Nathan looked over the rest of us. “Stay inside today,” he said. “I don’t need anyone else to go missing. Understand?” A hint of dominance coloured his words, and the others all dispersed immediately. Only I remained by his side.
“It’s like Eric,” I said. I wasn’t sure why I said it, only that I had the same feeling as when he had left.
“Let’s hope not,” Nathan said. “She needs to be close to Byron, but she was doing so much better. She was happy here.”
“So was Eric,” I reminded him.
He frowned.
Mara returned, out of breath. “Her wardrobe is empty,” she said. “It looks like everything is gone.”
“So she left us?” Nathan sounded doubtful. “I’m going to call Jeremy, see if he heard from her. Maybe she needed a change of scene and didn’t want to deal with the goodbyes.”
He headed to the house, but Mara steered me back to the front gate. “She didn’t run away,” she hissed when we were out of hearing distance from anyone in the pack.
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a bag she keeps in my wardrobe because there’s a space at the top that’s practically hidden. All of her important stuff is in there, passport, money, stuff like that. If she was going to run, that’s the bag she’d take.” She lowered her voice. “It’s still there.”
“What does this mean?”
“That she didn’t leave of her own free will,” she said. “Somebody made it look like she left.”
Her chest was heaving with panic. I gripped her shoulders. “It’s all right. We can fix this. You have to tell Nathan.”
“We can’t trust anyone!” A desperate note took over her words.
“Do you trust me?”
She nodded slowly.
“Then tell Nathan. Ask him not to make it public. He won’t. If somebody’s responsible for Alex’s disappearance, it’s best not to let them know what we know, and he’ll understand that. Go into my house, find Perdita, and stay there. I’ll get Nathan home, and we can talk privately. All right?”
Her chin trembled, but she nodded. Worrying for Alex was about the only time she could let me take charge.
By the time I found Nathan and persuaded him to go home for a few minutes, I was afraid Mara had run, but Perdita had calmed her down.
“What’s going on?” Nathan said, sitting on the arm of the sofa.
“Mara found something important,” I said. “And she needs you to keep it quiet. It’s a secret of Alex’s, but it could be proof that Alex didn’t run.”
“She didn’t run!” Mara said vehemently. “She wouldn’t have left me. We always agreed… if things went bad here, we’d leave together.”
“Tell us what you know,” Perdita said. “If it can help us make sure Alex is all right…”
“We’re not going to force her to stay here if she doesn’t want to,” Nathan said, sounding perturbed. “We just want to know she’s safe.”
“But that’s the thing! She wanted to be here. We both did. I… I don’t think she’s safe.” She wiped a few stray tears then began again. “Alex’s passport was her most important possession.”
Nathan and Perdita exchanged a look, but I knew exactly why it was important to Alex. We had nothing before the Evans family took us in. The passports were a step toward legitimacy, our first real possession. Mara was right. Alex was impulsive and reckless, but she would never leave without her precious things. I didn’t believe she’d leave without telling Mara either. Perdita had tried her best to connect with Mara when she arrived, but it was Alex who had gotten through to her, and they’d been close ever since.
“Alex kept the passport hidden with my things in a bag with other stuff, money, documentation, things she might need if she left. All of her clothes and everything are gone, but that bag is still there, untouched. Me and Alex were the only ones who knew about it. And if she didn’t bring it with her, then Alex didn’t want to leave.”
Nathan hissed, his fingers clenching into fists. “A pack member has to be involved. This will cause panic.”
“You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone,” Mara said.
“I won’t risk letting anyone know we’re onto them,” Nathan said in a dark tone.