Bear Claw by Crissy Smith

taken off when he was small. But his mom didn’t seem to care. She told me that Victor was an adult, and if he got himself into trouble, there was nothing she could do about it.”
    That sounded very familiar to Jamie.
    “I couldn’t believe it. I mean, she’s his mom . No wonder he never went home during breaks.”
    “Yeah, some parents.”
    “So I called the police myself.”
    “Tell me the rest of what happened that night,” Jamie urged.
    “Well, I went back to the room and worked on some calculus assignments I had due soon. I went to bed around eleven-thirty. Victor wasn’t there the next morning, but that wasn’t unusual. He could have come in when I was asleep and left before I woke. I’m a pretty heavy sleeper. Or maybe he stayed all night studying in the library. He’s done that a lot.”
    “What time did you start to worry?”
    “He didn’t join me for lunch. We always ate together unless one of us had to meet with a professor. But he would have told me if he couldn’t have made it. He never called or left me a message. But then he didn’t come back to the room after his last class. And he missed dinner. I started calling his cell and got voicemail.”
    Visibly upset, Johnny realized his hands were shaking and clasped them tightly in his lap. A tremble lurked in his voice.
    “Take your time,” Jamie told him.
    “The next morning, I still hadn’t heard anything. I left him another voicemail and went to my classes. After he didn’t show for lunch again, I decided to go to his morning classes and see if he’d made it. He had missed them all. I was really worried then. I even went by the library. But the librarians hadn’t seen him the night he told me he was headed there. I didn’t know what to do.”
    “That’s understandable. It was a hard situation.”
    “Yeah, but I still didn’t call the cops until the next day. I couldn’t believe anything had happened to him. I should have called the first day.”
    Since Jamie knew it probably wouldn’t have made any difference, he just shook his head. “You called. Being concerned for your buddy shows you cared. A lot of people wouldn’t have done that.”
    Johnny sniffed. “He’s my best friend. I was scared coming here on my own. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”
    “Hang in there,” Jamie told the kid. “There are some good, smart people working on this case. We’ll do our best to find Victor.”
    “Thank you,” Johnny said softly. “Thank you for looking for him. I’ve got to get to class.”
    It had been many years since Jamie had first started working missing person cases. It never got easier. Already he was feeling a little too close to this poor student. So much reminded Jamie of himself. “I’ll call you if I find out anything.”
    “Okay.”
    As Johnny walked away, Jamie couldn’t keep his heart from going out to the young man. If there was any way to bring Victor back to his friend, Jamie would do it. He’d been in Victor’s shoes and knew the bond that could form between two good friends. He owed a lot to his two best buddies. He knew he wouldn’t be where he was today without them.
    The ring of his cell phone pulled him from his thoughts. “Hi, Aubrey.”
    “Jamie, I’m glad you answered.”
    “Hey, what’s going on?”
    “I’m headed to the hospital. Someone found Sean Nichols.”
    “Really? That’s great.”
    “It’s lucky we found him, but he overdosed and is in a coma.”
    “Damn.”
    “Can you meet me up there? We’ll compare notes and see where we need to go from there. Lewis is going straight to the alley where they found Sean.”
    “I’m on the campus, so I’ll be there in about fifteen.”
    “I’ll see you then.”
    Jamie swiped his finger over the phone, closing it down. Standing and glancing around, he noted one last time the carefree atmosphere around the university. He’d never attended an institution of higher learning, deciding instead to go into the Police Academy in