Girl Taken by Kate Gable

Author:Kate Gable [Gable, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Byrd Books LLC

21

I walked through Trish’s mom's house. After leaving my shoes by the door, Karen shows me to the back where the kitchen is with a sliding door that faces the backyard. It's a bright sunny day in Los Angeles and the house, though not big, is quite luxurious and undoubtedly expensive, given the location.

Her mom has wide sad eyes, a short hairstyle, and the demeanor of someone with nothing to hide. She's not putting on airs, and there's a kindness to her that I find almost uncomfortable.

Most people that I'm around put their guard up as soon as they hear that I'm a police officer. It's like they present the best versions of themselves. It happens even when they just see my car and I'm driving down the freeway. Everyone slows down, clogging up traffic.

I have no intentions of pulling anyone over who's only going ten miles above the speed limit, unless it's a school zone. But as soon as they see the lights on top of the SUV and the police department insignia, everyone comes to a crawl. I haven't driven a police car like that for a while, and it's definitely noticeable when you drive something unmarked.

Karen is different. It's almost as if she doesn't have a filter. She smiles at me in a pleasant manner, and offers me a warm cookie, that I can't resist no matter how hard I try.

The plate has antique flowers on it. It looks delicate. Something either from the thrift store or from long ago. Her nails are cut short and manicured. No acrylics, very little eye shadow, just a smudge of foundation, and some gloss on her lips.

Trish comes out a little bit later, taking a seat at the bar next to me. She looks tired, exhausted from the pregnancy. Her skin is a little bit sallower than it was earlier, and she says that she still has nausea sometimes that comes on in waves.

She grabs a cookie, takes a bite, picks off the chocolate a little bit, and then tells me how nice the Islingtons, whom she calls by their first names, Ruth and Deacon, were to her and Derek, and how easy they made the entire process of buying the boat.

I glance over at Karen who smiles at me.

"You know, I wasn't sure about all of this at first when Derek brought it up," Karen says, "but after seeing pictures of that boat, it's nicer than some of the apartments that they’ve lived in. I think it would be great."

"You mentioned that you went on a test drive with them?” I ask.

"Yes, we did. And they signed over all the paperwork after we paid."

"Really?" I ask.

Trish nods.

She then walks over to her room, right off of the living room, and comes back with a stack of paperwork.

"Here, you see, the boat's ours."

I look at the papers. The signatures all seem to be there. The boat is described in detail, and everything has been notarized.

"I'm just so confused about where

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