First Girl Gone(10)
“OK, what can you tell me about the days before Kara left? What she did, who she saw, anything unusual that might have happened.”
“Since the kids are on break, the girls have been watching Tyler for us during the day,” Misty said. “As far as I know, everything’s been normal. Up until Kara realized she really wasn’t going on that trip, things had been fine with her.”
Charlie looked over at Rachel, who was fiddling with the sleeve of her shirt.
“What do you think? Had she seemed normal to you?”
Rachel nodded.
“Yeah, I mean, she complained a lot about having to meet with her probation officer. She said it was Christmas break, and she should get a break from everything.”
“What day was that?” Charlie asked.
Misty gripped both sides of her head with her hands.
“The day before we had the fight. Tuesday. And she’s had an attitude about her probation requirements this whole time, so that was certainly normal. I kept telling her she should be thanking her lucky stars it was only probation.”
“And how often did she see her probation officer?”
“Once a week or so. Sometimes her officer would show up for random check-ups, but usually they’d meet up at her lawyer’s office. Kara could walk there after school, and her lawyer wanted to be sure she was keeping up with the requirements. I was so grateful that he kept her out of jail, and now this.” Misty started to tear up again. “I thought the worst was behind us.”
“Would you happen to have her probation officer’s name and number?”
“I have it written down right over here,” Misty said, scooting her chair out and moving to a small notepad on the counter.
She scribbled the information down on a Post-it and handed it to Charlie.
“And her lawyer?”
“Oh, that would be Will Crawford, right here in town. I’m sure you remember Will.”
“Of course,” Charlie said.
Another classmate. Will had been a grade ahead of her and Allie.
Charlie glanced down at her notes. She had a solid list of friends to talk to, plus Kara’s father, probation officer, and lawyer.
“This is a good start,” she said. “Is it OK if I take a look around Kara’s room before I go?”
Rachel raised her hand, as if she were in math class instead of sitting at the dining room table in her own house.
“We share a room. I can show you.”
Chapter Six
Rachel hovered in the doorway while Charlie entered the room. There were bunk beds against one wall, and Charlie could guess which bed belonged to which girl with a single glance.
The bottom bunk—Kara’s—had a purple feather boa wrapped around one bedpost. The wall next to the bed was adorned with rows of Christmas lights, and Polaroids of Kara and her friends had been clipped to the wire strands.
The top bunk, Rachel’s space, was more low-key. There was a Beatles poster, a print of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and a single photo. Moving closer, Charlie saw that it was a black-and-white strip from a photobooth. Charlie took in the miniature photos, top to bottom: Kara and Rachel with their tongues out, Kara wearing Rachel’s glasses, Kara and Rachel holding their noses up like pigs, and lastly, Kara and Rachel smiling sweetly, arms slung around each other’s shoulders.
“You two are close?”
Rachel took a step into the room.
“It’s hard to share a room with someone for eight years and not be close,” she answered. “She’s probably my best friend.”
There was a dresser and desk on the opposite side of the room from the beds. The top of the dresser was cluttered with makeup, lotion, jewelry, and more photos. Clearly Kara’s stuff. In contrast, the desk beside it was neat and orderly, with a laptop, notebook, and some pens and pencils in a cat-shaped mug.
Charlie noticed as she studied Kara’s photo collection that Rachel was not in any of them. Nor did she remember seeing any photos of Rachel on Kara’s Facebook or Instagram. An uncomfortable feeling wormed in her gut. She knew she should leave it, but something wouldn’t let her.
She gestured at the Polaroids.
“Looks like Kara has a lot of friends.”
Rachel smiled, but there was sadness in her eyes.
“Yeah.”
“How well do you know them?”
“We… don’t really hang out with the same people.”
Charlie felt a familiar twinge in her gut. She was getting the strongest reminders of herself and Allie in this room. Was it the bunk beds? The way the two girls’ spaces were so different? Kara with all of her friends and Rachel with… her computer?
She and Allie had always been close. They were twins, after all. And yet the older they got, the more Charlie had felt like they were drifting apart. Except that wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t so much a drifting apart as Allie pushing her away, at least in public. At home they’d been closer than ever. It was at school that Allie had seemed to want nothing to do with her.
Charlie understood Allie’s need to be separate sometimes. There were times when being a twin felt like everyone viewed you as only one half of a person. But it was the push-pull of it that stung, even now. The way Allie could fall right back into BFF mode at home after ignoring Charlie at school all day. Charlie shook these thoughts away, wary of getting sucked into a black hole of nostalgia.