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“You don’t have to answer anything, Mrs.Beckham,” Sam said gently. “I’m not a cop. They’d probably be furious with me if they knew I was here.”
“Good. Ask your questions, Dr.... Reeves, was it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You look familiar,” she said, studying him.
A shard of panic pierced Sam’s chest. Had the papers published his name? But he kept his expression placid. “I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
“No, but I’ve seen you.” She studied him a moment longer, then nodded. “At New Horizons. You were there a few times when I went there looking for Naomi.”
Oh. “I do therapy with the teens.”
“Cushy job,” she commented, as if daring him to deny it.
“No, ma’am. I don’t charge them anything.”
“Why?” she asked.
Sam frowned slightly. “Why don’t I charge them?”
“No. Why do you do it? Counsel them?”
“It started when I was an undergrad,” he said. “I needed volunteer credits. I realized how good my life had been. How lucky I was. And how alone these kids really are. I kept going even after I had my credits. Now it’s just part of my life.”
She stared at him as if testing the truth of his words. “Naomi didn’t run away, did she?”
He swallowed again. She likes Avondale, Colton had said. Somehow that man—or his partner or both of them—had gotten their hands on this woman’s child. “I don’t think so, ma’am.”
She looked down abruptly, her hand trembling as she petted the old dog. “I told her to go,” she whispered.
“Mom,” Nathan said heavily. A denial. “It wasn’t your fault.”
She shook her head. “I told her to go. She was talking back to me that day and I’d had a terrible day at work already. I was tired and...” A sob cut off her words, shaking her thin frame. Nathan put an arm around her shoulders, his expression helpless. Hopeless.
This family had suffered.
“We argued,” she said when she’d regained control. “I’d told her she had to clean her room before going out, but I caught her sneaking out anyway. It was a big fight. Then I told her if she walked out that door, not to come back.”
Oh no. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard the words uttered by a parent, but it was never easy to respond. Sam leaned forward, hands clasped between his knees.
“Nathan is right. This wasn’t your fault. It was the fault of whoever took her.”
Tears ran down her gaunt cheeks. “My husband didn’t agree with that. He left. Blamed me for everything.”
Oh. Unfortunately, that was all too common as well. Many marriages crumbled under the strain of a missing child. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well. That’s done. I don’t know what else I can tell you, Dr.Reeves. She was a headstrong girl, but she had a good heart. She liked animals. Volunteered at the humane society. Cried when dogs had to be put down. She hated math. Loved broccoli.” Beside her, Nathan sniffled and she patted his knee. “She was a good big sister.”
“Did she want to be an actress?”
“Oh yes. She did. She would’ve made it, too. She sparkled onstage.”
“What production was she in?”
“Several. Once upon a Mattress when she was in middle school. She had the voice of an angel, you see. She starred in The Little Mermaid the year she... well. You know.”
Sam knew.
