Don't Talk to Strangers by Amanda Kyle Williams

Author:Amanda Kyle Williams
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
ISBN: 9780345539649
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2014-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

20

Meltzer’s phone rang as I was preparing to leave. I’d just made it through my first-ever episode of Castle. I watched him check the display, answer while I talked to Mrs. Meltzer. He plugged one ear with his finger and walked quickly into the hallway. His body language had changed. Whatever news he was getting wasn’t what he wanted to hear. I saw him click off a couple of minutes later and make another call. His voice stayed low. He returned and looked at me. “We have to go,” he said. Then to his mother, “Mom, Patricia’s coming over to watch TV with you, okay?”

The door opened and a heavyset woman walked in wearing knee-length shorts and flip-flops, a man’s T-shirt. Her face was round and very plain but you had the feeling she was about to laugh. Brown bangs squared off over her eyebrows. She smiled at me. The sheriff didn’t bother to introduce us. He had other things on his mind. He slipped into his harness and checked the S&W 40 he carried.

“Will you feed Ginger?” he asked the woman. “And make sure she gets out again before you leave?”

“You betcha,” she answered and sat next to Mrs. Meltzer. “Want to watch some TV, Virginia?” Mrs. Meltzer’s hand came across and patted her caretaker’s knee.

We were out the door a second later. “We have a girl missing,” Meltzer told me. His tone was curt. “Her name’s Skylar Barbour. Wasn’t home when her parents got off work. They called teachers, then they called her friends, and then they called us. We’re taking it seriously. I have a bad feeling.”

“Was she in school today?” I asked as we walked quickly down the pebbled path.

“All day. She appeared normal and not upset. Friends say they saw her walking toward home.”

“So she disappeared between school and home. How far is that?”

“Not far, but she would have had to take a trail through those woods on the southeast edge of the park.” There was a little jiggle in his voice because we were moving fast. “Here’s what we have so far. Patrols took preliminary statements from the parents, who told them their daughter always takes the bus home. Tina Brolin was able to contact a couple of the girl’s friends, who said she always walks home with them.”

“So the parents are lying,” I said. “Or their daughter was.”

“Like I said, I have a bad feeling.”

“Skylar’s Caucasian?” I asked. “And blond?”

“Affirmative.”

“Age?”

“Eighth grader,” Ken Meltzer answered, grimly. “Thirteen. Same school where Melinda went.” We stopped at our vehicles.

“But there’s no evidence she was abducted,” I reminded him. I was having trouble selling it. I had a bad feeling too. I was thinking about Logan Peele and the band teacher who’d flown under the radar and the greeting on my windshield, a warning, a promise. “Your offender, if this turns out to be his work, he hasn’t had time to do what he does, Ken. He holds them. If he has Skylar, she’s still alive.”

“Jump in,” Meltzer said, as if he hadn’t heard me.

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