Page 76 of The Girl Who Was Taken

CHAPTER 38

“It’ll be okay,” Megan said. “It’s a long time coming, and I think this will help both of us.”

Livia sat in the passenger seat of Megan’s Jeep Wrangler as they drove through Emerson Bay. “How so?”

“People don’t really know me. Some people know the girl from before the abduction. Because of the book, lots of people know the girl from the interviews and on the pages. But I’m not really either of those people. My dad, before all this happened, was the only person who totally understood me. We’ve lost that connection over the last year. I think this will help us.”

“I hope so,” Livia said.

A few minutes later, they pulled to the front of the Emerson Bay Police Department, where her father had served as sheriff for the past twelve years. Together, Livia and Megan walked up the stairs and into the building. A few people who would normally have protested two women walking unfettered through headquarters waved when they recognized Megan. When they arrived at Terry McDonald’s office, he was busy with paperwork.

“Hi, Daddy,” Megan said.

Terry looked up with surprise. “Hey. What’re you doing here?”

Livia looked over Megan’s shoulder and caught the sheriff’s eye. She saw a sense of recognition in his expression. He stood slowly.

“Daddy,” Megan said. “This is Livia Cutty. She’s Nicole Cutty’s sister and a medical examiner in Raleigh.”

Livia followed Megan into the office. “I’m completing my fellowship.”

Sheriff McDonald walked from behind his desk, his belt and holster jostling as he approached his daughter and Livia. “Under Gerald Colt?” he asked.

“Correct.”

“I know Dr. Colt. We’ve worked together on a few cases.” He shook Livia’s hand. “I’m sorry about your sister,” he said with a soft voice, holding her hand.

Unexpectedly moved by the remorse she heard in Sheriff McDonald’s voice, Livia swallowed hard. “Thank you.”

Terry turned to Megan. “What’s going on?”

“Livia and I have been reviewing details about my case, from the night I disappeared and the night I escaped.”

“Honey,” Terry said in a controlled voice. “We agreed this was a topic best saved for your sessions with Dr. Mattingly.”

“It has been, Daddy. But Livia, through her work in Raleigh, found some things we need to talk to you about.”

“What things?”

“She’s made some connections between my case and two other girls who have gone missing. And, wedon’t know, maybe others. She came to me with her findings and together we’ve gained some leverage and made some progress. But we need help, Daddy.”

Terry McDonald stared at his daughter and then lifted his gaze to Livia. There was something in his eyes that took Livia a moment to define. But then it clicked. She made the connection to her own father, realizing every father who had lost a daughter to abduction likely carried a similar look of fright and guilt in his eyes. With Terry McDonald, though, there was something else. Something rooted, Livia was sure, in the fact that his daughter had been found, while Nicole and these other girls were lost forever. Had her own father appeared in the doorway, Livia got the sense that Sheriff McDonald would break down and cry.

“Other missing girls?” he finally asked.

Livia nodded. “Possibly, yes.”

“You’re working with detectives in Raleigh on this?”

“No, sir. Just myself and . . . Megan’s been a big help, as well.”

Terry McDonald looked at his daughter, then back to Livia. “Let’s see what you’ve come up with.”

They sat at the desk and Livia pulled from her bag each of the documents she had collected over the past few weeks. They spent an hour cross-referencing the information that tied Nancy Dee and Paula D’Amato together, and then spent time on the links to Megan’s case—the ketamine and the burlap fibers. Finally, Livia presented what she knew about Casey Delevan, who had arrived on her autopsy table at the end of summer. She revealed the profiles of Nancy Dee and Paula D’Amato discovered in Casey’s abandoned desk drawer,and told Sheriff McDonald everything she knew about the Capture Club. She revealed her guess that Casey played a role in the disappearance of the girls and was also present the night Megan and Nicole were taken from the beach party.

They covered the leg fracture and that it matched the height of Nicole’s car bumper. Livia left out the tuft of Casey’s shirt found under Nicole’s car, and her theory about the barbecue set with the missing fork and the piercings to Casey’s skull. To present everything she had found would be to implement herself, and Megan, in evidence tampering. If it meant finding the answers she was so desperate for, in the end she would do it. For now, she’d use everything else she had to gauge Sheriff McDonald’s willingness to help.

She presented her case for an hour while Terry McDonald listened with patience. When Livia finished her argument, he asked the same question his daughter had.

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