ABC Amber LIT Converter by Island of Lost Girls

clues. Rhonda peeked into Pat’s office as she went by—empty. She stepped in and glanced at the clipboard on the wall next to the desk: the employee schedule. She flipped back to the week before and scanned the schedule for Thursday. Pat was working, along with someone named Carl. And Peter. Surely, if Peter drove off in Laura Lee’s car for any length of time, someone would have noticed. She couldn’t very well ask Pat, who would just see it as more evidence of Peter’s involvement (and possibly Rhonda’s too), so what she needed to do was find this Carl guy. She saw his name on the schedule later in the week. Perfect.

    Rhonda hurried out of the office and back down the hall, and there he was: the suspect of the hour.

    “Hey, Ronnie,” Peter called.

    He was standing next to Warren, holding the hair back from his forehead, showing off his scar. Warren, apparently, had remembered Laura Lee’s instructions and thought to ask about the scar. Beside Peter was Suzy, dressed in a tie-dye shirt and cutoff shorts. Rhonda scanned the store quickly: no Tock. She practically bounded up to them.

    “Aunt Rhonda!” Suzy said, “Daddy says I can come see Sadie again soon.”

    “Of course,” Rhonda said. “Any time you like.”

    “Can I bring her some apples?”

    “Of course, sweetie. She’d love that.”

    “What, you have a horse or something?” Warren asked.

    Rhonda and Suzy giggled.

    “A pig,” Suzy told him.

    He looked shocked.

    “A guinea pig,” Rhonda explained.

    “Hey Ronnie, can you keep an eye on Suzy for a minute?” Peter asked. “I’ve gotta go patch things up with Pat and Jim. Tock and I screwed up our schedules and I’ve got Suzy all day. I had to bring her to the doctor’s this morning.”

    “I had another storm,” Suzy said.

    “They changed her medication again. Freaking doctors. You’d think they’d have a clue what would work here. That’s her third seizure in a week.” Peter was already on his way across the store and into the garage. Suzy sat down at the table, flipped over a flyer with Ernie’s picture to the blank side and began to scribble.

    “So what’s this guinea pig like?” Warren asked, directing the question more at Suzy than Rhonda.

    “She’s albino,” Suzy said. “She’s all white with red eyes. Like a ghost.”

    Suzy began to draw an octopus, counting the legs carefully.

    “No kidding,” Warren said. “How cool is that? When do I get to meet her?” Now he looked in Rhonda’s direction.

    “Anytime,” Rhonda said before she had a chance to think better of it.

    “Today? When we get out of here?” Warren suggested.

    “Why not?” Rhonda said.

    “She likes apples,” Suzy told him.

    “Well then I better go see if I can find one. I don’t want to make a bad first impression by arriving empty-handed.” He got up and walked over to the coolers to search for an apple.

    “He’s funny,” Suzy said.

    “Yeah, he is,” Rhonda agreed. Had she really just invited Warren home? What was she thinking? Why did he even want to come? Maybe he was just an animal lover.

    “Daddy says you’re helping to find Ernie,” Suzy said, looking up from her drawing. The octopus now had eight legs and had been joined by a smiling starfish.

    “We’re sure trying,” Rhonda said. The reality was, they weren’t doing shit. It seemed no one was. Forty-eight hours later, there was no sign of the little girl. It was like they disappeared into thin air, she and the rabbit in the submarine.

    It could so easily have been Suzy,Rhonda thought as she stroked the little girl’s hair.It could have been any little girl.

    “Hey, Suzy? Did you know about the rabbit visiting Ernie?” Rhonda asked.

    “Yep. He came to school.”

    “You saw him?”

    “No. Only Ernie. She said she was lucky. That Peter picked her because she was special. I only met theother Peter.”

    Was Suzy drawing a rabbit there, hopping through her underwater scene?

    “What other Peter?” Rhonda’s heart began beating double-time.

    No, it wasn’t a rabbit. Suzy was drawing