It was Dan who made the call to the Lancasters. Neither he nor Tim had bothered telling John that they were calling his parents. It occurred to them that John just might bolt out of there if he knew. It was still tough to read the kid. In any case, Dan reluctantly agreed to place the call. He'd done some investigating on his own. Checking the local missing children's files and then the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, he'd come to realize no report had been filed for John Damon Lancaster.

He tapped his ink pen on the chewed up looking blotter on the desk as the phone rang on the other end. For all he knew, this kid's parents had just accepted that their kid had run off to join a cult. Maybe not knowing where their child was or what he was doing was a fair trade off for peace and quiet. And did they have other children? Dan had never thought to ask John if he had other siblings.

But after speaking with Donna Lancaster, Dan knew that the Lancasters had not been living in peace.

"Is this about Damon?" she asked. There was more than a hint of excitement in her voice.

"Ma'am, is there any way you and your husband can come down to the Patterson Sheriff's office?"

"Please, is he all right?"

Something in her voice sounded so frail. It tugged on his heart. The regular guy in him wanted to blurt out that John was alive and okay, but the police officer in him kept his voice even and gave little information.

"I can send a car over to pick you up, if you'd like."

She sighed raggedly, trying not to loose control over the phone.



There was no time to shower. Blake had come running when Donna had run out into the yard almost falling face first into the lawn mower. He turned off the machine and caught her.

"What is it, Donna?"

"They called from the Sheriff's office? I know it's about Damon. I know it's about him."

Blake felt his stomach lurch. This couldn't be good. Damon could not be dead. The lingering thought of the decomposed body that had been discovered just across the county line taunted him. He'd purposely tossed the newspaper when he'd read the story. All they had said was a young white male. It couldn't be Damon.

He put his arm around Donna's shoulders and ushered her back into the house. "What exactly did they say?"

"For us to come to the Sheriff's station."

"If it was Damon, they would have brought him home. Maybe you forgot to pay a parking ticket or something."

She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling chilled in the middle of her kitchen. "He can't be dead. I would feel it if he were. Remember the time he hit his head at the pool. All day I was out of sorts. I just knew something had happened. I felt like something was wrong. Then he comes in the door with his head wrapped up. "

Blake nodded. But he couldn't shake the feeling that this was bad. God only knew how Donna would react to bad news. She'd probably blame him. Parents were always to blame. Either they did too much or not enough. They had always stood together when it came to Damon and the challenges that seemed to surround him. Since Damon had been deposited into Miss Lila Savoy's care, the Lancasters had drifted apart.

Blake shook his head involuntarily, trying to cast the dark thoughts out of his head. He needed to think about Donna. If something had happened to Damon, it would kill Donna. There was no doubt in his mind about that. Why hadn't that stupid cop told her anything? Heartless prick couldn't have cared any less for the torment he was putting them through.

After grabbing a clean shirt and splashing cold water on his face, Blake and Donna rushed out to their car and backed it out of the driveway. Blake looked over at his wife. The faint lines that fanned out from the corner of her eye seemed deeper, more pronounced. Had the last few weeks aged her that much?

He reached out, laying his hand on her knee. "It's going to be all right. You'll see, Donna." He forced a smile, knowing how hollow his statement sounded.