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They pulled into the crowded parking lot a few minutes later, and she placed her travel mug on the floor. Travis waited for her on the sidewalk, looking around.
“Do you know what this guy looks like?”
He didn’t respond, but he’d stopped, a slight smile crossing his face, and Meredith turned to see what had caught his attention.
Or who might be a better description.
The blonde was the size of a Pixy Stix, slim and tiny, almost boy-like in size, the top of her head maybe coming to Meredith’s chin. Her smile was immediately engaging as she pushed her dark-rimmed glasses farther up her nose. Her blond hair was bobbed in an A line that lengthened near the front of her face.
Perky and pretty. Meredith hated her on sight.
“Look at you, stranger. You clean up nice,” she said and leaned forward, accepting Travis’s arms easily around her in a hug.
What was with this man and women hugging him?
“You’re looking terrific, too, Meems. The civilian life seems to suit you.”
Meems? Was that even a word?
Meems finally drew her gaze from Travis and looked at Meredith, still smiling. “You must be Meredith. I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I’m Marianne but people just call me Meems.”
Adorable.
“Let’s go get a seat, I’m starved,” the little Muppet said, and Travis followed her inside, almost forgetting that Meredith was even there.
She gritted her teeth and followed them.
Midmorning on a Friday, the diner wasn’t too busy, and they easily found a booth. Travis waited for both women to be seated, taking five seconds too long trying to decide whom he was going to sit next to, then slid into the seat next to Meredith.
“Coffee?” their server asked, holding a pot in her hand. Mugs filled, the woman brought out a pad and pencil and took their order before slipping away.
Meems dug into her messenger bag and pulled out a laptop and a stack of folders.
“Looks like you’ve been busy,” Travis said.
“That’s what you’re paying me the big bucks for, right?” she said and opened her computer and tapped at the keys.
Meredith, however, was too aware of the length of Travis’s leg pressed against hers to pay any attention.
Not good. Focus.
She squeezed closer to the window, trying to put a few inches of space between them. Even the brush of his leg against hers stirred things she had no business thinking about.
“Stop keeping us in suspense, Meems. What have you discovered?”
“Nothing certain. A lot of what I have is just conjecture. No hard evidence. Whoever this is, they’re good. I’ve been digging through missing person reports over the past five years, looking for similar victims—young girls, eighteen years old, give or take, who’ve gone missing. And I think I found something.”
She turned the laptop around to show a map of the western United States. “These,” she said, pointing to a scattering of stars across the states, “are where missing person reports have been filed in the past five years…Vegas, Salt Lake, Denver, Rock Springs. All of the girls are over eighteen and recent high school graduates. Of the nineteen I’ve found, all of them—with the exception of your daughter, Meredith—are lower- to middle-class. In a couple of instances, it was a roommate or boyfriend notifying the police that their friend has been missing a few days; a handful of times it was concerned parents or family. From what I could tell, the assumption in all of these separate cases was that the young woman just picked up and moved on. No evidence of foul play was found, nor did anything turn up that would indicate something more was at play.”
“Like what? What more would they need than the word of a concerned family member?” Meredith asked, outraged that so many young girls could be lost and no one cared.
Meems gave Travis a look, and he finished for her. “A body. Some proof that someone is out there preying on young girls.”
Their food arrived, their server either not hearing Travis’s comment or purposely ignoring it as she set their food in front of them.
“That’s why this could be genius,” Meems said after the server left. She slathered her pancakes with butter and poured the maple syrup generously on top. The girl clearly wasn’t afraid of a few carbs. “Other than three of these girls, whose parents or boyfriends insisted something was wrong, the others fell off the radar. And because the girls are spread over multiple states, no immediate connection’s been made.”
“What reason would the police have to ignore the reports?” Meredith asked.
