Unexpectedly, Milo - Matthew Dicks [99]
“No, I have their numbers and addresses. I just didn’t want to start asking questions to strangers, right out of the blue, especially if they don’t know who Tess is.” Milo paused for a moment, thought about how honest he could be with this woman, and then continued. “Truthfully, Tess might not want to be found. She disappeared a long time ago. Ran away from home as a kid. I’m trying to find her to let her know that it’s okay to come home. If she wants to.”
The rosy expression on Macy’s face quickly shifted to one of disapproval, making Milo wish he had said nothing. “People usually disappear for a reason,” she said. “If your friend wanted to be found, don’t you think she would’ve popped her head up out of the sand by now?”
“Maybe. But she doesn’t know everything that’s happened. Back home, I mean. I think she’d like to hear what’s going on.”
“Well, I don’t like it,” Macy said. “Not one bit. If she wanted to know, she’d check things out for herself. But if you’re going to get in touch with those people, I suggest you do it face-to-face. If they know where your girl is, they ain’t gonna say so over the phone. No way in hell. I don’t think they’ll tell you anyway, to be honest, but you got a better chance if you do it face-to-face. That’s what I think.”
Milo thought Macy was probably right. He checked his watch.
Six thirty.
Still time to knock on a couple doors if he hurried.
chapter 24
There were many reasons Milo did not want to knock on Kelly Plante’s front door. First and foremost, he was afraid of the reaction that he might receive from this stranger and had no desire to become engaged in a verbal confrontation. Just finding a way to start off the conversation would be difficult enough. If she was a relative of Tess Bryson and had been complicit in her disappearance, she might still be protective of Tess, fearful that Sean Bryson or someone working for him might be looking for his long-lost daughter. If so, their conversation could quickly become heated.
But Milo also did not like the business of going door to door and presenting himself to strangers. The last time he had done such a thing, events had not turned out well.
He had been fourteen years old at the time, working on a door-to-door campaign with his Boy Scout troop. He and his fellow scouts were canvassing the neighborhoods of his hometown of Vernon, Connecticut, on a bottle and can collection drive. This was an annual event for his troop. The money earned from the deposits on the collected recyclables would help fund the troop’s upcoming trip to Camp Yawgoog, a Boy Scout camp in southern Rhode Island and one of Milo’s favorite places on the planet. Though the boys were instructed to remain in pairs while knocking on doors, Milo’s partner, Scotty Gould, had suggested that they could cover more ground if they split up and worked opposite sides of the street. Thinking it a good idea, Milo had agreed.
Things had started off fine. Between the two of them, Scotty and Milo had managed to cover four blocks in the time that it would’ve taken them to cover two. And for the most part, they were always in sight of each other. Milo might turn the corner just ahead of Scotty, or vice versa, but if so, the boys were out of each other’s view for no more than a couple of minutes. Eventually, the plastic bags that they filled were placed on the corners of each block, tied to a street sign or telephone pole, and adult leaders in cars would drive by and pick them up. The system, perfected over the years, was working well, and Milo and Scotty were carrying more than their share of the load thanks to their slight violation of the rules. But as the afternoon progressed, they grew complacent, a condition that success often breeds, so by the time they had started their second hour of work, the two were hardly looking for each other anymore.
It was Milo’s last block of the day. He was on Skinner Road, about half a mile down from the elementary school where he had spent his kindergarten through fifth grade years. The house was a green cape with white shutters.