Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 34

I pulled up Jake's contact info and called him.

"Detective Jake Alpert. Oh, Tyler. Hi. What's up? I spoke to Jenna and Sam today already. Everything okay?"

"No. Jake. Everything is very much not okay. Jenna mentioned to Samantha that we knew Stanley had escaped the day she was taken. Samantha's run away. We need help. I - we need to keep this out of the press. We can't have a story about her running away right after she was kidnapped."

"Are you sure she's run away? Maybe she's at a friend's?"

"She doesn't know where her friend Jill lives because she's never been there. She packed a bag. She's gone Jake. And you know what she's dealt with."

"Okay. I'll be over right away. I'm going to get a few officers together to come with. Start calling around and see if anyone has heard from her. Call her phone. See if you can locate her."

"Thanks Jake," I said, hanging up.

"What's going on?" Josh asked, coming downstairs.

"Sam ran away," I said. "Jenna mentioned we knew that Stanley had escaped and while she was in the shower, she took off."

"Why?" Josh asked.

"Because she doesn't feel safe. My guess, she doesn't think we can protect her if we knew Stanley had escaped from jail, and sent her to school that morning."

"We should have kept her home," Jenna said.

"We can't change the past," I said.

"Did you call the cops?" Josh asked.

"I called Jake. He's on his way over. Start calling around. See if anyone has heard from her. Shit! Brendon and Sarah's plane took off. They won't be reachable for amother couple of hours."

"I'll call Pete and Patrick. You call Gerard and Zack, and Erin. Maybe Jill has heard from Sam," Josh suggested.

"Okay," I said. "Jenna, it's okay, you didn't do anything wrong."

Jenna was sitting at the kitchen table crying into her hands. I didn't want her to think I blamed her. I think she was blaming herself enough.

"I shouldn't have told her we knew Stanley had escaped," she said.

"Hey, we promised honesty always. You had no idea she'd run."

"I should have known," Jenna said. "Remember when Stanley got out before his bail hearing? She tried to run to protect us. Now she's run because she doesn't think we can, or maybe that we won't, protect her."

I hugged her.

"We'll find her. I promise, we'll find her. She can't have gone far, for starters. She's a kid. On foot."

I pulled up Gerard's number and called him.

"Tyler! How's it going man? You guys had one hell of a Christmas I heard. Has Sam started talking yet?"

Josh had kept all our friends in the loop when sam went missing, but I guess he hadn't told everyone when Sam started speaking again.

"Uh, yeah. Christmas morning," I said.

"Oh! Awesome! You must be so relieved with her birth dad being gone, and she's starting to heal! I wanted to come out there and help out, but Josh told us not to. Sounds like you had a pretty full house."

"Yeah. Yeah we did. Listen, G, have you heard from Sam at all?"

"Not recently. She texted me on Christmas to answer all the texts I sent when she was missing. She said she was home and she was okay. But otherwise, um, no. Not recently."

"Nothing today? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Why? Is everything okay?"

"Not exactly. She's mad at us and took off. We're hoping she's reached out to someone who might be able to talk her into coming home."

"Oh no," Gerard said. "Fuck. I'm sorry. No. But I can try to text her. Keep me in the loop, okay?"

I said I would and hung up. I had pretty much the same conversation with Zack and Erin called Jill, who said she hadn't heard from Sam today but would try to call or text her.

Josh said Pete and Patrick hadn't heard from Sam in a few days. He's texted Brendon and Sarah and asked them to call right away when they landed. That it was urgent.

About five minutes later, Jake showed up and started taking notes about everything that had happened.

The doorbell rang and Josh's answered it. It was Jill and Erin. They came into the living room. Erin hugged Jenna.

"I know you probably don't really want us here but Jill might be able to get in touch with Sam, and we thought if she can, being here might get the info to everyone faster."

"Thank you," Jenna said.

"Jill," Jake said. "I'm Detective Alpert. Have you spoken to Sam at all today?"

"Well, she did text me and told me she was upset. I asked her why and she said that she'd learned something that upset her and she didn't know what to do about it. But she didn't say anything more after that," Jill said, showing Jake her phone.

"Okay. So this was sent at," Jake looked at the time stamps. "Two forty. Jenna. What time did you go take a shower?"

"About two forty-five, I think. Give or take."

"And what time did you get home from the airport?" He asked me.

"Uh, three-thirty," I said. "Also given or take."

"Okay. So we have a 45 minute window where Sam could have thrown some things in a bag and left. Where could she have gotten to, on foot in a half hour or less?"

"The park," I said. "The one with the bridge over the river."

"She wouldn't go there in the cold," Josh mused.

"Her old house?" Jenna asked in a whisper.

"She wouldn't go there, would she?" I asked.

"I know that's the last place I'd want to go," Josh said.

"Okay, we'lol check her old house. Jill, she wouldn't go to your house would she?" Jake asked.

"She's never been to my house. I don't think she knows where it is."

"Okay," Jake said.

We brainstormed where else we could think Sam would go, but we didn't know where else she could have gone. We didn't know so much about her life before us. We didn't know if she had friends from her old school, and if she'd try to contact them.

"What about the cemetery?" Jenna asked.

"What cemetery?" I asked.

"Where her mom is buried?"

Jake added it to the list, though we'd have to figure out where that was.

Jake sent the officers to check the locations we'd listed. He also put out a notice to put out a bulletin for the police to be on the lookout for a runaway. He added her description and what she was wearing, and that it's critical she be found because she is diabetic and we'd noticed she hadn't taken any medications or insulin with her.