Marie was sitting on her sun porch sipping tea, too deep in thought to realize it had started to rain. Rachael had been gone two weeks, and Marie had to admit not a day had gone by that she didn’t think about her. She thought about her own teen years and how much harder a time Rachael was having in hers. “I just want to fit in somewhere,” she had said—a sad, unsettling statement. The phone interrupted her thoughts. “What?!” Marie couldn’t believe she had heard Claire correctly. “When did this happen?” She sat down, afraid her knees would buckle from underneath her. “Have they checked with all her friends?” Marie hung up the phone and let everything Claire had said sink in. Then she called Karen. “I have some terrible news. Ben’s been shot and is lying in some hospital room, and Rachael is missing.” “What?!” “Claire just called me. I don’t know what to think or what I should do.” “Are you thinking of going there?” Thoughts raced through her mind.
