everyone'
'Do you know Nick Martin?'
'Hell, I mean heck no. The guy's a freak'
Emily stared hard at the boy. His blotchy face. His gangly arms. He was only a notch above Nick Martin on the lowest rung of the high school's social ladder. Yet in his own somewhat earnest manner, he was trying to help.
'It's been awhile since I was here, but all of us have had our turn being a freak,' she said. 'That's just the way high school is, or was'
'Guess so,' he said.
She fake smiled before turning away and walking into the office.
'I'm back with the court order for Nick Martin's student file,' Emily told the secretary. She could see the top of Sal Randazzo's beaconlike pate as he looked up from his desk. He got up and started toward her. His mouth was a straight line. His dark eyes sparked.
'Let me see that,' he said.
Emily slid the subpoena across the counter. A couple of girls tabulating the day's absences pretended to be busy at work. When one looked over and caught Emily's gaze, she smiled.
Making Randazzo squirm was fun.
'Is Jenna going to be okay, Mrs. Kenyon?' said a pretty blonde with a mouthful of metal.
Emily recognized her from the intramural basketball team that Jenna had been on a few years ago. She was a nice girl. God, the whole school was filled with nice boys and girls. Why this? Why did her daughter find the only bad apple in the barrel?
'I'm sure we'll get it all sorted out,' Emily said. She shifted her attention back to the principal, who by then was done reading the paperwork.
'I'll get you the files myself,' he said. With an irritated look on his face, Randazzo vanished around the corner to the file room. He returned with a green folder. A very thin green folder.
'Is that it?' Emily asked.
He shrugged, and she opened it. There were no more than ten sheets inside. One was a permission slip from Peg Martin for her son's participation in a field trip to a dairy outside of the county. A few pages indicated some visits to the nurse. Finally, the basics of his life-his gender was male, he was born in Seattle, his parents' names and occupations.
Nothing more. Nothing at all.
What did I expect? Emily asked herself. He was a kid. He didn't have a life yet.
'This is it?' she repeated.
`.. Fraid so,' Randazzo said, impatiently. 'We don't carry a lot of paper on our kids. I'm surprised that the permission slip for the trip to Clover Dale Farms is in there. That should have been purged long ago'
Emily looked up from the minidossier on a troubled high school kid. She held her tongue. The pretty blonde looked over. A beat of silence. It wasn't Randazzo's fault that he was complete nincompoop. He probably was born that way.
'Judge says I can take these' She turned for the door. In doing so she caught the eyes of the girls working at the attendance office one last time and smiled in their direction. It was an invitation for them to come speak to her if they wanted, but they just went back to their work.
Emily felt the buzz in her purse, and then came the muffled, but familiar ring. She had begun to hate the Elvis Costello ringtone Jenna had downloaded as a surprise. What had once seemed so silly that it made them laugh until their sides ached now seemed derisive and a sad reminder.
'Hey Emily, can you come back to the office?' It was Kiplinger. His normally gregarious nature was masked by concern. 'Marina Wilbur is here to see you'
Emily searched her memory, but nothing came up. She didn't know anyone by that name. Before she said so, Kip offered up more information.
'She's Peg Martin's sister. From back east. She's here to make arrangements'
'I'll be right there' Emily flipped her phone shut and sat in her car. The seat belt warning pinged, but she paid it no mind. She turned the ignition and looked in the rearview mirror, catching her own reflection for the first time. Her eyes were underscored with dark circles. This is what a mother looks like who has lost her daughter. The face is mine.
Emily engaged the seat belt, which stopped the pinging. She wanted to cry.
Wednesday, 4:45 P.M.
Kiplinger was as grim-faced as Emily had ever seen him and they'd been through some pretty bad cases, though nothing of the magnitude of the Martin murders. He met her in the parking lot in front of the Public Safety building in downtown Cherrystone. His anxious countenance disturbed Emily to such a degree, she didn't turn off the ignition. The Accord idled. She pushed the button and the window slid down.
'I wanted to catch you before you came inside. Didn't want to have this conversation on the phone,' he said. 'Can I get in?'
Emily indicated all right with a quick dip of her head.
'What is it, Kip?' She called him by his nickname, rather than the more formal 'Sheriff' that she used around the office. This felt exceedingly personal. 'Have you heard something about Jenna?'
He shut the door and struggled to adjust the front seat to accommodate his six-foot, 200-plus-pound frame.
'No. Let's drive away from here'
Without speaking, she put the car in gear and it rolled from the lot to the main street.
'Let's go to the park and talk. And no, I haven't heard anything about Jenna. But that's what I want to talk about'
'You're scaring me,' she said, her eyes switching from the road to Kip, then back again.
'Don't be scared. We're just going to talk and we just can't do it at the office. Too many people listening all around'
A spot under a willow that hung over the street like an archway. She parked and they walked over to a picnic table. A couple of preschoolers played nearby on a jungle gym, their mothers fixated on their every flip and twirl. A poodle was tethered to the slide. It barked sharply. It was a sunny morning and for a moment it seemed like any other day.
But that was all about to change. Kip lit up a smoke and faced Emily, his big brown eyes full of concern.
'Look,' he said, 'I know this is awkward. But I need to know how you and Jenna were getting along.'
Emily knew where he was going and she didn't like it one bit.
'How can you even say that to me? You know we got along. Are you trying to suggest that she ran away?'
Kip narrowed his gaze. 'That's right. There really isn't anything to suggest that she left against her will. You know that. She wasn't abducted'
'We don't know that. We don't know anything for sure. And where is this coming from?' Emily stood up. She wanted to leave. It felt so insulting that her boss, her friend, a man that she trusted more than just about any other would sit there and utter such a cruel lie.
'I talked to David. He said that Jenna wanted to come live with him. You'd argued about it. Isn't that right?'
The poodle got off his leash and started running through the park. One of the mothers was frantically chasing him, while calling over her shoulder for her daughter to stay put.
The distraction was only momentary, and Emily's anger was a volcano.
'Goddamn that David! What an idiot! He thinks his backbiting comments against me are helpful in his daughter's disappearance? What kind of a man would put his hate toward his ex-wife over the love of his own little girl?'
'David called us. He talked to Jenna late last night. She called him. She's fine. She's-'
It was a molten iron spike to her heart. 'What? He talked to her? Why didn't he call me? Where is she? What did she say to him?'
Kip motioned for her to be seated. 'Take a breath. One question at a time, all right?'
