Chapter Two: Part One

CHAPTER TWO

Seaside, OR

October 5, 2018, 7:00PM

 

“Mom, I need to tell you something.”  The words still strike gut-wrenching terror into my heart.  At that moment, everything that I had ever known changed.  Megan, my youngest daughter, had disappeared.  She and Riley, my oldest daughter, had taken a quick sisters’ vacation.  Both were in their twenties and loved going to Seaside, a beach town on the northern Oregon coast.  These trips had their own rules.  No one else was invited.  No one else, in fact, was even allowed to ask about the sisters’ trips.

Riley was inside a restaurant paying their bill.  They’d eaten at Twisted Fish, an upscale restaurant on Broadway St.  Megan had stepped outside to use her phone.  When Riley walked out of the restaurant to meet her, Megan was gone.  Riley waited nervously for an hour to see if Megan would reappear.  She paced back and forth in front of the restaurant, asking everyone who came in or out if they’d seen the pretty blonde in the photo that she showed them.  They hadn’t.  Maybe Megan had seen a friend and was sitting inside at a table where Riley couldn’t see her.  She wasn’t.  Maybe she popped into one of the nearby stores.  She didn’t.  Finally, Riley gave up and walked back to the Ebb Tide Inn on the Promenade.  They both loved this hotel and stayed there whenever they came to Seaside. 

Riley was alternately panic stricken and livid on her trudge back to the hotel.  I knew the feeling.  Any parent who’s had teenagers knows the feeling.   It as if World War III is taking place in your heart and your head at the same time, and there’s no way to stop the battle.  She got to the room, ready to have it out with her sister, but Megan wasn’t there.  That’s when Riley called me.

My initial reaction was the same combination of fear and anger that Riley was feeling.  The words swirled through my mind.  “Where is that girl?  Damn her!  Not again!  She can find trouble even when there’s no trouble to find.”  I knew the police wouldn’t take us seriously.  Megan had been gone for less than two hours.  “What would a “good” mother do?” I asked myself.  “What would a mother do who never had a child that got into trouble?”  I didn’t know.  That wasn’t my station in life.  Trying to stay calm, I told Riley that I’d be there as quickly as I could.  Portland was only about eighty miles from Seaside, but it was dark and raining.  Worse still, it was a Friday night.  Traffic in Portland would be insane, and the roads between there and Seaside were dark and dangerous in a storm. 

As I made that long, lonely drive, I had time to ponder the alternatives.  Chances were good that Megan would be at the hotel when I got there.  She had a wretched gift for causing the greatest amount of commotion with the least amount of effort of any young person I had ever known.  I mulled over what my next steps should be if Megan wasn’t there yet. 

      I knew that I’d have to maintain my composure.  Hysteria didn’t work well for me.  I’d tried it a few times, and ugliness always ensued.  I’d do my best to talk Riley into staying in the hotel room in case Megan came back.  I’d have to go back downtown to see if I could find her in the throng of restaurants, bars and stores that adorned the main street.  Going to the police would be the last thing I’d attempt because of their inability to do much when an adult disappears.  At least in the short term.  It took over three hours for me to get to the Ebb Tide, and by that time, I was verging on the dreaded hysteria that I so longed to avoid.

      Knocking on the door of their room, I prayed that Megan would answer the door, but she didn’t.  Instead, Riley answered my knock, looking like a ghost.  She was pale, with dark circles under her eyes.  Clearly, she’d been crying.  I sat Riley down and tried to calm her.  Megan hadn’t even called. 

      “Mom,” Riley sniffed, trying to hold back her tears, “what scares me the most is that it feels like Megan just doesn’t exist anymore.  Like she isn’t anywhere.  I’ve always felt like Megan and I shared the same soul, but while I was paying the bill at the restaurant, that connection just suddenly disappeared.  I’ve never felt anything like it before.  I’m terrified!”  With that, Riley started to sob.

