Chapter 41
WE SEARCHED for Alice with methodical desperation.
A few friends’ homes were abandoned. Others had occupants, but none who had seen Alice that day. The high school was locked, and I didn’t want to break a window to get in. Once someone broke the first window, the other windows would follow in quick succession. The St Vincent de Paul store sat unlocked, the air heavy with the musty aromas of secondhand clothing and bleach. We roamed the aisles, but it wasn’t until I kicked a pair of moldy tennis shoes away from the last changing room that Ceren said, “If she’d been here, she would have taken that blouse by the door. She wasn’t.”
I drove Ceren out to Winchester Mall and introduced her to the Lightners. We paced the mall shouting Alice’s name and peering into clothing stores. No
