Since She Went Away(64)
“Maybe it’s just mean-girl jealousy,” his mom said. “Or maybe she really thinks Tab—Natalie is weird. Who knows?”
“Let me ask you something else, Jared,” Naomi said. “When Natalie broke up with you, did she mention another guy? Do you think she was seeing someone else?”
Her words twisted in Jared’s guts a little. He knew she was just doing her job, and he didn’t want to react like a sniveling little baby. But he didn’t like the question. He didn’t like it at all because he knew so little about Natalie that the answer to the question might just be yes.
“How could she?” he said. “She could barely get out of the house to see me.”
Naomi looked sympathetic, maybe even a little sorry she’d asked the question. “So she didn’t mention anyone?”
“No. She never mentioned any other guys. None.”
A silence settled over the kitchen. He couldn’t hide his real feelings, his fears that Natalie simply didn’t want him anymore because she found someone else.
But he knew the detective had bigger things on her mind. She wasn’t concerned with a silly little high school love triangle. She was hunting bigger game.
Naomi reached out and picked up the photo of Henry Allen, tucking it back into her coat pocket. She checked her watch.
“We’ve sent out an AMBER Alert about Natalie. Her description and her father’s description are going to be all over. They won’t be able to go many places without being recognized.” She stared at both of them, a serious look on her face. The light from above reflected off her oversize glasses. “If you hear anything from Natalie, anything at all. A text. A phone call. An e-mail or a social media message. If you get any of those things, let us know right away. Don’t continue the conversation. Don’t say anything. Just call us. And needless to say, if you see her or her father, call the police immediately. That man is dangerous. Don’t approach him. Don’t play the hero, okay?” She shifted her gaze to Jared when she said the last part.
“I hear you.”
She patted his hand again. “I know you want to rush in and help this girl. It’s noble, it really is. What girl wouldn’t want a boyfriend like you? But let the police handle it, okay? Don’t play Junior James Bond anymore.”
“Can I ask you something, Detective?” Jared said.
Naomi kept her hand resting on his. “I don’t know if she’s alive or not, Jared. But until we know otherwise, we’re going to assume she is.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Jenna walked to the door with Detective Poole while Jared went to his room, and the two women went outside together, stopping on the small front porch to talk some more.
The late-winter sky was gray and low. The sun seemed to have given up. It was cold, too cold for Kentucky in February, and Jenna again found herself wishing she could live someplace warm. Once the glory of spring came, she’d talk about how there was no place better to live than Kentucky, and she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
“Thank you for being so encouraging with Jared,” Jenna said. “I don’t really know what to say to him about this girl. Here I’ve spent a couple of months complaining about people who don’t know what to say to me, and now I’m in the same boat. I don’t know what sounds right or makes sense.”
“I try to be positive,” Naomi said, “until I can’t be anymore.”
“Do you really think this Natalie might still be alive?” Jenna asked.
“Her dad brought her here for some reason instead of killing her back at home. That means he had something in mind for her. It can’t be easy bringing a teenage girl along with you.”
“No. I guess I’m holding out hope he really cared about her in some way. Like you said, he let her go to school.”
“She didn’t run. If she was scared enough, that might motivate her to stay. He could have threatened her. Intimidated her. We don’t even know if the girl is aware that her father is a suspect in the mother’s death. That might change her tune if she knew that. But it doesn’t look like she has much family. She could be completely dependent on him.”
Jenna thought of the kiss Jared described. If you combined that with her father’s controlling, domineering nature, it seemed hard to come up with a benevolent scenario.
Detective Poole considered Jenna. The wind rose and tossed the detective’s short hair around on top of her head. “So, you don’t know Henry Allen, do you?”
“No. I don’t remember him from the soccer games.”
“Did Celia know him?” Naomi asked.
Jenna knew she should have expected the question, but it still knocked her off balance. “I have no idea, Detective. It’s a small town. Anything’s possible, and Jared said their kids are friends.”
“But you don’t know the parents of all of Jared’s friends.”
“Not his girlfriend’s dad. Thank God.”
The detective didn’t walk off. She seemed to be lingering, to be taking her time as if she were retired without a care or a deadline in the world. “Have you spoken with Ian anymore?” she asked.
“He came over the night the news broke about the affair.”
“He came over?”