Page 19 of Shark Cove

Harry, typing notes on her laptop, snorted and rolled her eyes; Lei spared a glance at her friend, warning her to rein it in, then turned back to Regina. “I’ve seen pictures of your daughter. She looks entirely normal. I also have her physical statistics here in her file. Her weight is below average for her height.”

“Oh, that!” Once again, that jagged tinkle of sound. “We all know that those health charts are skewed to the average of this country, which is edging into obesity.”

Lei frowned, leaning forward with her fingertips together. “So, your daughter had put on some weight. She was hanging out with ‘unsavory companions.’ What else leads you to think she has run away?”

“The note she left, of course,” Regina William frowned. “Must I do your job for you?”

Harry looked up to spear Regina William with amber-brown eyes. “Malia does not believe that Camille ran away. She thinks something else has happened to her, and that you might have had a hand in it.”

Regina William firmed her chin. “No one means my daughter harm, least of all myself.”

“Why would she run away if she was so happy?” Lei slid the knife in deliberately. “And according to you, she poisoned herself. That is not the act of a happy child.”

Regina William flushed. “Are you inferring that I’m a bad mother?”

“I’ll let you draw your own conclusions,” Harry drawled.

Chapman addressed Lei. “My client takes offense at this line of questioning.”

Lei made eye contact with Regina William deliberately. “If you know anything more that will help us find your daughter, now is the time to share. Camille could be in danger related to another case we’re investigating. We need to locate her ASAP.”

Regina frowned. “What case is that?”

“The FBI will be coming out with a public announcement about the disappearance of young female runaways throughout the islands,” Lei said. “Watch for it in the news. I’m giving you this information a little bit ahead of time.”

Harry swiveled her laptop screen to show Regina a teen gossip site.“Where is Camille? Stop the bickering and help find her!”A headline screamed. Harry pointed to it. “I’ve been monitoring this site that shares teen gossip collected at Paradise Prep School. Even the cyberbullies who run the site are trying to find her, and that’s a good thing, too, because someone seems to be disappearing our island’s runaway teen girls.”

Regina seized the laptop and scanned the site, entitled Wallflower Diaries. “Who do you suspect is behind this?”

“The student gossip?”

“No, the disappearances!”

“We think it’s likely human traffickers. Terrible as that is, it’s better than the alternative, which would be a statewide serial killer,” Lei said.

Regina gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. She turned to Chapman. “I have to tell them.”

Chapman patted her arm and leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

Regina faced Lei. “I feel terrible. I have to tell you something.”

“My client has been under duress,” Chapman said. “She wanted to handle the situation privately, but things have escalated in the public eye.”

“Tell us,” Harry rapped out.

“Camille didn’t really run away.” Regina sniffed into a tissue.

“I knew it!” Harry exclaimed.

“Why did you lie?” Lei asked. “What happened to her?”

“My client has been confused,” Chapman said. “She’s been put in a difficult position by all of this.”

A slow burn had begun under Lei’s sternum; had this pampered woman been yanking their chain with her supposed parental concern?

“I’ve been stressed, it’s true. I’m a single mother of a teenage daughter, and I’ve just been through a terrible divorce while trying to save a troubled business,” Regina said. “Camille did write the note, but not for the reasons I told you.”

“Cut to the chase already, Regina,” Harry snapped.

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