Daddy's Christmas Miracle: Santa in a Stetson. Rebecca Winters

Chapter Two

      Not two seconds after Colt parked in front of the Wagners’ house, their car pulled into the driveway. Reed was with his wife. No one else was in the car.

      Colt got out and walked over to them. Wendie rushed toward him. “It’s good to see you.” She gave him a hug and said hello to Matt, who’d trailed him.

      “Hey, Colt.” Reed broke out in a broad smile. “To what do we owe this honor?”

      “Matt and I just got out of a movie and thought we’d come by to see how the sleepover’s going before we drive home. Allie had a bad cold when she left for school. I almost didn’t let her go and wanted to see if it was worse.”

      Both of them looked surprised. “What sleepover?” Wendie asked.

      The question was like a punch to the gut. “Obviously there wasn’t one. I thought something was wrong when I saw Michelle and Carrie at the movie. Did Allie come home with Jen after school?”

      “No. I picked her up and took her to the orthodontist. Tonight she’s been tending Chelsey and David so we could go to a wedding.”

      An icy sensation crept through Colt’s veins.

      “You haven’t seen her since she left for school this morning?” she asked.

      “No.”

      Matt shot him a worried glance.

      “Come into the house,” Reed urged. “We’ll find out from Jen where she is.”

      The four of them went inside. Reed called to his blonde daughter, who came into the living room dressed in army fatigue pajamas. The second she saw Colt, she froze.

      “Hi, Mr. Brenner.” She didn’t look in the least happy to see him. It was very unlike her.

      “Pumpkin?” her father inserted. “Do you know where Allie is? She didn’t come home from school today.”

      Jen averted her eyes so fast that it reminded Colt of his daughter when she’d told him her cold wasn’t a big deal and she didn’t want to talk about it.

      Wendie put an arm around her. “If you have an idea where she is, tell Colt so we won’t have to phone everyone we know. It’s late. We’d hate to have to disturb people who might be in bed by now.”

      Jen kept her head bowed. “She made me promise not to tell.”

      “Tell what?” Colt asked, trying to remain calm.

      “Yesterday she told me she wouldn’t be at school today. She said she’d be back the next day and asked me to do her a favor, so I did.”

      “What favor?”

      “When our homeroom teacher took roll this morning, I—I told her Allie was in the restroom and would come in with a late pass,” she stammered. “That’s why the school didn’t call you.”

      “Jennifer Wagner!” Reed exploded.

      “I know that was wrong, Dad. I’m sorry, Mr. Brenner. Allie said that in case you called here, I should get Chelsey to tell you all the girls had gone to a movie. But Allie was positive you wouldn’t phone.” Her voice wobbled, producing another moan from her parents.

      Colt’s body shuddered in reaction. “You have no idea where she went?”

      “No. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have agreed to help her.” She started crying.

      “It’s not your fault, Jen. My daughter put you in an impossible position. For that I’m sorry.”

      Matt’s stricken expression set off another alarm bell. “Maybe you should call the Greyhound bus depot and find out if she got on a bus this morning.”

      For his son to tell him that … “What do you know about this?”

      His gaze didn’t flinch. “Nothing, but last week when Rich and I went to the Bozeman Bowl after school, I thought I saw her going in the bus depot. Rich said I was just seeing things because a lot of girls wore North Face parkas. That night I asked her about it. She said she hadn’t been downtown, but she got mad about it. I thought that was kind of weird for her to be upset about a simple question.”

      Colt whipped out his phone to call information. The minute he was connected to the depot, he told the person who answered to put him on with the manager. “This is an emergency.”

      “Just a moment, sir.”

      He felt as if someone had just sucked all the air out of his lungs.

      “This is Mr. Padakis, the manager. How can I help you, Mr. Brenner?”

      “My daughter’s been missing since seven this morning. I thought she went to school, but I now believe she may have taken a bus today, probably this morning. Her name is Allison Brenner. She’s fifteen. Before I call the police, can you find out if she purchased a ticket? Any information you can give me would be helpful.”

      “I’m sorry to hear this. Give me a moment. I’m looking in the system now. Yes, here she is. A. Brenner, Circle B Ranch. She bought a round-trip ticket to Salt Lake City.”

      Salt Lake? Allie didn’t know anyone there. They had no family there.

      “The bus left at 7:40 a.m. She’s due back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.”

      He gripped the phone tighter. “What time does that bus start back to Bozeman?”

      “Let’s see. 8:30 a.m.”

      That made it an eight-and-a-half hour trip. He checked his watch. She would have arrived in Salt Lake by four today. It gave her fifteen, sixteen hours to do whatever she planned to do in that amount of time. The stone in Colt’s throat made it nearly impossible to talk.

      “Thank you very much, Mr. Padakis.”

      “I hope everything’s all right.”

      “So do I,” he whispered in shock and hung up. In the next breath he reached blindly for Matt and hugged him hard. “You weren’t wrong. She went to Salt Lake on a bus this morning.”

      Matt’s head flew back. “You’re kidding.”

      “I wish I were, but that gives the police something to go on.”

      A dozen questions filled Colt’s mind.

      The Wagners looked pained. “What can we do to help?” Wendie asked.

      “Thanks for offering, but this is a matter for the police. I want them to find out how many other passengers on that bus were headed for Salt Lake. Maybe she has a boyfriend who talked her into going.”

      “No.” Jen shook her head. “She would have told me.”

      “I thought she told me everything, too, Jen.” Colt’s features turned grim. “The fact that none of us, including her own twin, knew her agenda, let alone that she asked you to lie for her, tells me my daughter has some deep-seated problems. Come on, Matt. Let’s go home. I’ll phone the police on the way.”

      The Wagners walked them out to the truck. Colt gave Jen a hug before he drove off with Matt and made the call. He didn’t hang up with the chief detective until they’d reached the ranch.

      As he shut off the motor Matt turned to him. “Are they going to look for her?”

      Colt nodded. “They’ll make inquiries, but he told me not to be too worried since she bought a round-trip ticket. The Salt Lake police will be at the bus depot in the morning when she shows up, so he told me it would be a waste of my time to fly there.”

      “But we’re going to go anyway, right?”

      He’d never loved his son more than at this moment. “Right.” They walked around back and entered the house. “We’ll have to leave for the airport at five. That’s not very far away. I’ll