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“So you are looking for her.”
“I never said that,” I insisted.
He nodded. “Yeah, of course. I’ll need your number though.”
“Yeah,” I said, opening my notebook to write my number down.
“Don’t rip a page out,” he said, looking like he was in pain. “Write it down on this.” He handed me a business card and a pen.
I wrote down my cell number and handed back the card and pen. “Thanks, Nate. I really appreciate it.”
“Anything I can do to help. Seriously.”
“One more thing,” I added. He seemed like he genuinely intended to keep this quiet, so I figured I might as well make use of him. “If you hear anything about someone seeing a white utility van with the name B&G Woodworking, could you let me know? It was stolen from a cabinet place in Memphis and they’re looking for it.”
His gaze didn’t leave my face. “And they think it’s here in Jackson Creek?”
“It was spotted in town last week.”
“You doing some PI work, Harper?”
I nearly laughed. “Something like that.”
He was staring at me so intently it felt a bit unnerving.
“Do you mind if I take one of your cards?” I asked. “You know, in case I need to get in touch.”
He picked up a card and wrote on the back, then handed it to me. “My cell’s on the back. Feel free to call me for any reason. It doesn’t have to be about TJ. In fact—” a mischievous look filled his eyes, “—I’d like to hang out and get reacquainted. If you’re open to it, that is.”
I glanced down at the card then back up at him. “Yeah.” I hadn’t been interested in a man since Keith had screwed me over. Was it a good sign that I was intrigued by Nate?
But this wasn’t the time to think about my love life. I had to find that little girl.
Chapter 14
After I left the bookstore, I headed back to my car. My phone buzzed with a call, and I saw my mother’s name on the screen. I considered ignoring it, but she’d been really upset this morning, so I stopped on the sidewalk next to my car and answered.
“Hello, Mom.”
“You’ve been gone all morning.”
“How observant of you,” I said in a forced cheery tone.
“I know you talked to Lisa Murphy.”
“She sure doesn’t let grass grow under her feet.”
“Why are you looking into this? Chief Larson claims Ava ran away.”
“You called the police chief?” I checked for traffic and walked around my car and opened the door. “Besides, this morning you were very insistent that there was no way she would run.”
“I called the station because I had to know for myself what was going on, and the chief assured me he has everything under control.”
“Like he did with Andi?” I bit out as I got into the car and closed the door.
She was quiet for several seconds before she said more meekly than I’d ever heard her, “That vile man took your sister, and there was nothing Chief Larson could have done any differently to stop it.”
A sharp retort about his incompetency was on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it. For the first time, I realized that my mother still held to the party line because to think otherwise would mean there’d been a chance to save her. Thinking he had done everything he could helped her sleep at night.
