Page 77 of Three Girls Gone
It hurt Amanda’s heart to hear this woman talking about herself in such an unkind way. “Please don’t beat yourself up over this. You were going through a lot in your own life, and finding Hailey would have been traumatic enough on its own. As for you not remembering, that’s understandable. The mind releases things, memories, at its own rate when dealing with a highly stressful situation.” She offered these words of encouragement while battling frustration. Eloise’s abduction may have never happened if they had this information sooner.
“You said it was a car, though,” Trent put in. “Do you remember the make and model?”
“No, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. Did you see who was behind the wheel? A man or a woman?” The size of the silhouetted figure suggested a man, but that didn’t mean a woman wasn’t in the driver’s seat. That was Amanda covering all the bases, but she didn’t want to influence Susan’s response.
“I just saw a bit of the trunk.”
“Okay, thank you. If more comes back to you, call me. Please.” Amanda got up, and she and Trent left Susan Butters with just one more tiny piece of the puzzle.
THIRTY-ONE
Amanda did up her seatbelt and sank into the passenger seat, rolling over their one new clue. A gray car. Why couldn’t it have been neon green or orange? And was it new or older? Sedan or two-door?
“So do you want to go back and watch the footage from Hailey’s school or head over to the Scoop and talk to them there?” Trent was looking over at Amanda from the driver’s seat.
“Option two seems the stronger choice to me. We might get a more concrete lead there. With the school video, we don’t even know who we’re looking for and we’re just hoping that we see something that flags for us.”
“I get it. The ice cream shop it is. Though the Scoop sounds more like it should be a newspaper.”
“Agreed.”
Trent got them to the Scoop, and the front door chimed when they entered the business. The smell of waffle cones and sugar had Amanda’s stomach grumbling for food, but she pushed it aside.
At two in the afternoon on a Wednesday, they had the place to themselves, which worked better for their purpose.
A balding man in his fifties wearing a bright blue apron came to the counter from the back. “What can I get you fine folks?” he asked, tagging on a smile.
Amanda swept her jacket back exposing the badge clipped to her waist.
His lips fell into a straight line. “What can I do for you, Officers?”
“Detectives Steele, and Stenson,” she said. “We have some questions about a birthday party you held here yesterday.”
“Why would the police care about that?”
His response seemed rather defensive, but she let it go. “We’ll get to that. First, if we could get your name, sir…?”
“Greg Loudon, and I own the place.” He walked toward the counter, and she and Trent followed.
“The party was for Eloise Maynard,” she supplied. “That sound right to you?”
“Yes. I booked it myself. Is she okay?”
The fact he’d asked about Eloise wasn’t suspicious on its own. For one, the police were asking about her. Two, Hailey Tanner’s disappearance and subsequent murder had shaken the town. It would be on most people’s minds. “We’re trying to find that out. We’d like to speak with the servers responsible for that party.”
“It was only a group of twelve. Six kids, six women. Tammy was the primary server, and Alec was to back her up. He cut out early though.”
“Why was that?” Amanda had her own theory.
“Wasn’t feeling well.”
“Were you here?” Trent asked.
“Not last night.”
Amanda nodded. “We’d like to talk with Alec for a few moments.”
