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There she is.
Gene turned his gaze and locked eyes with Amanda. “This is her?”
Amanda nodded. “As close as I can remember.”
Though he didn’t say it out loud, somehow she understood the shock on his face. The girl in the sketch was young, with a healthy roundness of youth still on her face. Not what people would think of a runaway. Maybe she wasn’t a runaway. Maybe she was in a different type of trouble. Amanda didn’t want to think what that could be.
Patrick studied the sketch; his face revealed nothing. But when he spoke, his tone was measured and professional.
“We can run the sketch against the database and see if we get a hit.”
“Can we have a copy of this?” Gene asked. “We’re checking shelters and encampments. Maybe somebody will recognize her.”
“Of course,” Patrick said. “I’ll distribute this within the force. Patrols may see her if she’s around town or the surrounding area.”
“Thank you both,” Amanda said to Patrick and Julia. “I truly appreciate this, especially since many of the residents here didn’t believe me.”
“I apologize if you felt we weren’t listening, Amanda,” Patrick said. “We’ll let you know if we find anything.”
“Thanks, Patrick,” Gene shook his friend’s hand. “Thank you for all the help.”
He did the same with Julia, then Patrick escorted them out.
Amanda was surprised it was barely ten. She’d been so focused on Julia sketching; she’d thought more time had passed.
“That was kinda surreal,” Gene said once they were sitting in his car. “Seeing the sketch makes the girl you’ve been telling us…”
“Real?” Amanda finished for him.
He glanced at her with a sober expression. “For lack of a better word, yes.”
“I’m gonna send the picture to Jo and Liam. Ask them to circulate it, to see if anyone recognizes her.”
“I’ll send it to my mom, too. She’s been invested in this, pumping me for updates every night. She’s asking around the middle schools. Who knows, right?”
Amanda turned to him. “Your mother?”
“Yes, she’s your staunch supporter. Told me I was an idiot for making you angry. Said I must’ve screwed up big time since I’d be the only person who had gotten that sweet Amanda Garner to lose her temper.”
Gene gave her a small smile.
Amanda laughed. “She didn’t say that.”
“She did. Obviously, she’d never spent enough quality time with you to see how stubborn and hot-tempered you can be. I still remember how red Officer Penn’s face got when you threatened to file a complaint with his sergeant when he wouldn’t take you seriously.”
“Well, he would’ve deserved that, too,” Amanda commented under her breath.
“And Mom also doesn’t know underneath all this sweet outer shell of yours there’s a hot-blooded sultry woman who keeps me up at night,” he added. Amanda’s eyes sharpened at his remarks, but Gene wasn’t finished. “But she got this right about you. She knows you won’t stop until you find this girl.”
“She’s right,” Amanda agreed.
“I realized that, too. She’s become a mission to you because you can’t ever stand by and watch when someone needs help. And you think she needs help. Most people would scratch the girl off and moved on. Let someone else worry about her,” he continued. “But not you.”
Amanda sighed, sat back, and looked straight through the windshield.
“To tell you the truth, I started doubting whether I really saw her myself. But working with Julia this morning, everything became clear again.” She turned her head to him. “Could my brain have created that girl, Gene?”
She showed her phone screen where the photo of the sketch was displayed.
