Page 42 of Our Daughter's Bones
“Why would a teenager need that much money?” Mackenzie wondered. “She started writing those checks six months ago. Around that time she started acting strange, according to the student counselor, Ian Coleman. He described her as jumpy, nervous, and almost paranoid.”
“Why she didn’t hand over Erica’s phone to the police all this time is what baffles me,” Nick muttered.
Daniel pulled out a pack of gum and popped a piece in his mouth. “Why are we assuming that she’s had the phone since the beginning?”
Mackenzie straightened and leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“You said that she waited at the gas station for a few minutes before going into the washroom to leave the phone. She was waiting for someone.” He stood up and paced around the table. “Abby Correia—ambitious, go-getter, fiercely loyal and protective of Erica justsitsafter Erica goes missing?”
“You think she did her own investigation?” Nick said uncertainly.
“Exactly.Ithink that Abby did her own digging and found Erica’s phone, or maybe some other startling information, six months ago.”
“Which is why she started acting strangely,” Mackenzie nodded, the pieces finally fitting together. She recalled Abby’s last entry.
Something is missing from my life.
I will never give up on her.
I have to know what happened.
“Why didn’t she come to us then?” Nick asked.
“Maybe she was being threatened. They switched out her pills. Maybe they did more,” Daniel suggested. “But she continued looking. She could have stolen the money from her mother to give it to whoever was threatening her. Hence the drop at the gas station.”
“Listen to this,” Mackenzie said. “It’s Abby’s last diary entry.”
Daniel continued pacing the room as Mackenzie read.
“That fits with our theory. Whoever killed Erica found out that Abby was looking into her death and switched out her pills to slow her down. But when he realized that Abby still wasn’t stopping, he decided to threaten her directly. Abby giving up cash and the phone suggests he had some leverage. He was worried that Abby had already discovered Erica’s phone. He instructed her to drop the phone and the money at the gas station. But he was never after those things,” Daniel said.
“Which is why he was happy for the drop-off location to be in direct view of a CCTV camera,” Nick agreed. “If he was after Erica’s phone and the money, he would have picked a different location.”
“Exactly! He was afterAbby. Abby either knew something which wasn’t on Erica’s phone or she was close to figuring something out.”
“Then why go through the trouble of having her make the drop?” Nick asked.
“To make her think she was safe? To send us on a wild goose chase?” Mackenzie said, the words making the hair on her arms stand on end. “He knew that there was no surveillance between the gas station and the bank.” She glared at the snapshots of the man from the CCTV footage talking to Abby. “He took her.”
It made sense. Abby and Erica’s deep friendship was no secret. From the photos in their rooms and all over social media to Abby’s meltdowns after Erica went missing. Abby was searching for the truth. Even if that meant risking her own life.
Was Abby abducted because she found out what happened to Erica?
Mackenzie’s blood churned at the thought of Abby’s fate. Was she even alive?
Twenty-Four
The silence blared the loudest in their dining room. It piped above the crackling of the fire, as the gas popped and flared. If Mackenzie stared hard enough, she could see the tips of the flames take the shape of little men dancing and celebrating.
She looked at the crown roast of pork sitting in front of her. It was artful and elegant—almost too elaborate for her taste. She picked at the potatoes and berries surrounding the thick meat, its bones jutting out at her.
Mushroom dressing.
The taste exploded in her mouth. It was the same dish Sterling had made her when he cooked for her for the first time.
She almost choked on her food. The memory threatened to unleash a cascade of waterworks.
She looked up at Sterling, sitting across from her instead of next to her. Why was he sitting so far away? “It’s delicious.”
