Carol D. Slama

I tried to read this to go to sleep...wasn't happening, story was just too riveting!

In the story, Marissa Tomsen was expecting a call from her brother, Michael. This would have been typical of him before he got the job at the "Tribune", but they called to find out why he hadn't been in to work for the last few days. She went to check out his house. She saw someone there, but it wasn't her brother, so she called the Portland Police department. The responding officers were the same ones who had been at the scene of her parent's fatal car crash. The police questioned her & looked around the house. She thought that only she & her brother had keys to the house, but she wasn't sure. They did a criminal check on Michael, which was negative, & told her to wait til the next morning to file a missing person's report, then they'd follow up. After they left Marissa looked around, most things seemed to be in order. She found an old post card from Lauren, Michael's old girl friend, who had left him for a promotion. She also found that the tapes from the answering machine were missing, although it had answered when she called just before coming over. Going thru his things reminded her of going thru their parents things after their deaths. She was also reminded of a time when her parents had asked her to watch her brother, but he had gotten lost. Again, she just needed to find him. She tried to pray, but found it difficult to lean on Jesus while blaming him for causing her pain. Suddenly she got an urge to leave & went home for a few hours sleep. She gathered some of the papers she found near Michael's couch. At home she remembered another thing that happened.
When she was 12 years old, she & Michael had a tree house. They had developed a code to use to communicate that no one else would understand. They never shared it with anyone.
Marissa looked at one of the notes that didn't make sense. She applied the secret code and came up with H-E-L-P-M-A-U-I. The next day she discovered that her savings account had been emptied.… (lisätietoja)