Page 71 of The Girl Who Was Taken

“A binder full of missing girls?”

“Not just girls. Some dudes, too. Whoever the club thought was interesting.”

“Where’s this binder?”

“Inside.”

“Can we have a look at it?”

Nate shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s my private stuff from back when the club was in full swing.”

Megan cleared her throat. “I’d really like to see it.” She smiled at Nate. “If that would be okay.”

Nate inhaled from his cigarette and the smoke got lodged somewhere in his trachea, causing him to cough like a teenager taking his first drag. He avoided eye contact. “Be right back.” He pulled open the screen door and disappeared inside.

“Interesting guy,” Megan said.

“I think he’s harmless. Thanks for throwing your star power around.”

“What good is being famous if you don’t use it?”

Nate was back a few minutes later with a black three-ring binder. It reminded Livia of the folder she’d taken from Casey Delevan’s desk drawer. Nate handed it to her.

“Here’re most of the cases we talked about. I’ve kept up on a lot of them. Plus a couple new ones.” He looked at Megan. “Got a bunch of your stuff.” He shrugged, as if offering someone his life’s work. “If you wanna check it out.”

“Nancy Dee in here?” Livia said.

“Oh yeah. Got a few pages on her.”

Livia found Nancy’s pages and skimmed through them. Then she leafed through the binder, looking for information on Paula D’Amato, the other girl from Casey Delevan’s file. Halfway through the pages she found newspaper clippings about her.

“You remember this girl?”

Nate looked at the page, saw Paula D’Amato’s face. “’Course I do.”

“How’d the club get onto this one?”

“Casey was into that one. He was on it right away, and we talked about her a bunch. He was sort of fixated on her.”

“You remember much about this girl?” Livia asked.

“Georgia Tech freshman. Cops found her jacket in the woods off a trail that students take on the way back to campus. Arrested her boyfriend, but let him go after a while. I guess they’re questioning him again now.Plus some other fraternity guys. I’ve been watching that one closely since the other day, you know?”

“Since the other day?” Livia asked, holding the open binder. “What happened the other day?”

Nate let a slow smile form on his face as though Livia were playing a joke on him. He blew diluted smoke from the corner of his mouth. “They found her body. Like, three or four days ago.”

“Paula D’Amato?”

Nate nodded.

“Where?”

“You didn’t hear about this?” His voice carried the excitement of a sports fan reliving an extraordinary play from the previous night. “Thought that’s why you guys were here.”

“No,” Livia said. “We didn’t hear.”

He pointed his cigarette at the binder. “Details are still coming in. Her body was found in the woods, down in Georgia. It was zipped in a body bag and lying next to a hole in the ground. Like someone dug the grave but never buried the body. Really weird!” Nate smiled and then sucked again on his cigarette.

---