Page 16 of Three Girls Gone
“But…?”
“You can get your mind fixed easier when the victims are children. Understandably so. They are hard cases for everyone.”
No argument or defense could counter that. He was right. “Even so, Mara doesn’t need to know Susan Butters by name or sight. She could have stayed in the shadows.”
“It’s possible.”
She sensed his skepticism. “Okay, we’ll bench Butters for now and talk with Mara Bennett. But we’ll ask her about Butters.”
“Your wish is my command.” Trent smirked and got them on the road to Kendra Bennett’s apartment.
Don’t you meanyourwish…He hadn’t taken her theorizing about Butters seriously, so she’d keep her earlier suspicions about the fertility clinic to herself. There was even less cause to move forward on that front. With that decided, a sudden, intense sadness for Hailey moved in and bulldozed her. Trent’s voice cut through, saving Amanda from giving in to the depth of the emotion.
“Did you want to grab a coffee or a bite to eat? We might not get another chance for hours.” Trent flicked a finger toward the clock on the dash.
Noon right on the mark. It felt much later than that.
She wasn’t that hungry, but with this job, one ate when the opportunity presented itself. “Something light maybe. Coffee? Definitely. Hannah’s Diner too much to ask?” They were headed to Dumfries, the small town where she lived, ten minutes from Woodbridge. Also home to Hannah’s Diner, which served the best coffee on the planet.
“Not at all, but coffee doesn’t count as nourishment. Are you doing all right?”
“As fine as can be expected. You?”
“About the same. So there’s no way to ask this but to come out with it. I noticed you asked the Tanners about the fertility clinic they used…”
So he noticed…“Is there a question in there?”
“I was just curious why.”
She took in how pale he’d gone, and she wagered he thought it was motivated by personal reasons. “Oh, it’s not for me,” she rushed out. “I’m not… Yeah, no. Zoe and I are a good team.” She offered a pressed smile. “Being a single parent to one child keeps me busy enough.”
“I’ve heard one or two kids, it doesn’t make a difference.”
She laughed. “You should know not to believeeverything you hear. But does this mean that you and…?” Trent had been living with his girlfriend, Kelsey, for a few months now. And there were zero kids in the picture, unless…
“Hell—” Trent coughed, as if he had swallowed his spit the wrong way. When he composed himself, he said, “No, but I’m not saying no to kids forever. Just not right now. I’m not ready.”
“I don’t think anyone ever is.”
“All right, so if it was about the case, what were you thinking?” He squinted as he studied her face.
She laid it out.
“That’s a long shot. Six years have passed.”
“That’s why I didn’t bring it up.”
“Maybe if the case veers into a dead end, we can revisit. For now, we’re not short on things to do.”
“True enough.” The first twenty-four hours of an investigation were always a whirlwind. Lots of information was being hurled at them, making it a game of duck or catch. Amanda also feared letting the wrong thing go, overlooking some crucial detail. But she’d grown up under the shadow of her father, the former police chief, who stressed looking under every rock and pebble. As he’d cautioned, it could never be assumed which one was hiding a vital clue.Assumptions kill an investigation…“Speaking of, we need to remember to reach out about the video footage from the park,” she added.
Trent pulled into the diner’s parking lot. “I’ll do that. I’ve got the number for the municipality in my phone. You want to go in and grab our order?”
“Good thinking. That will speed things up. What do you want?”
“A coffee, and a turkey and Swiss on rye.”
“You got it.” She left him and went into the diner. For once, the place wasn’t lined up out the door. Ever since Katherine Graves had joined her aunt, May Byrd, at the diner almost two years ago, the popularity of the place had skyrocketed. In littletime, Amanda was handing over cash and heading back to the car with their coffees, Trent’s sandwich, and a blueberry muffin for herself in a bag.
