AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Seth raised his shoulders, and he looked like a teenager pretending to be an adult. “There’s not a lot we can do right now. We can talk to some of Gail’s classmates and friends. But if you’re saying Abby is her closest friend, doesn’t it stand to reason that Abby probably knows where she is? Maybe she’s just not telling you?”
Claire sizzled with anger. This man was suggesting that both of her daughters were lying to her. It wasn’t possible.
“Abby wants to come home with us until Gail is found,” Claire said. “The woman on the phone said we could talk to you about that. About switching her to online classes.”
Seth leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. He was beginning to lose interest. “Sure. But please translate to your daughter the importance of being in class as soon as possible. We see so many students slip away when they go online.”
Claire wanted to scream again. This man was worried about Abby’s academic failings during the second semester of her freshman year (a year that arguably hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things) while her other daughter was out there somewhere, missing.
It was impossible to translate how close Gail and Abby had always been. Seth hadn’t been there when they’d taken their first steps together, holding hands.
Claire and Russel walked across campus toward Abby’s dorm room. An icy wind swept between them, tossing Russel’s hair. He’d recently dyed away his grays, and he looked about ten years younger. From his recent stints at the gym, his shoulders were broader than ever. He looked as though he could throw Claire over his shoulder and swagger across the rolling hills of campus through the limestone buildings from centuries ago.
Claire strung her arm through Russel’s and pressed her cheek against his bicep. She shook with sorrow.
“I don’t know what to do with myself,” she whispered. “I’ve always known where my girls were. I’ve always been the kind of mother they tell things to.”
“She’ll turn up, Claire,” Russel said. “She’s eighteen and acting out. As soon as she senses we’re giving her the attention she craves, she’ll come back to us.”
Claire furrowed her brow. “You really think it’s that simple?”
“Our girls are still growing and changing,” Russel went on. “They’re experimenting with adulthood. They’re figuring out who they are.”
When they reached the dorm room, Abby tore open the door and threw herself in Claire’s arms. Her face was blotchy, and she hadn’t showered that day or, it seemed, the day before. Russel stood in the shadows of the dorm, his eyes tracing the twin beds and the messy desks. There was a photograph of the four of them on Abby’s desk, taken on a family vacation from last summer. They’d gone to Florida. Abby had suffered a terrible sunburn, and Gail had nursed her back to health, smearing aloe vera across her shoulders.
Claire would have given anything to go back to that day. Everything had felt so clear.
“Mom, I don’t know what to do. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep.” Abby tugged at her red hair and paced in front of her messy bed.
Claire’s stomach twisted. The number one thing she wanted to do, she realized, was go through Gail’s things before they left. She wanted to look for clues. She eyed Gail’s desk and drawers curiously.
“Why don’t you and your dad go grab something to eat?” Claire suggested.
Abby’s chin trembled.
“That sounds great, honey,” Russel offered. “What was that restaurant you took me to last time? It was delicious.”
“Ralph’s,” Abby said, her voice quivering.
“I’ll pack up your things,” Claire promised. “And we’ll be on the road in no time.”
Russel and Abby stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind them. This left Claire in the echoing mess of her daughters’ dorm room. Because so many generations of students had lived here, a consistent rank smell existed beneath everything, as though mold grew between the stones of the walls.
Claire had once read an article about mold spores. About how they were dangerous for your mind if you breathed in too many. People had entered psychoses. People had gone mad. Had that happened to Gail?
Claire set to work on Gail’s desk. She was delicate, leafing through pieces of paper and notebooks, looking for clues. She found Gail’s student card and a debit card that had just expired a few months ago. (Claire had, of course, been the one to order the new card.) There were notes from the classes Gail had taken last semester, second-hand books that looked like they’d gone through a shredder, and numerous chapsticks and lipsticks that looked to have cost two dollars at most.
Frustrated, Claire dug through Gail’s bed and looked underneath. It occurred to her that Gail’s laptop was nowhere to be found; neither was her phone. When she searched through her drawers, she realized that pieces of clothing were also missing. Sweatshirts. A dress they’d bought together on their trip to Florida. Numerous pairs of underwear and bras. And her backpack and small suitcase were gone, too.
She’d intended to go. She’d planned it. She’d packed.
Claire sat at the edge of Gail’s bed and then collapsed back into the sheets, inhaling Gail’s scent. She remembered how she’d looked two days before as Claire had driven her back: forlorn, angry, her eyes bloodshot and lined with black. What had Claire missed?
Last summer at a family barbecue, Claire had asked Rina about her work as a private investigator. And Rina had said something about getting into the heads of the missing people. “I try to imagine I am them. What did they see before they disappeared? What could have led them down this path? What kind of people did they hang out with?”
“It’s like writing fiction,” Kelli had suggested. “You have to make up a character in your head.”
“Something like that,” Rina said. “Although I have to admit, this is much easier with people I don’t know. When I do know them, even a little bit, my perception of them clouds my judgment.”
