Page 13 of Another Girl Lost

“I’m not.”

“Run-in?” I said, more to myself.

“Maybe I understated it a bit.”

His quiet judgment made me angry. I smoothed my hands over my hips. “I can’t help you, Detective Dawson. I’m sorry about Sandra Taylor. I hope you find her killer. She deserves justice.”

He reached in his side pocket, pulled out a worn leather case, and removed a card. He extended his hand, the card dangling from the tips of his fingers.

I hesitated and then took the card, careful not to touch him. Detective Kevin Dawson. City of Norfolk Police. Criminal Investigations. “I’ll call if I have information.”

Nodding, he moved toward the door. The mesh security door squeaked, but he paused. “There were four missing persons reports filed the spring you vanished. You were one of them and Sandra was the second. The other two girls were never found. But no Della.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Tanner never asked you to help him lure another girl, other than Tiffany Patterson, correct?”

Tanner had targeted Tiffany, a young waitress with red hair who worked at his favorite diner. Ten years ago, Tiffany had been a thin, nervous girl with a strip of freckles splayed over the bridge of her nose. She was older, wearier these days, but basically the same. “Correct.”

“When’s the last time you spoke to Tiffany Patterson?”

“A few weeks ago.”

“You’re in contact with her?” No missing his surprise.

“She has a drug problem. She came to me about six months ago asking for money. I don’t give her money, but I feed her every time I see her.”

He surveilled me with a hawkish glare. “Why would she come to you for help?”

“She feels like I owe her.”

“What did you say to her ten years ago to coax her outside?”

I suspected he knew the answer, but for the sake of this performance: “I recited the story Tanner gave me. I told her there were puppies in the back parking lot behind the dumpster. She got excited and followed me.” Tiffany’s upbeat chatter still could rattle in my head. Such optimism that I’d helped crush. “I don’t remember what she said to me.”

“Tanner was there waiting by his van.”

“Yes.”

“You coaxed Tiffany to within five feet of his vehicle, according to the surveillance footage.”

“Yes.” I pictured Tiffany moving toward me, a curious smile tweaking the edges of her lips. As when Della had beckoned me, there’d been no worry or concern. Tiffany’s future, like mine, had boiled down to seconds. A delay of one or two determined whether her life would stay the same or descend into hell.

One moment.

“You saved her life,” Detective Dawson said.

I remembered Tanner smiling. And the next word I’d said to her wasRun!“Yes.”

I’d saved the young girl with trusting eyes and a bright smile, but I’d also been seconds away from betraying her on Tanner’s promise that Della and I would be freed. I’d been prepared to send a young girl, body and soul, into hell. And then at the very last second, for reasons I still didn’t understand, I’d changed my mind. “She also saved mine.”

The security door squeaked closed as he moved toward me, stopping a few feet short. Far enough away so I didn’t panic but close enough to make it impossible for me to ignore him. He removed a notebook from his breast pocket. “And now you take care of her?”

“When I can. Yes.”

“Tiffany communicated with you after your rescue, correct?”

“She wrote me a note expressing her gratitude.” I’d torn up the note and thrown it into the trash, knowing whatever hero Tiffany saw didn’t exist. I’d been a coward who’d had a lapse of decency. I’d also been furious and resentful of the girl who’d been gifted with that precious moment of hesitation denied to me. I might still be. “I didn’t respond to any of her notes.”

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