Page 20 of Our Daughter's Bones

“You didn’t go to high school here, did you?”

“No, I was in New York.”

She smiled, dryly. “The sport is fine. It’s the players—assholes and local gods. Mind if I smoke?”

“The building has a no-smoking policy. We can talk in my office?”

“Sure.” She shrugged dispassionately.

They walked together, Hannah with a bored expression on her face. To the casual observer, she appeared positively relaxed: shoulders loose, thumbs hooked into the waistband of her jeans. She even smacked on gum. But Mackenzie could sense the chaos inside her. She noticed the fidgety eyes, the jerky movements as she walked.

Mackenzie knew the type. Hannah Correia had had a rough life. She was jaded and unpolished. She had been dealt bad cards, like most people in Lakemore. This was the worst thing that could happen to her, but she was used to pretending not to care, to acting like nothing fazed her.

“Please have a seat.” Mackenzie pulled an extra chair for her. Only Finn was working at his desk, but his headphones were on. Sully’s door was shut, which meant he was taking a nap and didn’t want to be disturbed.

“Thank you for seeing me at short notice.”

“Finding your daughter is my priority right now,” Mackenzie assured her. “You said something about Abby stealing money from you?”

“Yes,” Hannah fished around in her bag and pulled out a checkbook. “I don’t know if this is related to her going missing or anything. But I thought you should know.”

“Any and all information is important.”

Hannah swallowed and handed her the checkbook. “Look at this. There are all these checks torn from it.”

“You didn’t write them?” Mackenzie flipped through the pages. The withdrawals went back a few months.

“No! I was going through my statements and found some money was missing. It was small amounts every time, but now I’m out of a few hundred dollars.”

“Why didn’t you notice this before?”

“I don’t regularly check my statements line by line.” She bit her lower lip. “As long as the end balance is around what I expect it to be.”

“You recognize the first few entries, though?”

“Yes, but not all those checks.” Hannah pinched the bridge of her nose. “Are you sure I can’t smoke?”

“Positive. I’m going to keep this checkbook, if you don’t mind? I’ll see what I can get from this.”

“Sure.”

“This was uncharacteristic of her. Wasn’t it? Stealing?”

“Yes!” Hannah cried. “Abby doesn’t steal. My daughter isn’t a cheat or a criminal. I havealwaysprovided for her. I made sure she doesn’t lack for anything! I’ve gone without paying my phone bill for months so that she can buy new clothes! After all, she was friends with Erica. I didn’t want her to feel as poor as we actually are.”

“Do you have a guess as to why she would need this much money?”

“I have no idea. Please, just find my daughter. I don’t know what she’s gotten herself into.”

“We’ll find her.” Mackenzie swallowed hard.

“What are the chances that she’s alive? Be honest.”

Mackenzie drummed her fingers on the desk. She glanced at Finn’s bobbing head as he read some document. She couldn’t tell Hannah that Erica’s body had been discovered—not before Nick had informed the family. For the first time, Hannah’s eyes were focused and trained on her. They weren’t shifty.

“The chance of Abby being alive decreases every day,” she said slowly. Hannah squeezed her eyes shut. “But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. We’re doing everything we can, I promise.”

“I’m going to head out.” With trembling hands, Hannah hurried out of the office. Desperate for a smoke and unwilling to let her emotions spill over, Mackenzie guessed. She knew the feeling. She picked up the checkbook.