awful place,” Olivia said. “How does anyone live with these conditions?”

  “It’s really beautiful here. You’ll see once we get away from the airport.” Jack remembered how, four months ago when he had delivered Shannon to the Masterson campus, the Vermont mountains had been lush, seemingly much friendlier than the stark California terrain he was used to.

  “I’ve been here before,” Olivia snapped. “I just don’t understand why anyone would choose this over California sun.”

  A few miles out of town, the traffic disappeared and sun came out. The mountains sparkled on both sides of the highway. Olivia and Jack rode in silence with their eyes on the road in front of them.

  When they passed the sign that read Welcome to Middleton Falls, Jack spoke. “Should we check into our hotel first? Or go straight to the police station?”

  “You really have to ask that?”

  “What?”

  “Your daughter’s been missing for three days.”

  “If she’d turned up in the last hour, the police would have called. They have our cell numbers.”

  “That’s not the point. You don’t even seem like you’re worried.”

  “Of course I’m worried,” Jack said. “But I’m not sure that our presence at the police station is going to be helpful to them.”

  “How can you say that? She’s our daughter. We know her better than anyone else.”

  “Then how come we didn’t know she had a new boyfriend?”

  “I’m sure there’s an explanation,” Olivia said.

  “Probably. One like she wanted some independence. Privacy. A chance to live her life without having to report every detail to you.”

  “I don’t make her report to me.”

  “Sure you do. How many times a day do you call her?”

  “She calls me too.”

  “As much as you call her?”

  “No, but––”

  “See my point?”

  “You’re just jealous because I have a closer relationship with her.”

  “Sure. That’s it. So why’d she ask me to drive her across country last fall?”

  “She told me she thought you’d been working too hard. That you needed a break from work.”

  “That’s funny. She told me that she couldn’t stand the thought of five days of driving with you grilling her about her personal life.”

  Olivia gasped. “You’re lying. Why are you taking this out on me?”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Is it true?”

  “No, it isn’t,” he said.

  “I didn’t think so,” Olivia said, but her tone said that she now had her doubts, and Jack wished he hadn’t just lost control.

  Jack thought back to the trip east at the end of August. Shannon’s VW had been piled to the roof with her clothing and gear. He still remembered her expression when he’d reminded her to leave room for his carry-on suitcase. Sheepish at first, and then wry. “I figured you could keep your bag on your lap.” When he shook his head, she’d laughed. “Just kidding, Dad. We can strap it on the roof.” They’d eventually made room on the back seat. The trip had involved long days of driving, but they’d stopped to do a little sightseeing and managed to sample the soft-serve ice cream in various parts of the country along the way. It had been bittersweet to leave her behind when he got on the plane for home; he had known he would miss her, but felt gratified that she was clearly ready for this next phase of her life.

  Jack used the rental’s GPS to find the police station. He parked in one of the visitor spaces near the entrance. After getting out of the car, he waited on the sidewalk. Olivia sat with the car door open, staring at the ground, seemingly paralyzed.

  “What’s the matter?” Jack said.

  “I forgot my winter boots.”

  “Me too. I was so focused on Shannon.”

  “My shoes are Italian leather.”

  “You want me to carry you to the sidewalk?”

  “No. I want my boots.”

  “Do you want to go to the store for boots before we go see the police?”

  “No.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Olivia gingerly put the tip of one toe into the slush, then the other. She slammed the car door and leapt up to the sidewalk, which was slightly less slushy.

  “That was graceful,” Jack said and instantly regretted it. He was usually miles better at self-censoring. It must be the stress.

  Olivia glared at him as she tiptoed by and headed to the building. The dispatcher let them in almost immediately and the chief showed them to his office.

  DUSTIN WAS seated in the chief’s office at the work table that was piled with photos and papers. He got up and introduced himself before offering his chair to Olivia.

  “Please tell me what you’re doing to find my daughter,” Olivia said.

  “I’ve managed to track down a number of her friends from th
e dorm and the skating club. I’ve spoken by phone with the boy she’s been dating on campus. We went to her dorm room this morning.”

  “And what have you learned?”

  Dustin decided not to sugarcoat it. “A lot less than I’d hoped.”

  “Why don’t you give her the timeline,” the chief said.

