The Way to Her Heart (13 page)

“That video proves she didn’t run away.”

“How do you figure?” he asked.

“She didn’t go home that night! She wasn’t planning to run away. She got a text from someone, and they picked her up. Whoever was in that car is the last person to see her. That person knows what happened to her.”

“Those people in the car, you mean.”

“What?”

“Well, there was more than one person waiting in the car.”

“How do you know?” She turned to look at his profile.

“She got in the backseat. She would have sat in the front if there was only one person in the car. There was probably someone else in the front passenger seat, so Gabby got in the back.”

She stared at him, feeling dumb that she hadn’t thought of it. “You’re really smart, you know that?”

***

“
I’ve
seen the video, Bernie. It doesn’t necessarily prove she didn’t run away.” Detective Garcia had actually invited her back to his desk this time, but he didn’t seem nearly as excited by her take on the security video as she thought he should be.

“How can you say that? It shows she didn’t go back to her trailer. She didn’t have anything with her! She would have packed at least a few things if she was running away.”

“We don’t know she didn’t return later.” He was clearly running out of patience, but Bernie was determined to get through to him.

“Is there a security video that shows her returning later?”

He narrowed his eyes at her and heaved a sigh. “No. But it only proves she didn’t go through the front entrance. She could easily slip in through a pedestrian entrance where there are no cameras.”

Bernie hated to admit he was right. The trailer park was anything but secure; Gabby could have been dropped off nearly anywhere else. “All right, maybe it doesn’t prove anything, but it at least shows there was someone besides Diego who saw her late the night she disappeared. You have to figure out who was in the car that picked her up.”

“Bernie, what do you think I do here all day? Of course I’ve tried to figure out whose car it was, but there’s very little to go on. The investigation is stalled. I’m sorry, but I’ve got other cases that aren’t, so I need you to go home and stop investigating or whatever it is you think you’re doing, okay?”

“If you’d do your job, I wouldn’t have to investigate!” she yelled, attracting unwanted attention from the surrounding desks. The detective stared at her, his eyebrows raised, clearly unimpressed. “Sorry. I just want to find Gabby.”

“I know. That’s what I want too. I swear I’m doing my best. There’s just very little to go on. Go home, Bernie.”

***

The house was empty when she got home, except for Freddie the Great Dane, who seemed inclined to help her mope. They sat together on the couch, channel-surfing through at least three hundred channels. Apparently she hadn’t missed much by not having satellite TV growing up. There was nothing she wanted to watch, so she settled for some nature show on Animal Planet, which seemed to interest Freddie. The warmth of the dog leaning against her made her sleepy, and she napped for an hour and woke ravenous. Freddie followed her to the kitchen and poked his giant head into the refrigerator as she looked for something to eat. Everything looked like some sort of ingredient, so she grabbed an apple and flopped onto a barstool.

Josh returned from work to find her in the backyard, swinging idly on the porch swing. “What’s wrong?”

“Who said anything was wrong?” She realized she sounded bitchy, but she was powerless to stop.

“O-kay. So nothing’s wrong. What did you do all day?”

“What, do you think I sat around on my ass? I’m sorry if I wasn’t productive enough for you!” She was on a roll. “Should I have scrubbed a few floors while you were gone?”

He stared at her, wide-eyed. “Why are you mad at me? What did I do?”

“Nothing! You didn’t—agh!” She realized she was starting to cry, so she heaved herself off the swing and ran in the house. “Just leave me alone!” She ran to her bedroom and slammed the door. It took approximately three minutes to become deeply ashamed of her behavior—so ashamed she flopped on her bed, covered her head with her pillow, and wished she could start the day over. Why did she have to snap at Josh? He was nothing but nice to her and she had bitten his head off. She’d always had this nasty tendency to deflect her bad mood on others. She wondered what she could do to get back in his good graces.

Her phone buzzed a message alert in her pocket.

Josh: Hungry? I made fried rice.

She was starving, so she swallowed her pride and went to the kitchen, her stomach growling at the delicious aroma leading the way. He glanced up briefly as she slid onto a barstool. He said nothing but filled a plate and set it before her. She dug into the rice, spearing a juicy piece of chicken. It was delicious, and she wolfed down the plateful in record time.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He gave her a crooked smile. “It’s okay. You were probably just hungry. I get pretty cranky when my blood sugar crashes.”

It was sweet of him to give her an easy out. “Thanks. I was hungry, but that’s no excuse.” She sighed and launched into the real reason for her bad mood. “I stopped by the police station earlier to talk to the detective about the security video. It didn’t go well.”

“Tell me.”

“He pretty much brushed off all my ideas. He said the video only proves she left, but she could easily have returned and not been caught on camera. He said he has other cases which have better leads, and that’s what he’s focusing on. He’s not even investigating Gabby’s case anymore!” She was getting worked up again, so she stood and began pacing, hoping to find some semblance of calm.

“Hey.” He stood and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Bernie. That sucks. Let’s start looking into her social media tonight. Maybe we’ll find something the police haven’t noticed.”

She looked up into his blue eyes and saw nothing but sympathy. She threw her arms around him, the first time she had ever instigated a hug. It felt wonderful.

Later that evening they sat on the couch, he on his laptop, she on his iPad, searching through as much of Gabby’s social media as they could access.

“Well, Facebook is pretty much a bust since she didn’t have much set to show the public. And it’s not like we can send a friend request. How are you doing with Twitter?” Josh set the laptop aside and leaned over to see the iPad screen.

“I have no idea what I’m doing,” she said and handed the device to him. “This Twitter crap makes no sense to me. I found her account, but I have no idea what to do.”

