Faithless

The waitress twisted her lips to the side as if she’d just calculated her tip. “Water.”

Jeffrey waited for her to saunter back behind the counter before asking Esther, “How long has she been missing?”

“Just since last night,” Esther said, her lower lip trembling. “Lev and Paul said I should wait a day to see if she comes back, but I can’t…”

“It’s okay,” he said, wondering how anybody could look at this panicked woman and tell her to wait. “When did you notice she was gone?”

“I got up to check on her. With Abby-” She stopped, her throat working. “I wanted to check on Becca, to make sure she was sleeping.” She put her hand to her mouth. “I went into her room, and-”

“Water,” May-Ly

Jeffrey’s patience was up. “Give us a minute, okay?”

May-Ly

Jeffrey took his turn with the apologies as he dabbed up the spilled water with a handful of flimsy paper napkins. “I’m sorry about that,” he told Esther. “Business is kind of slow.”

Esther watched his hands as if she had never seen anyone clean a table. Jeffrey thought it was more likely she’d never seen a man clean up after himself. He asked, “So, you saw last night that she was gone?”

“I called Rachel first. Becca stayed with my sister the night we realized Abby was missing. I didn’t want her out in the dark with us while we searched. I needed to know where she was.” Esther paused, taking a sip of water. Jeffrey saw that her hand trembled. “I thought she might have gone back there.”

“But she hadn’t?”

Esther shook her head. “I called Paul next,” she said. “He told me not to worry.” She made an almost disgusted sound. “Lev said the same thing. She’s always come back, but with Abby…” She gulped in air as if she couldn’t breathe. “With Abby gone…”

“Did she say anything before she left?” Jeffrey asked. “Maybe she was acting differently?”

Esther dug into the pocket of her coat and pulled out a piece of paper. “She left this.”

Jeffrey took the folded note the woman offered, feeling a little like he had been tricked. The paper had a pink tint, the ink was black. A girlish scrawl read, “Mama, Don’t worry about me. I’ll be back.”

Jeffrey stared at the note, not knowing what to say. The fact that the girl had left a note changed a lot of things. “This is her writing?”

“Yes.”

“On Monday, you told my detective that Rebecca has run away before.”

“Not like this,” she insisted. “She’s never left a note before.”

Jeffrey thought in the scheme of things the girl was probably just trying to be considerate. “How many times has this happened?”

“In May and June of last year,” she listed. “Then February this year.”

“Do you know any reason why she might run away?”

“I don’t understand.”

Jeffrey tried to phrase his words carefully. “Girls don’t usually just up and run away. Usually they’re ru

He could have slapped the woman in the face and got a better response. She folded the note and tucked it back into her pocket as she stood. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.”

“Mrs. Be

She was halfway out the door, and he just missed catching her as she ran down the stairs.

“Mrs. Be

“They said you’d say that.”

“Who said?”

“My husband. My brothers.” Her shoulders were shaking. She took out a tissue and wiped her nose. “They said you would blame us, that it was useless to even try to talk to you.”

“I don’t recall blaming anybody.”

She shook her head as she turned around. “I know what you’re thinking, Chief Tolliver.”

“I doubt-”

“Paul said you’d be this way. Outsiders never understand. We’ve come to accept that. I don’t know why I tried.” She pressed her lips together, her resolve strengthened by anger. “You may not agree with my beliefs, but I am a mother. One of my daughters is dead and the other is missing. I know something is wrong. I know that Rebecca would never be so selfish as to leave me at a time like this unless she felt she had to.”

Jeffrey thought she was answering his earlier question without admitting it to herself. He tried to be even more careful this time. “Why would she have to?”

Esther seemed to cast around for an answer, but didn’t offer it to Jeffrey.

He tried again. “Why would she have to leave?”

“I know what you’re thinking.”

Again, he pressed: “Why would she leave?”

She said nothing.

“Mrs. Be

She gave up, tossing her hands into the air, crying, “I don’t know!”

Jeffrey let Esther stand there, cold wind whipping up her collar. Her nose was red from crying, tears ru

After a few more seconds, Jeffrey reached past her and opened the car door. He helped Esther inside, kneeling beside her so they could talk. He knew without looking that May-Ly

He hoped she heard his compassion when he asked her, “Tell me what she was ru

Esther dabbed at her eyes, then concentrated on the tissue in her hand, folding and unfolding it as if she could find the answer somewhere on the crumpled paper. “She’s so different from Abby,” she finally said. “So rebellious. Nothing like me at that age. Nothing like any of us.” Despite her words, she insisted, “She’s so precious. Such a powerful soul. My fierce little angel.”

Jeffrey asked, “What was she rebelling against?”

“Rules,” Esther said. “Everything she could find.”

“When she ran away before,” Jeffrey began, “where did she go?”

“She said she camped in the woods.”

Jeffrey felt his heart stop. “Which woods?”

“The Catoogah forest. When they were children, they camped there all the time.”

“Not the state park in Grant?”

She shook her head. “How would she get there?” she asked. “It’s miles from home.”

Jeffrey didn’t like the idea of Rebecca being in any forest, especially considering what had happened to her sister. “Was she seeing any boys?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed. “I don’t know anything about her life. I thought I knew about Abby, but now…” She put her hand to her mouth. “I don’t know anything.”

Jeffrey’s knee started to ache and he sat back on his heels to take off the pressure. “Rebecca didn’t want to be in the church?” he guessed.

“We let them choose. We don’t force them into the life. Mary’s children chose…” She took a deep breath, letting it go slowly. “We let them choose when they’re old enough to know their own minds. Lev went off to college. Paul strayed for a while. He came back, but I never stopped loving him. He never stopped being my brother.” She threw her hands into the air. “I just don’t understand. Why would she leave? Why would she do this now?”

Jeffrey had dealt with many missing-children cases over the years. Thankfully, most of them had resolved themselves fairly easily. The kid got cold or hungry and came back, realizing there were worse things than having to clean up your room or eat your peas. Something told him Rebecca Be

He spoke as gently as he could. “Becca’s run away before.”

“Yes.”

“She always comes back in a day or two.”

“She’s always come back to her family- all of her family.” She seemed almost defeated, as if Jeffrey wasn’t understanding her. “We’re not what you think.”

He wasn’t sure what he thought. He hated to admit it, but he was seeing why her brothers hadn’t been as alarmed as Esther. If Rebecca made a habit of ru