  “On Friday night, she met up with some friends from the skating club and, at around 9:00 p.m., they went to a party off campus. Shannon drove her vehicle and parked on Maple Street. They were at the party for a while and then Shannon disappeared. The boyfriend and the friends all say that they didn’t see her after that.”

  “Is this really helpful?” Olivia said.

  “Absolutely,” the chief said. “Everything we nail down helps us figure out where to look next and who she crossed paths with, who to talk to.” He nodded at Dustin.

  Olivia was staring at Dustin and fiddling with her wedding ring. “Well. Then what?” she said.

  “The only other thing is that we located Shannon’s car on campus at her dormitory lot.” He wished he had more.

  “So she must have driven back to the dorm,” Olivia said.

  “Probably.” The chief nodded.

  “What happened at that party?” Jack said.

  Dustin shook his head. “We’re not sure. Everybody’s been vague about the party.”

  “Did anyone see her after the party?” Jack said.

  “Not that we’ve been able to find,” Dustin said.

  “We need to find out what happened at the party... who she left with,” Olivia said. Dustin didn’t appreciate her use of the royal we.

  “We’re working on it,” the chief said. “We think there was underage drinking, and that’s the reason for the code of silence.”

  “My daughter doesn’t drink,” Olivia said.

  Dustin was impressed that the chief was able to resist rolling his eyes before he answered. “You may be right, but we need to consider the possibility,” the chief said.

  “I’d like to interview more students, but it’s hard to conduct interviews on the phone,” Dustin said.

  “So, go out and do it in person,” Olivia said.

  “Finals ended on Friday,” Dustin said. “Everyone left town on Saturday. The college is a ghost town during the holidays.”

  “We can’t afford to send Officer Shores traipsing around the country trying to track down college students,” the chief said. “Our department’s yearly travel budget is in the thousands.”

  “I understand,” Jack said.

  “I don’t,” Olivia said.

  “They’ll all be back in a few weeks,” the chief said.

  “A few weeks is a long time,” Olivia said.

  “In the meantime, Officer Shores will keep working the phones and we’ll follow up on every local lead we have. Which reminds me, did you bring the key to Shannon’s vehicle? We’ve had it towed to our garage so we can go through it more thoroughly. Like I said before, it’ll be easier to move it when we’re done if we have the key.”

  Jack pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket and unclipped a VW key. “This should do it.”

  “Great, thanks. Now Officer Shores has a few questions for you.” The chief nodded toward Dustin.

  “That’s right,” Dustin said. The Dawsons turned their attention to him, and he felt pressure to impress them with his investigative prowess. It was a foreign feeling. “Does Shannon have any friends from home that she’s close to? People she might have told her plans to. People she might have met up with if she was going to make an unscheduled trip.”

  “I can give you a list of her friends,” Olivia said. Jack nodded.

  “Can you get us access to her Facebook page? Maybe she posted something there. Or maybe it will tell us who else we need to talk to.”

  “She wouldn’t ‘friend’ me,” Olivia said. “She said she wanted her Facebook page to be something she did with her friends.”

  “Sophie can probably help with that,” Jack said. “They were best friends in high school.”

  “Then we need to talk to Sophie. There’s one other thing. We found a Macbook in her dorm room. You wouldn’t happen to know the password? We can send it up to the computer geeks in Burlington for analysis, but that will take time.”

  “Please don’t waste any more time,” Olivia said. “We got the computer just before she left for college. I remember her saying there’s a login hint, in case she forgets her password. If you can show me the hint, I might be able to figure it out.”

  “Okay, let’s try it.” Dustin left the room and got the Macbook from the evidence locker. He was back a minute later.

  Olivia paced while Dustin opened the laptop and waited for it to come to life. He clicked on the login. “The hint is ‘jump number sign.’” Dustin’s voice fell with his hope. The clue was certainly cryptic.

  Olivia barely hesitated. “Try L-U-T-Z, probably with a capital L, followed by the number seven.”

  Dustin tapped the keyboard. “That’s it. We’re in. I can’t believe you figured it out on your first try.”

  “I know my daughter. The Lutz is her favorite jump because it makes her feel like she’s flying, and she always says that her lucky number is seven,” Olivia said, reaching for the laptop. “Let me have a look.”

