Page 68 of Three Girls Gone
But at what cost?
Katherine swallowed a lump of regret as she pulled into a newly vacated spot. The energy she’d directed toward Hannah’s Diner had taken her focus away from Julie’s case. Her daughter’s case. If only she had scaled back some on marketing, Katherine would have had time to pursue the angle she’d started last fall.
It’s my fault that Hailey is dead, and Eloise was snatched from her bed… If not for me, both girls would be alive and safe with their families…
The thought made her want to take further action, not retreat. But what was she supposed to do? She could endanger yet another child or be sent to jail for interfering with a police investigation. She didn’t have a badge anymore, and the police chief had made his position clear when he’d had Malone toss her out the door. The sad part was she could even appreciate it from their viewpoint.
Her phone rang over the car’s speakers, and Amanda’s name came up on the display. She didn’t have the bandwidth for a conversation with her right now. She just had to push forward. She rejected the call, shut her car off, and headed intothe diner.
Regulars smiled at her. Her aunt was cashing out an order and looked at her with eyebrows raised in surprise at seeing her. Katherine had told her she was taking a few days off and Aunt May hadn’t pressed her further. Since they’d been separated for years, they had started from strangers a short time ago and some boundaries still existed.
But upon seeing her aunt, Katherine realized this was where she needed to be. Another project, another focus, something to distract her from her culpability.
Her eyes burned with a fresh batch of tears, but she took a deep breath and headed behind the counter. She pressed on a smile for her aunt. There was no way she could tell her right now.
“What are you doing here? I thought you said you were taking some time off?”
“If anyone needs that, it’s you.” Katherine admired her aunt’s work ethic and how, even well into her sixties, she was still tireless and dedicated to her diner.
May batted her hand. “Ridiculous.” Then she turned to the next customer. “What can I get for ya today?”
“Let me take care of this, May. Go rest your feet for a few minutes.”
May narrowed her eyes but relented.
Katherine looked at the man across the counter and smiled at the regular. “Let me guess, a large half caf, half decaf with one sugar and a splash of milk?”
The man smiled. “You remembered?”
“Just be a second.” Katherine made up his coffee, appreciating that this task was mundane and took little thought. But because of that, her mind had free space to chastise her.
Julie, Hailey, and now Eloise… They are all my fault.
She jumped and cried out when a splash of hot coffee hit the back of her hand. Cussing under her breath, she popped the lid on the to-go cup and handed over the coffee to thewaiting customer. After collecting his money, she sent him off with, “Have a good day.”
He lifted his cup to her as if in a toasting gesture. “Oh, I plan on it.”
The next person in line stepped up to place their order, but Katherine couldn’t stay here. She’d been mistaken to think she could just shut everything off. Maybe if she told her aunt, she’d get some peace.
Katherine turned to another server as they walked behind her. Hattie Knox, a woman in her fifties, was one of the first employees at the diner when business started taking off. It looked like she was just returning from break. “Could you…?” she asked her, the implication being that she take over her line.
“Of course.” Hattie wasted no time helping the next customer.
Katherine headed to the back of the diner in search of Aunt May. This might not be the optimal time and place, but she deserved to know the truth. And if Katherine didn’t tell her now, she feared her secret would burrow between them and suck her soul dry.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Amanda sat back in the passenger seat as Trent drove them to the Maynards’ house. Her mind was chastising her for bringing in Katherine and advocating for her help. She got carried away, swept up by emotion. “How did this person know Katherine was still investigating?”
“I don’t think it’s even necessary they did. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.”
She wished she believed that, but now another girl had been taken, she was left second-guessing. “This person is getting more brazen, taking a second girl within days of killing the last one.”
“Agree with you there.”
Trent pulled up in front of the Maynard residence and parked on the street behind a PWCPD cruiser. Three vehicles in the driveway. Two belonged to civilians while the third had a plate attached to the department.
The house was a two-story with a public sidewalk along the right side of the property that cut through to an adjacent street. The Maynards’ property was surrounded by a four-foot-tall chain-link fence, offering no securityor privacy.
