Page 33 of The Change
“Amber Welsh.”
Jo stepped forward. “I’m Jo Levison. I found you outside the police station. I brought you here.”
The memory appeared to make Amber wince. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m sure I’d be sleeping on the floor of a cell right now if it wasn’t for you. Wouldn’t be the first time. But I swear to God, I’m not like that anymore. I’ve been mostly sober for three whole months. Been talking to my sponsor every day. Then someone texted me a video about the body they found, and I lost it.”
“I think you have a good reason to be angry at the cops,” Jo said. “It sounded like something happened to your daughter.”
Amber pulled in a long, shaky breath as she nodded. “Mandy disappeared two years ago around this time of year. When I went to the Mattauk police, they said girls like her run away all the time. I told them they didn’t know my daughter. She was responsible. Always had dinner ready when I got home from work. Helped with the little ones. After their dad got sent away, I don’t know what I would’ve done without her. To be honest, I don’t know how I manage now.” Amber bowed her head. “Maybe she wasn’t an honor student or prom queen, but Mandy was a good kid. I told them that. The night she didn’t come home, I went straight to the cops and told them that something had happened to my girl. But they didn’t listen. They’ve had it in for my family for years now. They know I’ve been in trouble and they know her dad went to jail for meth, and they figured that was all they needed to know aboutMandy. They said it would be a waste of resources to send someone out to look for her.”
“Those bastards.” Jo’s fists were clenched and throbbing. “Why do they get to decide who’s worthwhile and who’s not?”
“What doyouthink happened to Mandy?” Harriett asked.
Amber wiped her tears away with the edge of the blanket. “Somebody killed her, of course. Just like that girl they found down by the beach today. That’s where Mandy was last seen. Walking down the road that runs next to Danskammer Beach.”
“She was walking by herself? Where do you think she was going?”
“Well, there’s only one place she could have been going, isn’t there? The Pointe. She was wearing a dress we bought for her grandmother’s funeral. I think she might have been going to see someone about a job. But you know what? The cops never bothered to ask a single fucking person out there if they’d seen her.”
“The Pointe is a long way for a girl her age to walk. What kind of job would she have been interviewing for?” Jo asked.
“I don’t know. House cleaner, maybe? She was good with kids, too. Maybe she was going to be somebody’s nanny.”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“I was going through a rough patch back then.” Amber watched as her toes dug into the soft, spongey soles of her flip-flops. “Truth is, she might have told me, and I might just not remember. But when I realized she was missing, I went straight to the cops. If they’d gone out to look for her the same night, they could have found her.” Amber kept her gaze directed at the floor. There was such horror and grief on her face that Jo had to look away. She couldn’t bear to imagine what the woman might be seeing. If it had been her kid, Jo would have thrown more than plants at the police station’s windows. Amber had gone to the cops because she’d lostthe most precious thing she had—and they couldn’t even be bothered to look for it. They’d assigned a price to Mandy Welsh’s life and decided a girl like her wasn’t worth their time.
“We’ll find Mandy,” Jo promised.
Amber shook her head hopelessly. “She’s dead.”
“We know,” Jo said. There was no point in pretending it might not be true. “But we’ll bring her back to you so she can rest in peace. Then we’ll take care of the person who killed her—and make sure he never hurts anyone ever again.”
Amber shook her head as though the thought were ridiculous and Jo was cruel to even suggest it. “How are you gonna do that?”
“We were the ones who found the girl by Danskammer Beach today,” Harriett told her. “Our friend heard her calling.”
Amber blinked. “I’m sorry,” she said flatly. “What?”
“Our friend Nessa has a gift,” Jo explained. “When the dead are lost, they call out to her so she can find them.”
Amber rose slowly from her seat as if she’d spotted a snake slithering toward her across the floor. “You ladies are sweet and I appreciate your help, but I know the cops here, and they aren’t going to listen to a witch and a lady ninja and some woman who talks to dead people.” When she was on her feet, she headed straight for the door. “Thanks for everything you’ve done tonight, but I really need to get home to my kids. My thirteen-year-old is not the babysitter his sister was.”
“Harriett gave you a drink that sobered you up in about ten seconds flat. Would you have believed that was possible?” Jo asked.
Amber paused at the door.
“I can do more than that,” Harriett added. “It will take a lot more than a single drink, but I can restore your health. All you have to do is pay me a few more visits. How long has it been since you haven’t felt broken?”
Long enough for her to take the offer seriously, apparently. “And what would I need to do in return?”
Jo hoped Harriett knew it wasn’t a good moment for a joke about selling her soul to Satan.
“You just have to talk to our friend tomorrow,” Harriett said. “Tell her what you told us about Mandy—and anything else you remember between now and then.”
“That’s it?” Amber asked.
“That, and you let me give you a ride back to your car,” Jo said. “It’s getting late, and someone in Mattauk’s been killing women.”
