First Girl Gone(39)
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, nothing. Write your check and then slither back to your bimbo. That’s what you do, isn’t it?”
He bared his teeth, on the brink of responding, then seemed to decide he’d had enough for one day.
“I don’t have time for this,” he said, spinning on his heel to face Charlie. “You’ll keep me in the loop?”
“Of course.”
With that, he grabbed his coat from the rack and left.
Sharon watched him go, letting out a small puff of breath. Then she turned her sharp gaze on Todd, pen in hand, his eyes scanning the lines of legalese printed in black ink. With his face buried in the contract, he didn’t realize his wife was staring him down.
“What are you doing?”
His eyes flicked up briefly, and he flashed an awkward smile.
“Reading the contract.”
Thrusting her lower jaw out and rolling her eyes, Sharon shook her head.
“For the love of God, Todd. Will you just sign the damn thing?”
He looked at her in earnest now and tapped the top page with the tips of his fingers.
“I’m just looking it over, honey. I think it’s always wise to—”
“Look, I appreciate the overly concerned stepfather act you’re putting on, but she isn’t your daughter. I don’t even know why your name is on the contract, frankly.”
Todd’s face tightened. He glanced at Charlie, then back at his wife. Charlie cringed inwardly.
“Honey, why would you say that?”
Sharon pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Here we go. Mr. Sensitive! I didn’t mean anything by it, Todd. It’s just a simple fact. You are not Amber’s father.” Finished with him, her focus shifted to Charlie. “Now I expect you’ll get started on all of this immediately?”
“Absolutely. I’ll be—”
To Charlie’s surprise, Todd interrupted.
“Excuse me, Sharon, but I’m the one who noticed the flier for the other missing girl in the first place.”
Sharon sighed heavily and rolled her eyes.
“Jesus Christ, Todd! My daughter is missing. Do you think you can put your hurt feelings aside until our next therapy session and focus on that, please? We’re wasting this poor woman’s time.”
Face flushing the shade of raw ground beef, Todd blinked down at the clipboard.
“You’re right,” he said, quietly. “I’m sorry.”
He signed the contract and handed it back to Charlie. Sharon was already on her feet and slipping her coat on.
With one final disdainful look around the grungy office, she wrinkled her nose and muttered, “I need some fresh air. I’ll be outside.”
Todd stared after her for a moment, then reached for his own jacket. Zipping it, he turned to Charlie.
“I don’t know if we said thank you, but… thank you.” He made eye contact briefly, then looked away again. “My wife isn’t always able to express her true feelings. She can be… brusque sometimes to hide her vulnerability. Underneath that tough exterior, she loves her daughter more than anything. She’s terrified, and it means the world to have you out there looking for our girl. It really does.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
After the Ritter-Spadafore party had departed, Charlie sat at her desk, absently bouncing a pen against her cheek. Two missing girls. Were the cases related? There was no proof yet, but Charlie’s gut said yes.
Based on what the family had just told her, Amber Spadafore had gone missing first—a full two days before Kara Dawkins. That was probably significant. And it meant Charlie was already a week behind on Amber’s case. She swallowed in a dry throat. Pressure.
She knew the police had Amber’s car. She needed to talk to Zoe, see if they’d found anything of interest. But she hated to ask for another favor so soon. She didn’t want Zoe thinking she only ever called when she wanted something.
She pulled out her phone and the list of Amber’s friends Sharon Ritter had written down for her. The name on the first line was Julia Prior. She was Amber’s roommate and sorority sister.
When Charlie explained who she was and why she was calling, the girl let out a squeak of distress.
“I can’t believe this is real. None of us can. We’re in shock!”
“How well do you know Amber?”
“We’re both nursing students, so we’ve been in all the same classes together since we were freshmen. So yeah, I’d say I know her pretty well.”
“And how would you describe her?”
“Oh, Amber is smart as hell. She’s the only girl who aced our big pharmacology test the first time through. If it weren’t for her, I don’t know if I would have passed that class.”
An achiever, Charlie thought. Book-smart. It fit with everything else she’d found online. Quite the opposite of Kara Dawkins when it came to type.
“What about socially? Does she have a lot of friends?”
“I mean, I think everyone in the house would consider her a friend. Everyone loves Amber.”
“And outside of that?”
“Nursing school isn’t really like other programs. We have our standard course load, plus clinicals. Our nursing class alone accounts for twenty hours every week. It’s basically a part-time job in addition to our other classes. And then we have the house activities. Volunteering and whatnot. My point is, we don’t have quite the amount of free time other students do.”