Page 61 of Three Girls Gone
“So what do you say to pizza for dinner? I already picked up a fresh ball of dough.” Amanda bobbed her eyebrows at Zoe in the rearview.
“Yeah!” Zoe giggled, but quickly covered her mouth as if she was self-conscious.
“What was that about?” Amanda imitated what she’d done with her hand, and Zoe became serious. “Come on, tell Mandy.” She talked about herself in the third person in a playful tone, hoping it would lure the girl to confide in her.
“It’s just some kids at school.”
“What about them?” she asked, though she had an idea where this was going.
“They’re teasing me. Calling me a toothless old lady.” Zoescowled and crossed her arms. Such a serious expression on her beautiful little face seemed out of place.
“Everyone loses their baby teeth at some point. It’s part of growing up, maturing.” She added a bit of zest to that word, knowing how Zoe liked to point out she was getting too old for certain things she used to enjoy. Thankfully, she’d outgrown the need to watchFrozenon endless repetition, but that was good for more than one reason. It had been a movie she watched with her late mother. Lettingthatgo told Amanda that Zoe was healing.
“I know. And I guess once one ofthemloses two front teeth at once…” Zoe grinned unabashed.
“No, you won’t. You know how it feels to be teased. Being mean to others isn’t the type of person you are.”
“I want to be like you.” She imitated a gun with her hands and said, “Bang, bang.”
Amanda would laugh if it wasn’t serious. “You know I rarely fire my gun. My job is to protect people.” As she said this, taking in Zoe’s delicate features, Amanda felt an ache in her chest. She’d failed to do that for Hailey. But like her father reminded her before, the past couldn’t be undone, the victims’ fates rewritten. The only sane choice she had was to look ahead and prevent further crime, further pain.
“Yes, but you carry one.” Her eyes twinkled, making Amanda nervous.
“Being a cop is about so much more than carrying a gun. You know that?”
“Yes. It’s selfish.”
The word halted Amanda for a second until she realized what her daughter had meant. “You mean selfless.”
“Yeah. Aunt Libby told me you’re the most self…lessperson she knows.” Zoe seemed to struggle with the pronunciation.
“That was nice of her.”
“She’s a nice person.”
“She is.” Amanda pressed the button on her rearview mirror to open the garage door, as she turned down their street. For the longest time, the bay was stuffed with boxes full of mementos from her previous life. A while back she’d whittled down the keepsakes to a single box, which she now stored in the basement.
She pulled into the garage and lowered the door. Now that she was using her garage for its intended purpose, she couldn’t imagine ever doing without it. As she was juggling to get her house key out, her phone rang. “Here.” She passed off the key to Zoe, while she answered her phone formally.
“Detective? Still in business mode, I see.” It was Becky Tulson, Amanda’s best friend since kindergarten.
“When am I not?”
Zoe put the key into the lock and was twisting the handle but without success. It didn’t help that her backpack was bigger than her torso. She looked like a turtle in danger of flipping back on her shell.
“Just a sec,” she told Becky and stepped in to help Zoe.
They went into the house. The door for the garage opened into a small mudroom that bled into the kitchen. Zoe shrugged out of her shoes, bag, and coat in seconds. Amanda was reminded of what the dance teacher had told them about kids getting ready. It applied more to the putting on of clothes than shedding them.
All Zoe’s items lay discarded on the floor until Amanda made eye contact with the girl.
“Fine.” Zoe set about picking them up and putting them on hooks at her height. Kevin, Amanda’s late husband, had put them in for their daughter, Lindsey.
“Mandy?”
It took a few seconds for Amanda to clue in to where the voice was coming from.Oh, Becky!She lifted her phone back to her ear. “Sorry about that.”
“From the sounds of it, you’re home. It’s just after six.”
