Page 18 of Mia Amata

While I crocheted, I thought about the little house that I would have. I know I haven’t seen it yet, but I was already very excited to have it. I was told it was a 2-bedroom house, nothing more. I thought about coffee on the porch or the deck—if there was one—or just in the yard, watching the sunset or sunrise. I thought about the second bedroom, about the nursery I would create in there. I was starting to believe that I actually had a future that was going to be good, yet it was hard to believe that in two days this would actually be happening.

I vowed to take it easy today, following Audra’s orders of rest. Tomorrow I will do some laundry and start getting things packed for Friday. I didn’t know what the plan was for Friday, but I wanted to be ready to go. I made a mental note to ask Lauren about taking a few food items from the pantry with me.

I was wondering about groceries, small things that I would need right away. I have absolutely no money. Maybe I can ask Lauren for a small loan to get me by although I don’t know how I could repay it when we would not be able to stay in contact after I leave.

I sat crocheting on the baby blanket for most of the morning while listening to different TV shows or movies. I was making great progress on the blanket; I have to admit it looked fairly good for the first attempt. Hopefully, the baby would love it regardless of the little mistakes it may have.

I took a break at lunchtime and made myself a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of soup. After cleaning up from lunch, I decided I would go try to take a nap. Audra stressed that I would need to rest up as much as possible to let my body heal, to regain strength. I had to be strong for both me and the baby when we made the trip to our new home. I still didn’t know the details such as how I was traveling or if someone was taking me.

Hopefully, we will have a plan soon. I wished that Lauren and Eva could drive me there, but I didn’t think that would happen as I was pretty sure that they couldn’t know exactly where I ended up. As I lay in bed, snuggling up under the blanket, I let myself, again, think that maybe I would have a decent future. I dozed off dreaming of a future that was, as of yet, not certain.

Chapter 11

Lauren and Eva went about their day as normal on Wednesday. Audra thought that it would be OK for Mattie to be left alone—she was doing very well, and she had the cell phone—so Eva went to school and Lauren went to work. They always found it difficult not to be able to share what was going on with their close friends. Obviously, Audra knew, she was Lauren’s best friend, but they couldn’t share what they were doing with anyone else.

Lauren couldn’t share everything with Audra, but she did know that Lauren had done this before, so they did share the knowledge to a certain extent. Eva faced harder difficulties with not being able to share anything with her best friends at school. They both had to go on with their days as if nothing was going on.

Lauren was at work, having just roomed a patient for Audra when the receptionist came back, telling her there was a detective there who would like to talk to her. “Me?” Lauren asked. “Did he say what it was about?”

“Yes, he asked for you. He didn’t say anything other than he wanted to ask you a couple of questions.”

“OK,” Lauren stated, feeling Audra glancing at her briefly. “Can you show him into the conference room and let him know I will be right there?”

“Sure,” the receptionist turned away. Lauren didn’t want to look like there was anything wrong. So she walked over to Audra and told her about the patient she had just roomed, giving her the details she needed before she went to see the patient. She put her laptop down at her station, asking a coworker to room the next patient if she wasn’t back in time. She went to the conference room. She walked into the room to see a man standing by the windows, looking out. “Can I help you?” she asked.

He turned toward her, Lauren realized that this was Mattie’s husband, recognizing him from the news reports. “My name is Detective Allen Davis. I was hoping to ask you a few questions if I could.”

“Of course, would you like to sit down?” She tried to keep her face from showing that she recognized this was Allen, Mattie’s husband.

He took a seat and pulled out a notebook from his jacket pocket. “You are Lauren Mitchell, correct?”

“Yes, I am,” she replied.

“Do you drive a red van?”

“I do. What is this about, Detective? Has something happened to my van?” she asked.

“No, not at all. I’m just following up on leads on a missing person report. Were you at the grocery store Monday morning?”

“Yes. I had Monday off, so my daughter and I did a few errands in the morning. Picking up groceries was one of the errands.”

“Did you happen to notice this car sitting in the parking lot?” He pulled a picture out of his pocket. Lauren took it, looking at it.

“I’m not sure. It might have been there, but I really didn’t pay attention to cars.”

He took the picture back, pulling a different photo out. “How about this woman, did you see her?”

This brought Lauren a moment of fear. Did they catch her and Eva on a camera in the parking lot helping Mattie? If she lied to him, if he had video evidence that she talked to Mattie in the parking lot they would be in a lot of trouble. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t recall seeing her. I recognize her from the TV though, she is missing, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Allen said. “You were identified on the camera in the store as being there that day. We are questioning everyone that we are able to identify as being at the store during the time frame she disappeared.”

Lauren was watching him while he spoke. He was not showing any signs of emotion. He never identified himself as Mattie’s husband. You would think that he was devastated that she was gone. He was acting like he was just a detective investigating the case of a stranger. So cold, callous even. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember seeing her there.”

“Where did you go from the store?” Allen asked.

“Let’s see,” Lauren thought, “oh yes, we went to the courthouse to renew the plates on my van, then stopped at the drug store to pick up a prescription for my daughter’s allergies. After that, we went home.”

“What is your daughter’s name?” he asked.

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