No Matter What

Chapter 9

Meryl was sitting in the owner's office when Stacy ran in. "Meryl!"

"Stace." Meryl cried when she saw her husband's favorite cousin. "Have you heard from him?"

Stacey shook her head as she sat down next to Meryl and put a glass of water on the table beside her. "No, but Max is looking all around." Stacey said referring to the owner. "Here, drink."

"I...I...can't." Meryl shook her head as she wrung her hands together. "This isn't like him, you know it. That man didn't even want me to go to the bathroom alone."

Stacy smiled softly though her clouded eyes. "I had Max check the men's rooms."

"I'm telling you, Stace, he's disappeared." Meryl sobbed as she twirled her wedding rings. "I no longer think I'm overreacting."

"I didn't think you were overreacting when I got Max's call." Stacey said as she held Meryl's hand. "You tell me why you say that though."

Meryl looked up at her in despair. "Think about it, Stace. He was worried about me meeting him out there. He would have been at the door in the car, immediately, so I wasn't standing out there alone with as worried as he was. He wasn't. The car hadn't been moved. He just vanished. He's not anywhere in the building. He wasn't in the parking lot-I looked EVERYWHERE. It has been half an hour, and he hasn't called me. You KNOW him, he would be blowing up my phone."

"True." Stacey smiled. "He would also have the national guard here."

Mike ran into the room. "We might not be the national guard, but we are the next best thing."

"Mike!" Meryl sobbed as she practically fell in his arms. "Something is wrong. You know it."

Larry hugged Meryl after he hugged Stacey. "He wouldn't just leave you. You don't have keys to the car?"

"I don't, he had the only set." Meryl said as she looked at both men. "I am guessing you haven't heard from him."

Mike shook his head. "I have tried calling over and over."

"Me too." Larry said. "I will keep calling."

Meryl was trying to remain strong, but it was hard to do without her husband who was her strength. "My babies?"

"They were sleeping when we left." Larry told her. "I'm sure they will be down for hours, and when they wake up, they will have both their parents with them."

Meryl wished she was that positive, but she wasn't. "Have you called the police? Put out an APB?"

"Not yet." Mike said gently. "Honey, we can't unless we have proof or he was been gone for 24 hours."

Meryl's eyes got huge. "Proof? How about that Don was going to get the car, the car is still there unmoved and he's gone. No trace of him. This is NOT Donald Gummer. That is proof enough."

"We agree." Larry tried to calm his best friend's wife down, but he knew there was no way that would happen. "That is why we called in some favors, and the police are on it."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap." Meryl sobbed. "I know all of you are just as terrified as I am."

Stacey exchanged looks with Larry and spoke what she knew was on both of their minds. "Honey, why don't you let me take you back to Mike and Maggie's? You can wait for Don there."

"I think that's a good idea." Mike chimed in. "Larry and I will talk to the police."

Meryl shook her head. "What if he comes back and looks for me here and I'm gone? I want to talk to the police. He moved heaven and earth when Mann took me and Henry all those years ago, I am not going to leave any stone left unturned."