  “Actually, ma’am, it would be better if you leave this to us. I’m going to ask you to sign a Consent to Search form for the computer, so I can read through her emails and see if I can access her Facebook page. When I’m done, I’ll send it up to Burlington. I’ll let you know what I find.”

  The chief presented her with a form and a pen. Olivia hesitated, looking pleadingly at her husband.

  Jack Dawson reached over, took the pen, and signed the form. “Let’s get out of their hair so they can do their jobs,” he said.

  “But––”

  “I’m sure they’ll check in with us after they’ve gone through the laptop. Right, chief?”

  “We’ll be in touch as soon as we have something to report. This laptop may keep us busy for a while, especially if it has all her contacts on it.”

  “Okay, we’ll be waiting for your call,” Olivia said.

  Jack gently steered his wife toward the door. “Let’s go buy some boots and check in at the hotel. Neither one of us slept much on the flight cross country.”

  As soon as they were gone, Dustin said, “Now that we’ve met the mother, I like the ran-away-from-home theory quite a bit better than I did before.”

  Chapter 6

  Saturday October 12, 2013

  SHANNON WAS surprised that Keenan insisted on walking out to the parking lot with her to get her car. “I feel bad I don’t have a car, so I can’t pick you up,” he said.

  “I don’t mind,” Shannon said. “I can get the car and pick you up at your dorm.”

  “No way. I believe in door-to-door service.”

  He met her at her dorm and they did the five-minute walk to the parking lot together. When they got there, he insisted on opening her door even though she was driving.

  “You’re nuts,” she said.

  “Probably. It’s just awkward that I can’t drive on our first date.”

  “Our first date was at the dining hall.”

  “That doesn’t count.”

  “Why not?”

  “Not romantic enough,” he said.

  They went to the China Palace and lingered over Moo Goo Gai Pan that was too salty and mushy. Shannon had always thought of Chinese food as full of healthy, crispy veggies. Apparently, not in Vermont. Keenan seemed to enjoy the food, and she realized she was happy to be there, the food notwithstanding.

  After dinner, they parked in town and went for a walk to the falls that gave the town its name. It was an impressive sight, a fifty-foot-wide swath of white water pouring over a ledge and plummeting thirty feet straight down. Keenan took her hand and led her down the path to the base of the falls. She felt the mist on her face when he kissed her for the first time. His warm li
ps and her cool skin. It made his lips seem even warmer.

  “I wanted our first kiss to be memorable,” he said. “After all, you only get one first kiss.”

  Chapter 7

  Tuesday, December 24, 2013

  HOW MUCH are we going to tell the parents?” Dustin said. He and the chief had been in the chief’s office until one in the morning skimming everything on Shannon’s laptop. They had agreed the night before to meet with Shannon’s parents at eight o’clock, so they were both back in the office before seven, steaming mugs of coffee in front of them. Dustin had printed and highlighted a stack of emails and Facebook postings.

  “Probably all of it.” the chief said. “You’d want to know if it was your kid, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yeah, but it’s going to be hard on them.”

  “It’s not like there’s no hope.”

  “Right, but the best case scenario at this point is that she was either abducted and is being held alive somewhere, or she hated them so much that she planned her own disappearance leaving no trace.”

  The chief shook his head. “The mom’s overbearing, but I doubt the kid disappeared herself just to avoid spending a few weeks with her parents. She’d already managed to get three thousand miles away from her mother. You don’t walk away from a free Masterson College degree.”

  “What about a kidnapping? Is there enough money there for that to be a possibility?”

  “Anything’s possible, but I think we would have heard if this was a kidnapping case.”

  “We should probably still explore that with the parents. In the interest of being thorough.”

  The dispatcher buzzed the intercom and a few minutes later Olivia and Jack Dawson entered the room. Dustin noticed they were both sporting what looked like new winter boots and parkas.

  “What can you tell us?” Olivia said.

  “Coffee?” the chief said.

  “No, thanks,” Olivia said.

  “I’ll take one,” Jack said. Olivia glared at him.

  “I’ll be right back,” the chief said.

  “Tell us what you found,” Olivia said.

  “I’d rather wait for the chief,” Dustin said. Olivia glared at Jack again. Dustin felt bad for the guy. His wife had the evil-eye thing down.