Page 52

Frustration crossed Georgia’s face, but she didn’t push into it.

“Then tell me what you can.”

Meredith exhaled slowly, as though that answer had made the next part possible.

“We argued. Gavin kept saying there had to be a way to fix what was happening without making things worse for me. I told him I didn’t know what that way was. The case against him was already moving, and I was terrified that if I changed my statement everyone would think I’d lied about everything.”

“What did he say?”

“That he believed me.”

The words hit Georgia visibly.

Meredith continued. “He left without telling me what he planned to do. I didn’t know he was going to disappear. Later, after he missed court, he called me once.”

I pulled a legal pad closer.

Georgia’s attention sharpened.

“From where?”

“I don’t know. The number wasn’t familiar and never worked again. He only wanted to know if I was safe. I told him to stop worrying about me and figure out how to save himself.”

A tremor entered Meredith’s voice.

“He said it wasn’t that simple.”

Georgia’s pen moved across the page.

“Did he give you any idea where he was?”

“No. He was careful about that. I think he wanted to make sure I couldn’t lead anybody to him even by accident.” Meredith paused, and when she spoke again the uncertainty sounded different, more like someone searching a seven-year-old memory than protecting a secret. “But he talked about work. He said he could always make money fixing things because people needed repairs everywhere.”

Georgia looked at me.

That matched everything she had told me about him.

Meredith continued. “He mentioned Oregon. Eastern Oregon, I think. Not a city. He said something about finding work where people hired a man because somebody they knew recommended him, not because they checked his whole life first.”

“Did he name a town?” I asked.

“No. I’m sorry. He may not even have gone there.”

“You don’t need to make the clue stronger than it is,” I told her. “What you remember is enough.”

Meredith was quiet for a second.

Then Georgia asked, “If we find him, will you talk to him?”

The school bell rang faintly through the speaker before Meredith answered.

“Yes.”

Georgia’s pen stopped.

Meredith repeated the answer with more certainty. “I’ll talk to him. I don’t know what I’ll be able to say yet, but I’ll talk to him.”

By the time the call ended, I understood two things: Meredith had finally given us the piece Gavin’s old file never contained, and it was only useful because seven years had passed.