AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t give up hope. Let me do my job. I’ll bring her back. I promise.”
There was banging on her end and a faint voice calling out, “Vanessa?”
“My mother,” Vanessa whispered. “I’ve got to go.” She hung up before I had a chance to said goodbye.
I lowered the phone to my lap, cursing myself for promising to bring Ava home. There were no guarantees I could do any such thing, let alone alive, but I couldn’t bear to hear her anguish.
Or maybe I couldn’t live with my own.
Chapter 18
I wanted to do more digging into Ricky Morris, but I wanted to talk to Lori Sumpter first. Using the directory, I plugged Ainsley’s address into my GPS and pulled up to the house twenty minutes later.
The Sumpters lived on the opposite side of Jackson Creek, not that the town was all that big. The neighborhood consisted of small homes built in the 1940s and ’50s. One-level homes with few architectural features. The Sumpter home was a pale yellow with black shutters and looked fairly well kept. An older minivan was parked in the narrow driveway that led to a detached garage behind the house.
I parked at the curb and scratched my name and number on a page in the back of my journal, tore it out, and got out of the car. The front door opened after I’d only taken a few steps toward the house. A woman wearing black yoga pants and a long-sleeved gray T-shirt with several stains stood in the opening with a toddler on her hip. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but multiple strands hung loose. She barely looked twenty-five, but dark circles underscored her eyes, making her look exhausted.
“Are you Harper?” she called out.
I stopped about fifteen feet away. “Yes. Lori Sumpter?”
She grimaced and didn’t answer the question. “Vanessa said she was having someone come talk to me, but she didn’t say she was sending you.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised that she both recognized me and had an opinion about what I’d done. The thin blue line sticker on the back of her minivan next to the stick figure family suggested she’d heard those rumors Nate had told me about. There was a good chance she wouldn’t talk to me, but I had to try. “I’m sure you’ve heard that Ava Peterman is missing. I only want to ask a few questions that might help Vanessa find her.”
“I heard she ran away.”
“The more we know, the likelier we are to find her.” When she didn’t seem swayed, I took a step forward. “Please. Anything you tell me can help. How would you feel if your daughter went missing? Wouldn’t you want Vanessa to help you?”
She looked stricken, then glanced at my car before her gaze landed on me. She shifted the toddler on her hip. He wore a pair of overalls over a long-sleeve T-shirt and no socks. “If Jimmy finds out I let you in the house…”
“Is Jimmy your husband?”
She nodded.
“How about I ask you a few questions from out here?” I suggested. “Then you don’t have to let me in.” It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing.
She tugged the little boy closer to her body. “Maybe…”
It wasn’t a no. “When was the last time you saw Ava?”
Frowning, she said, “Last Sunday at church. She and Ainsley were sitting together at Sunday school.”
“Wait,” I said in confusion. “You go to the same church as the Petermans?” Vanessa had said Casey and Ava had more in common because they went to the same church, implying that the Sumpters didn’t.
Her brow wrinkled. “Just about everyone in town goes there.”
I remembered that had been true twenty years ago. My parents went to Jackson Creek Baptist, and my mother said she knew Ava from Vacation Bible School. “Are Ava and Ainsley close?”
She nodded, but a dark look filled her eyes. “Ainsley would like to be closer, but TJ won’t let ’em.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He won’t let her come over for playdates,” she said with a sniff. “And they sure don’t invite her over there much.”
“Why won’t he let her come over?” I asked.
Her brow lowered. “Look at this place. It’s a dump compared to the Petermans’ or the LaRues’. TJ Peterman wants only the best for his little princess, and Ainsley’s not the best.”