He chuckled and took the iPad. “It’s not brain surgery, Bernie. Look, you follow like this, and now we can read her tweet stream.” He scrolled through the lengthy list of tweets. “God, girls are brutal! Look at this.
Ur a slutty bitch
.
” He clicked on the name. “Natalia Ramirez. Do you know her?”

She nodded. “She’s the one who keeps holding the candlelight vigils for Gabby. They were friends.”

“Yeah, it really sounds like it. Listen to this.
I can’t believe u said that u whore.
Is this how girls talk to each other?”

“How would I know? I don’t have any close girlfriends. I would certainly never talk to anyone like that,” she muttered.

“Well, maybe that’s why you don’t have any close girlfriends. High school kinda sucks, huh? I really hope college is better.”

“God, me too. I hope I get into college.”

“You filled out your applications, didn’t you?”

“Of course. I filled out the scholarship stuff too. I have no idea what I’m going to do about all the federal financial aid forms, though.”

“Mom and I will help you figure it out. Don’t worry.” He reached over to ruffle her hair. He confused her. A few days ago he’d nearly kissed her, and now he was treating her like a little sister. “Check this out. Gabby’s last tweet.
I can’t do this anymore. I’m done.
She tweeted that out at 11:07 p.m.”

“She was still at the party at that time. What was she talking about? What can’t she do anymore?”

Josh shook his head. “But I have an idea this Natalia chick might know. You think you could hang around her, maybe find out what was bothering Gabby?”

“Ugh! I can’t think of a more mind-numbing or soul-killing experience. I was going to do it a while ago, but I never did. Diego said Gabby was fighting a lot with Natalia and Sofia.”

“Is Sofia another minion?”

Bernie laughed. “Yeah. Well, I guess I have some new friends to make when we get back to school Monday.”

***

“
What
are you waiting for?” Josh appeared behind her as she stared into her locker, trying to think of a good excuse to talk to Natalia.

“For inspiration to strike.” She slammed her locker. “Or lightning. I’m not picky.”

He chuckled. “Hey, I believe in you. Go get ’em, Tiger. Go make a new friend.”

“Ugh! I hate this!”

He didn’t look impressed or sympathetic; he merely raised his eyebrows and leaned against the bank of lockers.

“Fine! I’m going.” She trudged down the hall toward where Natalia and Sofia were talking softly—whispering really—by their lockers. “Hey, Natalia.” She approached the girl, waving lamely.

Both girls turned and stared at Bernie expectantly. “What?” Sofia prompted when Bernie said nothing.

“Oh, nothing.”

The girls rolled their eyes and started to turn away.

“I mean, I was wondering if, um,
when
the next candlelight vigil for Gabby was? I was hoping I could help you plan.” She winced as she realized they were sure to pick up on the disingenuous tone of her voice.

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” Sofia said.

Apparently she’d overestimated their intelligence.

“Really?” Natalia gave her a long, assessing look. Okay, so she’d only overestimated Sofia’s brains; Natalia was a different story. “You haven’t shown much interest up to now. I had to practically beg you to go to the last one. Why now?”

“Maybe I feel guilty for not helping. I guess I just kept hoping she’d come home, you know?” Bernie managed to produce just enough tears to threaten to spill over.

“We all keep hoping she’ll come home,” Sofia said. “Of course you can help us plan the next vigil. It’s next week, and we’d love to have you help us! Wouldn’t we, Natalia?”

Natalia narrowed her eyes at Bernie and smiled slightly, although it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Of course we would.”

“Great. Here’s my number.” Bernie handed Sofia a slip of paper with her new cell number. “Call me, okay?”

***

“So, how’d it go?” Josh caught up with her in the lunch line.

Bernie shrugged. “Sofia bought it, but she doesn’t seem overly burdened with intellect. Natalia’s a tougher customer. She suspects something.”

“What could she suspect?”

“I don’t know, but she doesn’t trust me. At least not yet.” She reached past him for a sandwich.

“That looks hideous. I can’t believe what they try to pass off as food here. Can you stop by the restaurant after work tonight? I have to help out in the dining room until about eight, but then we could have dinner together.”

“Sure, sounds great.” They arrived at their usual table, and Bernie was somewhat surprised to see Kayleigh. Was it normal operating procedure for a couple that was no longer dating? Or had they somehow gotten back together without Bernie’s knowledge? The possibility gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach, but Josh merely greeted his former girlfriend briefly and sat next to Bernie. It was nice to see they were at least trying to keep the awkwardness to a minimum. Kayleigh, after all, was friends with everyone at the table, and it was reasonable to expect she would want to continue to sit with them at lunch. According to Josh, the breakup had been civil, and he wasn’t the type to punish her by gossiping about her undecided sexuality.

Bernie ended up sitting next to Kayleigh, who chatted as if there had never been an awkward conversation between the two of them.

“So, if you’re free Saturday we could go to the mall for a while.” Kayleigh made the suggestion and continued eating her salad, not making eye contact with Bernie, as if her answer didn’t truly matter. Bernie got the feeling her answer mattered very much indeed; Kayleigh seemed desperate to know her recent lifestyle choices didn’t make her an outsider. As an outsider herself, Bernie recognized the signs.

“Sure. I have to work until two, but I could meet you at the mall around two thirty.” She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been to the mall; she couldn’t afford anything there, so she rarely darkened its doors.

“Really?” Kayleigh’s hopeful smile was a bit heartbreaking. “That’s great, Bernie. Thanks.”

Bernie tried to concentrate on her economics assignment during the next period, but she couldn’t get the conversation with Kayleigh out of her mind. She leaned close to Josh. “You don’t have a problem with me hanging out with Kayleigh, do you?”