Sugar Baby

His face screwed up in thought. “I don’t know. I just saw it when he held it in his hand.”

“What did the other man do?”

“He just fell over.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know. That’s when I ran inside to tell you.”

She studied him intently for a minute. “Okay, champ. Here’s what we’ll do. I’m going to call the desk and ask about this. If something like that actually happened, they would know about it. Okay?”

“Okay, Mommy.” He drew a big breath and went over to the bedside table, planting himself firmly by the phone. Claire sighed again. No getting around it, she was going to have to call.

Two minutes later she hung up feeling chastened. Her questions had been greeted with patient good humor by the desk clerk. A shooting? At the White Hotel? Ha-ha. By LaRue’s finest? No, ma’am, hardly. Somebody was surely having a joke at her expense, she was told. This was just lovely, she decided, kicking off her shoes. For the rest of her stay at the precious White, she would be known as that paranoid woman in three-twelve. Grumbling, she headed into the bathroom. That shower seemed more appealing with each passing minute.

“WHAT CAN WE DO NOW, Mommy?” Danny asked the instant she reappeared. She was somewhat refreshed, but even a cool shower didn’t wash away the Louisiana humidity. Nor did it do much for her headache.

“We can both get dressed, Danny,” she told him, glancing at the clock. “We’ve got to be ready to leave in a little while.”

“If I hurry, can we go down to the place where I saw the guy fall and see if there’s blood?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, absolutely not.”

“Aw, Mommy…”

“Tell you what,” she said. “We have about two hours before it’s time to meet those people for our visit. I saw a Star-Mart as we drove into town. Want to pop in and check out their toy department?” It was blatant bribery, but she would resume being a principled parent later.

LaRue was a small town, but Star-Mart looked as large as any in Houston. Claire cruised the parking lot twice before settling for a space the length of a football field from the entrance. “The exercise is good for me,” she muttered, grabbing Danny’s suspenders before he could dash too far ahead of her. For a second, her irritation faded. With his red suspenders, he looked so cute in khaki shorts and navy polo shirt.

“I need a Power Rangers gun, Mommy!”

“So you can shoot somebody? Not today, buddyboy.”

“Awww.”

At the entrance, they followed behind a young mother with an infant and a little boy who looked about Danny’s age. Danny and the boy sized each other up solemnly. Over their heads, both Claire and the mother smiled.

Inside, Danny scoped out the store with practiced skill, then headed like a homing pigeon for the toys. Behind her, the young mother fastened her infant into the shopping cart while her son darted away in the same direction as Danny. His mother gave an exasperated sound, then laughed as she and Claire again made eye contact.

“We’re headed for toys,” Claire said with a shrug.

“It looks like we are, too,” the woman said, still smiling.

The store was busy. Although school wasn’t scheduled to begin for almost a month, supplies were already fully stocked and kids in LaRue were shopping with the same enthusiasm as those in Houston.

As usual when Danny was faced with an excess of choices, he couldn’t make a decision. He picked up and rejected no less than a dozen items when Claire finally lost patience. With her head throbbing, she glanced at her watch.

“We have to get on the road if we’re going to be on time for our visit to Sugarland. Five minutes,” she told him, ignoring his injured expression. “And then we’re out of here. I mean it, Danny.”

The other boy ran up to Danny. “There’s some neat stuff on the next aisle. I found this!” He held up a weapon that might very well be used by real power rangers in the next century. Danny sent her a pleading look and she nodded. “Go take a look, but don’t wander beyond the next aisle. I’m going to pick out an electronic game. They’re on sale.”

“Okay!”

The games were good for a five-year-old confined in a car for a long, boring trip. Unfortunately, it appeared that every other parent in LaRue had had the same idea. The sale table was a jumble of plastic cases. She started looking, thumbing through the leftovers, aware only vaguely of the kids and parents sifting through the merchandise along with her. A couple of minutes later, the young mother appeared with disposable diapers and a few other articles in her cart.

“Have you seen Jeremy?” she asked anxiously.

“Your little boy?” Claire glanced at the intersection and a display of no less than a hundred Mickey Mouse lunch boxes. “He was just here with Danny.” She walked a few steps and looked into the next aisle. Both boys were gone.

A child screamed suddenly. Her heart plunged to her feet at the sound.

Danny!

And like any mother, her first thought was for her child. For a second, she was frozen as the piercing, shrill shrieks ricocheted through the huge store.

It was Danny!

All the blood drained from her body, leaving her sucked empty of everything except a desperate need to find him. Galvanized by fear, Claire darted frantically into the next aisle. Then the next, pulled along by the sound of his shrieks as surely as if she were connected to him by electric wire.

And then his screams ceased and there was only the murmurings of the crowd, the isolated whimpering of a baby. But no Danny.

He wasn’t anywhere she looked. Suddenly she was in Shoes. People were murmuring, looking concerned, checking for their own young ones. Still no sign of Danny. Somewhere nearby, she heard the young mother calling for Jeremy.

“Danny!” she cried desperately. “Where are you?”

Utterly panicked now, she dashed across the main traffic lane into Electronics and there he was.

“Mommy!” He ran up to her and threw his arms around her, holding on with all his might. She dropped her purse and swept him up. He was trembling. For a minute, she wasn’t sure she could stay upright.

Danny leaned back, looking her in the eye. “It was the bad policeman, Mommy! He tried to get me to go with him, but I wouldn’t.”

“Oh, Danny…” She closed her eyes, swallowing the fear that was lodged in her throat.

“I screamed. Just like you tol’ me if a stranger wants to do bad stuff.”

“Yes, yes…” She realized she was rocking back and forth, but his small sturdy body just felt so good right now.

“Is everything all right here, ma’am?” A man touched her elbow and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

“Oh! What? I—I’m not sure.” She drew a deep breath. “Someone just approached my son.”

“It was the bad policeman,” Danny said eagerly. Now that the danger was past, he was wiggling to get down.

“Policeman?” the man repeated.

What should she do? Could Danny really have witnessed something in the hotel courtyard? Something that was bad enough to force the “policeman” to follow them here.

Oh, God.