Blood Wounds Read Free Page B

a pad by the phone in the kitchen. I wrote down, "Call Faye," and went to the second message.
    "It's me again. Terri, I don't want you to get concerned or anything, but there's an Amber Alert for one of the twins. I'm not sure what's going on, but I really need you to call me as soon as you get in."
    Faye didn't have any kids, so I tried to figure out who the twin might be, and why Faye or Mom would care. It was possible Mom's brother, Martin, had twins. Martin and his wife live in Idaho, in some kind of cult. The last Mom heard, they had eight daughters, but since Martin thought Mom was an infidel for leaving her husband, he'd stopped talking to her. Martin's ten years older than Mom anyway, and they were never very close. He might have twins, although most of his daughters were older than I was, so I couldn't see why there'd be an Amber Alert for any of them. Maybe the twin was one of his grandkids; Mom figured he must have a boatload by now. I wasn't certain how Amber Alerts worked, but maybe they were national and Faye had heard about it somehow.
    The third message was thirty minutes old. "Terri, call me as soon as you can. It sounds like Budge is in a lot of trouble. Have you heard from him? Just call me, okay?"
    I underlined "Call Faye" three times and tried to figure out who Budge was. I didn't think it was any of Faye's exes or if it was, why Faye would think Mom would have heard from him.
    I knew I wasn't going to like the fourth message. But I played it anyway.
    "Terri, look, I've gotta talk to you. The news about Budge, it sounds really bad, and not hearing from you has got me worried. Call me the second you get in. I need to hear that you're all right. As soon as you get this message, call. I'm starting to go crazy."
    I called Mom's cell. I got her voice mail.
    "Mom, something's going on with Faye," I said. "Someone named Budge is in trouble, and there's an Amber Alert for a twin, and I have no idea what she's talking about. But call her, okay, and then call me?"
    I hung up, and almost without thinking, I called her again. "Call me first," I said. "I'm home. Call here."
    I realized then that I was shaking, like Faye's craziness had infected me. Someone I'd never heard of thousands of miles away was in some unknown trouble, and all I felt was terror.
    I called Jack. He answered on the first ring.
    "Jack, I'm scared," I said. "Something horrible has happened and I can't find Mom and I don't know what's going on."
    "Where are you?" he asked. "Willa, are you all right?"
    "I'm fine," I said. "It's Faye. She called Mom four times to tell her something bad's happened to someone named Budge. I don't understand any of it, but there's an Amber Alert for a twin and I guess this Budge person's involved, and Faye's really scared for Mom. I called Mom twice now, but she didn't pick up her cell, so I'm scared too." Just telling Jack all that made me feel better, made me feel foolish.
    Jack said the right things. Jack always said the right things. "I need you to do two things," he said. "First, look on the chart and see where Terri is scheduled to be."
    The chart was right in front of me. "Alyssa has practice from two to four," I said.
    "All right," Jack said. "I'll call the club. It could be Terri turned off her cell. Now I need you to give me Faye's phone number."
    "She's at work," I said. "Let me get her work number and her cell number."
    "Do that," Jack said. "I'll call and find out what's going on."
    I dug through the address book until I found both numbers. "Do you understand any of this?" I asked Jack, after I read him the numbers. "Do you know who Budge is?"
    "No," Jack said. "Look, I'll find out from Faye what's going on, and I'll track Terri down, and then I'll get back to you. Meanwhile, try to get your homework done and don't worry. All right?"
    "All right," I said. I hung up the phone and stood frozen with indecision. I knew I couldn't concentrate on homework or dusting. I wanted desperately to go to the basement,