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“She called me every day, my girl did. You see, people don’t get it. So she could work my last nerve. I worked my mother’s last nerve too. Girls do that. Amiright?”
I would have no idea, so I looked to Luna.
Clearly thinking of Dream, she replied, “Yes, you’re right.”
“It doesn’t mean we aren’t close,” Betsy continued. “So, sure, we could end our phone calls yelling at each other. But who cares? I’m still her mother, and she loves me. And she’s still my daughter, and I love her.”
I hoped her use of the present tense was apropos.
“We were also told by our informant that you asked around about her,” I remarked.
She nodded. “Yup. Sure did. I knew the first day when I didn’t hear from her something was up. I called her again and again, no answer. Went by her place, she wasn’t there. Called the hospitals, the police stations. Nothing. That’s when I went in and talked to the cops. They didn’t believe me. More days went by, no call, she was not at her place. Nada. I talked to the cops again. They told me that a lot of timesgirls like her,” she snarled that last bit, and I didn’t blame her, “turn up after a while. I should just be patient. Then, she didn’t show to do her laundry that first Sunday, and I knew something was up. My Christinaalwayscomes by on Sunday to do her laundry. I went back to the cops. They said they’d look into it. As far as I could tell, they didn’t look too far. So I was on the streets, up and down, looking for her my damned self and talking to anybody I could find to see if they might have seen her.”
“Did anyone have any information for you?” Luna queried.
She shook her head. “Nothing. Like my Christina went up”—she clapped her hands—“poof!in a puff of smoke. No one goes up in a puff of smoke.Somebodyknowssomething.”
Somebody knew something.
We just had to get a lock onto that somebody.
“Do you know how to get hold of this Jazz?” Luna asked.
Betsy popped off the couch and walked to a chest that was painted parakeet blue saying, “Sure do.”
Luna and I looked at each other.
It was Luna who asked, “He’s in town?”
“I don’t know, just got his number,” she mumbled. She’d taken a pad of paper out of the bureau and was copying down a number from her phone. She ripped off the top sheet, came my way and handed it to me. “Last time I talked to him, he told me to eff off and called me an old bat. The manners on that man.Awful. I was asking aftermy daughter.”
“And he wouldn’t answer,” I noted.
“He told me if Christina wanted me to find her, I’d find her.” She lifted a hand and wagged a finger at us before tapping her temple with it. “But I think he knows something. I think he’shidingsomething. I told the cops that. They said they couldn’t find him to ask him. And that was that. How hard is it to find a lazy cuss? He probably hasn’t moved from his couch since my Christina disappeared.”
“No address on him?” I pushed.
She shook her head. “No address. Last time?—”
She cut herself off and looked out the front window.
We gave her time.
She drew in a breath and turned back to us. “Last time I talked to my girl, we fought about him.”
Yup.
I was right.
That wasn’t something you said to a twenty-year-old woman.
Betsy continued, “She told me I was lonely and should find myself a man so I wouldn’t be jealous of hers. No one believes this either, but I know…”—she leaned again toward us—“I know…”—she leaned back—“that all this time, Christina has been kicking herself those were the last words we exchanged.I know. She loves me, and I love her. She won’t want to have left it at that. She’ll come back, and she’ll be sorry it was left like that, and we’ll get along for a while, and then we’ll start fighting again. That’s our way. And I’ll tell you one thing you can bet the house on. I cannotwaitto fight with my daughter again.”
The look on her face, the tears brightening her eyes she refused to shed, I’d take that bet.
“I’m certain you can assure us you already talked with all her friends and acquaintances, and went to places she liked to hang out,” I said quietly.
She sniffed then replied, “Time and again. And the cops did too. At least they tried that.”
