First Girl Gone(37)
“This is Amber’s father, Ted Spadafore. We’re divorced,” Sharon explained.
He was exactly what Charlie imagined when she thought of all the rich people from Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills who owned vacation homes on the island. Overly tan, bleached teeth, expensive watch. He’d attempted to dress casual, but his jeans were just a smidge too perfect, straight off the rack.
Glancing at the other two men, Charlie tried to fit them into the picture. The older of the two she figured to be Sharon’s new husband. The other looked to be around the same age as Amber. Her brother, most likely.
When it became clear that Sharon wasn’t doing any further introductions, the older man cleared his throat.
“Todd Ritter,” he said. “I’m Amber’s stepfather.”
He instantly struck her as a discount version of Ted Spadafore. They were dressed in the same dorky dad chic. They had the same sandy hair. But Todd was shorter, a touch paunchier. Hairline starting to recede. Above all, he was plain. Unremarkable.
“Even his name,” Allie said. “Tahhhhd.”
She drew the vowel sound out, adding a little extra Midwest twang.
Sharon rounded on him, teeth flashing in a snarl.
“Oh, for crying out loud. Not everyone has to be formally introduced,” she snapped, and then she pointed at Todd and her son and rattled off an introduction. “Todd, my husband. Jason, my son. Can we move on to something more productive?”
“Why don’t we all sit, and I can ask a few preliminary questions,” Charlie said, nodding to the leather couch.
The space on the couch was soon filled by Sharon, her ex-husband, and their son, leaving Todd to perch awkwardly next to his wife on one of the arms.
Charlie hadn’t expected quite such a full house.
“I can go grab an extra chair,” she offered.
Todd started to nod and said, “That would be—”
But he was quickly cut off by his wife, who waved a dismissive hand in the air.
“He’s fine. Can we please get started? Or am I the only one here who’s actually concerned about my daughter being missing?”
“Honey, she was only trying to be polite. I think we’re all plenty concerned,” Todd said, his tone placating.
Charlie held up a hand to interrupt and hoped her polite smile would break the tension.
“Why don’t we start with something simple?” she said. “When was the last time anyone saw or spoke to Amber?”
“Last Monday. We think.” Sharon flicked a gold-bangled wrist in the air. “She’s on holiday break, so she’s been home. But she left to go back to school on Monday. She’s very active in her sorority, and they’ve been planning a pancake dinner for the children’s hospital. She went back to do some work on that for a few days. It wasn’t until yesterday we even figured out that anything was wrong.”
The old sofa creaked as Amber’s father shifted in his seat, uncrossing his legs.
“I still don’t understand how you could have possibly missed that she was gone until yesterday,” he muttered, balling his hand into a fist. “It’s been a week!”
Nostrils flaring, Sharon pursed her lips and said, “You’ve got a lot of nerve, lecturing me.”
Ted Spadafore glared over at his ex-wife.
“Yeah? And why is that?”
“If we could get back to—” Charlie tried to break in, but they weren’t listening.
Sharon scoffed. From the corner of her eye, Charlie noticed Todd wince. A Pavlovian response to that noise coming from his wife?
“What? You think you’re father of the year? After you ran off with that tramp secretary of yours and abandoned your family?”
“Don’t call her that. And I didn’t abandon anyone!”
Ted’s face went from sun-bronzed to the red of an uncooked hot dog. By comparison, Sharon remained remarkably cool, running a hand through her hair.
“You did, and I’ll call her whatever I want.”
“Maybe if you weren’t such a controlling shrew, I wouldn’t have—”
After sitting on the far end of the couch in utter silence, Jason Spadafore suddenly leapt to his feet, landing in a sort of karate stance.
“Will you both just shut the fuck up?” he bellowed loudly enough to drown out his parents. “All you ever do is argue—everyone is sick of it! Amber probably ran off just to get away from you.”
Mouth agape, Sharon looked like she’d been slapped.
“What a disgusting thing to say.”
He shook his head.
“You know what? I’m out of here,” he said, turning on his heel and heading for the door.
“Jason, don’t you—” Sharon started to stand, presumably to chase after her son, but Ted stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Let him go.”
The door slammed behind Jason, and his mother settled back into her seat, blinking.
Allie let out a nervous chuckle.
“Holy shit. For a second there, I thought the kid was going to roundhouse kick his dad in those big white horse teeth of his.”
With both parents shocked into an awkward silence for the moment, Charlie seized on the opportunity to get back to her questions.
“OK, so you saw Amber last Monday. Could you tell me what time?”