If She Hid. Блейк Пирс

a strong girl,” Foster said. “But between you and me…I think she might be hiding something. Maybe nothing big. I think she just wants to make sure she doesn’t convey anything bad about her missing best friend.”

      That’s understandable, Kate thought.

      But she also knew that the fact that they were best friends would be more than enough reason to hide something.

***

      Anne’s parents had understandably allowed her to stay home from school. When Kate and DeMarco arrived at the Pettus residence—located down a road very similar to the one the Fullers had lived on—the parents were standing at the front door, waiting. Kate could see them both through the glass screen door even as she parked the car in their U-shaped driveway.

      Mr. and Mrs. Pettus stepped out onto their porch to meet the agents. The father kept his arms crossed, a sad look on his face. The mother looked tired, her eyes bloodshot and her posture worn down.

      After a quick round of introductions, Mr. and Mrs. Pettus cut right to the chase. They were not rude or insisting, but simply concerned parents who did not intend to put their daughter through any unnecessary hell.

      “She seems to get better each time she talks about it,” Mrs. Pettus said. “I think as more time passes, she starts to understand that her best friend is not necessarily dead. I think the more the idea that she might simply be missing sinks in, she wants to be of more help.”

      “That being said,” Mr. Pettus added, “I would greatly appreciate it if you kept the questions brief and as hopeful as possible. Make no mistake…we won’t interfere as you question her, but if we hear anything at all that seems to upset her, your time with our daughter is over.”

      “That’s more than fair,” Kate said. “And you have my word that we will tread carefully.”

      Mr. Pettus nodded and finally opened the front door for them. When they stepped inside, Kate saw Anne Pettus right away. She was sitting on the couch with her hands clasped between her knees. Like her mother, she looked tired and worn out. It then occurred to Kate that teenage girls tended to bond rather strongly with their best friends. She was unable to imagine the kind of emotions this young girl must be going through.

      “Anne,” Mrs. Pettus said. “These are the agents we told you were coming. Are you still okay with speaking to them?”

      “Yes, Mom. I’m fine.”

      Both parents gave Kate and DeMarco a little nod as they sat down on either side of their daughter. Kate noticed that Anne didn’t start to truly look uncomfortable until her parents flanked her.

      “Anne,” Kate said, “we will keep this quick. We’ve been filled in on everything you’ve already told the police, so we won’t ask you to repeat all of those things again. Well, with one exception. I’d like to know about the shopping trip you and Mercy took out to Harrisonburg. Mercy purchased several travel-sized things, right?”

      “Yeah. I thought it was weird. She just said she was running out of that stuff at home. Toothpaste, a small toothbrush, deodorant, things like that. I asked why she purchased them and not her parents but she sort of brushed it off.”

      “Do you feel she was happy at home?”

      “Yeah. But I mean…she’s fifteen. She loves her parents but hates it around here. She’s been talking about moving away from Deton ever since we were ten years old.”

      “Any idea why?” DeMarco asked.

      “It’s boring,” Anne said. She looked over at her parents apologetically. “I mean, I’m a just a bit older than Mercy; I’m sixteen and have a license and she and I go here and there sometimes. Shopping. The movies. But you have to drive like an hour to do any of that stuff. Deton is dead.”

      “Do you know where she wanted to move?”

      “Palm Springs,” Anne said with a laugh. “She saw some show where people were partying in Palm Springs and thought it was pretty.”

      “Did she have any particular college she had her eye on?”

      “I don’t think so. I mean, at the little thing they had for us at school, she looked pretty hard at material from UVA and Wake Forest. But…yeah, I don’t know.”

      “Can you tell us anything about Charlie?” Kate asked. “We saw her name in her journal and know they were at least familiar enough to share a quick kiss between classes. But the police told us that you said Mercy doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

      “She doesn’t.”

      Kate noticed right away how Anne’s tone shifted a bit at this comment. Her posture seemed to go a little rigid as well. Apparently, this was a sensitive topic. But, being that she was only sixteen and her parents were both sitting beside her, Kate knew she could not directly accuse the girl of lying. She’d have to take another approach. Maybe there were some dark secrets concerning her friend that she simply did not want to voice.

      “So are she and Charlie just friends?” Kate asked.

      “Sort of. I mean, I think they maybe liked each other but just didn’t want to date. You know?”

      “Did she and Charlie ever do anything other than kiss that you know of?”

      “If they did, Mercy never told me. And she tells me everything.”

      “Do you know if there were any secrets she was keeping from her parents?”

      Again, Kate noticed an uneasiness settle across Anne’s face. It was brief and barely there, but Kate recognized it from countless cases in the past—particularly where teenagers were involved. A quick dart of the eyes, shifting uncomfortably in their seat, either answering right away without thinking about their answer or taking far too much time to come up with an answer.

      “Again, if she did, she never told me.”

      “What about a job?” Kate asked. “Was Mercy working anywhere?”

      “Not recently. She was working like ten hours a week as a tutor for middle school kids a few months back. Algebra, I think. But they shut that down because there weren’t enough kids interested in getting the help.”

      “Did she enjoy that?” DeMarco asked.

      “I guess so.”

      “No horror stories from when she was tutoring?”

      “None that she told me.”

      “But you feel confident that Mercy told you everything about her life, right?” DeMarco asked.

      Anne looked slightly uncomfortable at the question. Kate wondered if it was perhaps the first time she’d been questioned in such a confrontational way—questioning something she had spoken as truth.

      “I think so,” Anne said. “We were…we are best friends. And I say are because she’s still alive. I know it. Because if she’s dead…”

      The comment hung in the air for a moment. Kate could see that the emotion on Anne’s face was real. Based on her expression, she could tell that girl would start crying soon. And if it came to that, Kate felt certain her parents would ask them to leave. It meant they likely didn’t have much time—and that meant that Kate was going to have become a bit of a bully if she hoped to get some answers.

      “Anne, we want to get to the bottom of this. And, like you, we are working under the assumption that Mercy is still alive. But, if I can be honest with you, with missing persons cases, time is the enemy. The more time that passes, the smaller our chances of finding her become. So please…if there is anything you might have been reluctant to tell the local Deton authorities, it’s important that you tell us. I know in a town this small, you worry about what others will think and—”

      “I think that’s enough,” Mr. Pettus said. He got to his feet and walked toward the door. “I don’t appreciate you implying that our daughter has been hiding something. And you can look at her and tell that she’s starting to get upset.”

      “Mr.