Page 71 of That's Not My Name

Sandra writes it down, takes the menus from me, and leaves the table in a wave of annoyance.

One that I understand completely. “Aplatterof fries?”

He shrugs. “What? I’ll share. We skipped lunch, remember? I’m starving.”

Autumn rolls her eyes. Sandra is back in record time with our coffees, then she takes off again for the kitchen. Meredith wraps her hands around the red mug in front of her and stares at the coffee like it’ll explain why she decided to sit down with us.

“I don’t have all day,” she says, looking around at us, apparently ignoring the fact that we’d have three quarters of an hour longer if she’d shown up on time. Her gaze lingers on Autumn, and her expressionturns sad and thoughtful. “Was that missing girl really your best friend?”

My entire train of thought catches on thewas. Shewasher best friend. This little piece of past tense shoots a pain through my chest.

Autumn seems surprised, like she didn’t expect me to have covered that already, but she smiles at Meredith. “Yeah. I’ve known Lola since we were little.”

Meredith turns her coffee mug on the fake marble tabletop. “What about you? How did you know the girl?” she asks me.

I mentally correct her past tense again—howdoI know the girl—and then wonder why she insists on calling her “the girl” instead of using her name. “She’s my girlfriend,” I finally say.

Autumn clears her throat, and for a second, I think she’s going to contradict me, but she doesn’t.

Meredith’s eyes soften with pity, and I hate it. But this is important. “We’re trying to build a timeline,” I say. “We know she was in this diner, but anything else you can share about what you saw will help us figure out where to go next.”

“I’m sorry. I still don’t understand whyyou’redoing this.” She turns to Autumn. “What kind of neighborhood watch looks into a missing girl? Why isn’t your father sitting here? Why didn’t he follow up on the tip?”

I want to answer for her, but Meredith’s attention is fully on Autumn. Telling herI’mthe prime suspect will end this. Meredith and the lead she holds will go up in smoke if she hears the truth.

Autumn smiles sadly. “My dad is, unfortunately, on the wrong track. He thinks someone from back home is involved in Lola’s disappearance, and he won’t consider any other theories. He’s too stubborn, and we didn’t want Lola to pay the price for it. We thought if wecame here and got the information ourselves, it might make him pay attention.”

“Who does he think is involved?”

“Someone convenient. It’s an easy story for him to spin, so he wants it to be true. We need to know what really happened. And you can help, right? You’re sure you saw her?”

By the end of her sentence, Autumn’s voice is so full of hope that it’s dragging her forward. She leans toward Meredith like she holds the key to the universe.

Meredith’s eyes shine. “I think I did, yes.”

The waitress leaves a massive platter of fries on our table, and Max slides them over to himself. “Can you tell us about it?” he asks, then shoves about nine in his mouth at once.

Meredith looks at him like she forgot he was sitting there, but to be fair, he’s basically scrunched himself into the corner. She nods. “I’d like to help, but I don’t know if I have much more to share. Besides, what I already called in, I mean.”

I cross my arms on the table. “Can you start at the beginning and go through the whole experience? You might know more than you think you do.”

“Okay. Well, I had the afternoon off, so I came to eat lunch with a friend of mine. I was running a bit late and hurrying toward the door, and I saw her in the parking lot.”

Autumn points out the window. “Where were they? What spot?”

“Um, that one. The one by the entrance,” she says, with a wave. She gestures to an unoccupied spot beside Max’s car.

The thought pins me to my seat. Lola was right there, yesterday.

“She was standing outside the passenger door of the van,” Meredith says, holding her coffee with both hands again. “I wouldn’thave noticed her except that she wasreallyscratching at her neck. She looked dazed, and I thought she was on drugs for a second, but then I realized she was covered in hives. Her dad ran—”

“That’s not her dad,” Autumn, Max, and I all say at the same time.

She looks between us. “Okay…the manshe was with came running from the drug store and gave her some Benadryl, I think. He seemed really upset that she wasn’t feeling well and helped her into the van. When he saw me watching, he got in and drove off pretty quickly.”

“And you just let them leave? Why didn’t you call the cops right away if you knew who she was?” I ask. Desperation seeps into my voice and makes me sound angrier than I intend to. She bristles and I put up my hands in apology. “I’m sorry. I’m not upset with you. I’m trying to understand.”

Meredith narrows her eyes at me and takes a sip of coffee. “I would have called the cops sooner, but I didn’t know it was her. Not for sure. I saw a girl in distress and watched to make sure she was okay. There was something familiar about her face, but I couldn’t place where I knew her from. I didn’t put it together until she smiled at me as the van pulled away. She’s smiling in all the photos on TV. That’s when I knew it was her.”

---