      Even through the dark times, when I had little money to pay the bills, when both of the girls were struggling to assert their independence, when the economy sank and I lost my job, I had a sense that God would provide.  He always had.  Now I dug deep for that reassurance that things would be alright once again.

      Riley and I decided that the best course of action would be for me to go back to The Fish, as the restaurant was known to locals, where Megan was last seen.  Riley would wait in the hotel room in case Megan found her way to the room.  Riley wanted to be the one who went back downtown since she knew the area better than I did, but my motherly instincts didn’t want both of my daughters alone on the dark, stormy streets of Seaside.

      I left Riley at the Ebb Tide, walking quickly downtown.  I showed Megan’s picture to the patrons and employees of Twisted Fish, but nobody had seen her since dinner time.  I felt drawn to go check the tavern down the street, which was strange as I was a recovering alcoholic.  Taverns weren’t a good place for me.  Just maybe, though, Megan had wandered in there.  I checked in every restaurant and store along the route to the Bridge Tender Tavern.

         Nothing.  Nobody had seen her.  I talked with the tavern owner, who seemed sympathetic to my plight.  I could tell he knew that feeling of being on the cliff’s edge between rage and fear.  He sat me down at a corner table where there was some small semblance of privacy.  It looked out over a small slip of a river.  Nothing like the mighty Columbia or the Willamette Rivers in Portland.  It actually felt right to be here at this time – in the Bridge Tender Tavern.  The name made it sound as though there was somebody here who would watch out for me if I needed a hand.  Which I did.  In a minute, the owner escorted a man over to the table where I sat.  The man, with gray streaks in his hair, had an interesting experienced look to his face.  It was clear that in his younger days he had probably been quite attractive.  Now, though, he looked tired and drawn, as though he hadn’t eaten or slept enough in a long time.

He introduced himself, shaking my hand and pulling out a chair to seat himself.  “Detective Quinn.  Seaside Police.  Retired.  So, your daughter hasn’t come home tonight?” he asked in a strong, yet gentle voice.  His body language expressed concern.

“No, that’s not it,” I explained.   “We don’t live here.  My daughters are just visiting, and are staying at the Ebb Tide Inn.  When my older daughter was paying the bill over at Twisted Fish, Megan, my younger daughter, stepped outside to make a call.  When Riley left the restaurant a couple of minutes later, Megan was gone.  She hasn’t been seen or heard from since then.”

“Did you look around to see if you could find anything of hers?  Might she have lost something and gone looking for it?” he asked.

“No,” I answered sheepishly.   “I didn’t.  I hadn’t even thought of it.  By this time, though, I would have expected her to at least call her sister.  That is,” I paused, “unless she lost her phone while being snatched off the street, or. . .”  My voice faded.  “Unless she fell down a rabbit hole and scored some drugs.”

Detective Quinn took a long breath.  He didn’t react to my comment about drugs.  Police officers were probably so used to that unfortunate side of life, that it didn’t even phase them anymore.  “Mrs…. I’m sorry.  I didn’t get your name.”

“Susan.  Edwards.  You can just call me Sue.”

“Alright, Mrs. Edwards,” he said ignoring my direction.  Let’s take a quick look around to see if we can find a purse or phone, anything that belonged to her.  Why don’t you check out the ladies’ restroom over at Twisted Fish,” he suggested, “to see if she went in there?  It’s possible that she dropped something, and spent some time looking around for it.  Maybe she didn’t see your other daughter when she left.  Or she could have had one glass of wine too many and didn’t remember how to get back to the hotel.  Let’s try to keep this situation from seeming worse than it probably is.  While you head over to The Fish, I’ll go outside to see if I can find anything.”

It took me no more than ten minutes to search the ladies’ room over at the restaurant up the street.  I didn’t find a thing.  “Oh, Lord.  Please let her be okay.  Please.” 

Strangely, after that quick plea to God, I could have sworn that someone whispered “OK” in my ear.  I was trying so hard to keep my senses about me that I was completely startled.  I twirled around to see who had spoken, but no one was there.  Chills ran up and down my spine as I bolted out the front door of the restaurant.

 

***