Page 10 of The Girl Who Was Taken

I’m way too shy to post a pic.

How about we meet, then?

Much better idea. Your aunt still visiting?

Yeah. Leaves tomorrow. Had to do the whole dinner thing. So over her being here.

She’s the one whose kid got snatched?

Their conversations always ended up here. This was a big topic for them and they talked—or typed—for hours about it. He was the only one in Nicole’s life who was willing to engage her about the subject. Aunt Paxie had been here since Tuesday, and hadn’t once mentioned her daughter. Fine, Nicole reasoned, it was eight years ago. Fine, it still depressed her. Paxie didn’t want to turn the visit—her first since Julie went missing all those years ago—into a sobfest. All understandable.But Aunt Paxie hadn’t evenmentionedJulie. Not once. Ignore, ignore, ignore, and the problem will go away.

Nicole finally typed.Yeah.

What was her name?

Julie.

Your cousin?

Yeah.

You guys were close?

We used to visit each other when we were kids. Mostly it was just our moms getting together, but Julie and I always considered themourtrips. I remember riding on the airplane next to my mom and just feeling so excited to see her. Then, with our mothers preoccupied, catching up as long-lost sisters who only saw each other twice a year, Julie and I would stay up until midnight, chase fireflies, and sit around the bonfire while our moms got drunk on wine and relived their childhoods.

Nicole watched the screen after typing so much of her heart and her childhood onto the page. Finally, the reply came.

Sounds fun.

It was.

How old was she?

When she disappeared? Nine.

Tell me about it.

God it felt good to finally talk to someone about this.

Don’t really know a lot ’cause my mom never gave me any details. Guess she thought I was too young. I’ve looked for stories about her on the Internet, but there’s not much. They never had any leads. Julie just disappeared one day walking home from school.

Common route.

Nicole looked at the screen for a moment before replying.What’s that?

Perps use common routes to take kids because they’re predictable. Whoever took Julie knew she would be walking that exact route on that exact day. Guy probably watched her for a long time while he plotted the take.

That’s freaky.

Totally. He probably waited and watched and calculated who Julie walked with and at which points during the walk home from school she was alone. Framed his window of opportunity perfectly, then . . .

There was a small pause in the typing.

They ever find the guy?

No.

Julie?

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