Chapter 18
Rob was getting angrier by the moment. He and Amelia had raced down to the police station only to be told to wait for an officer to come speak with them. They had been sitting in a lobby full of pink plastic chairs for almost an hour. Next to him, Amelia was working on a little book of Sudoku puzzles that she had fished out of her purse.
“Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter?” A police officer had come out to the waiting area and was standing in front of them. He wore a rumpled police uniform that looked like he might have slept in it. His medium brown hair was thinning a little in the front, which he had tried to hide with a strategically tousled hairstyle. Rob guessed that the officer was in his late twenties or early thirties.
Amelia shoved the Sudoku book back into her purse, and then she and Rob stood up.
“I’m sorry you’ve been kept waiting for so long, but I’m sure you can imagine how busy we’ve been over the last few days. The only thing worse than bad weather is the slew of crazy people that get triggered by it.” The officer held out a hand to Rob. “I’m Officer Monroe.”
Rob shook Monroe’s hand. “We’re here about our daughter and her friend. They are missing.”
“I understand. Let’s head into a conference room so I can ask you some questions, and we can fill out the report.” Monroe led them through a side door that Rob hadn’t noticed before and down a short hallway past some restrooms and small kitchen. The smell of burned coffee wafted out from the kitchen and followed them down the hall and into the small conference room at the end.
The conference room was just large enough for a small table and four chairs. There were no windows, though one wall had a whiteboard that went the entire length of the room.
“What, no one-way mirror?” Rob joked.
Monroe gave him a perfunctory smile in return. “No, we save that room for our more notable guests. Have a seat.” He gestured toward two of the chairs and sat down himself.
Once they were all settled, Monroe asked when they had last seen Meredith and Vi.
“Yesterday. Meredith was in the hospital waiting for surgery this morning, and her friend Vi was staying with her. No one has seen either of them since last night, and Meredith missed her surgery,” Amelia said, her eyes filling with tears.
Rob rested his hand on her back to comfort her. “This is very unlike our daughter. She’s a vet student, very dedicated to her studies. She doesn’t just disappear and not call us.”
“I understand. It’s good that you came in, and as soon as I get all the details we can start to look for them. There are a few things you need to be aware of, however. Firstly, since your daughter and her friend are legal adults, if they choose for us not to disclose their whereabouts, we will not do so. Secondly, filing a missing person report is not a magic bullet. The more you can do on your end to find her, the better. Thirdly, if they turn up, it is important that you notify us immediately to call off the search. Do you have any questions so far?” He waited a beat before continuing. “Okay, good. Now I am going to ask you a bunch of questions, and I need you to be as detailed as possible with your responses. The more information we have, the more likely it is that we will be able to find your daughter and her friend.”
It was nearly an hour and a half later when Monroe had finally exhausted his list of questions. He led them back out to the waiting room, saying, “We get thousands of these reports a year, and most cases resolve within a few days. But again, lots of times they resolve because of the efforts of friends and family to find their loved one. Get creative. Throw her picture up online, or leave flyers with places she frequents. Contact local news. Anything you do can help.” Monroe stopped them next to the bank of plastic chairs where they had been waiting earlier. “If you can wait here for just a moment, I’m going to go grab the detective who is going to be working your case so she can come talk to you.”
“Okay,” Amelia mumbled, sinking down into one of the chairs.
Rob sat next to her and pulled her hand into his lap, stroking the back of her hand lightly. It felt like a heavy stone had settled into his stomach, sapping him of strength. The process of describing the girls in minute detail--scars, birthmarks, clothing descriptions, and hairstyle--had made Meredith and Vi’s disappearance seem all too real. They might never see their baby girl again.
Rob, taking in his wife’s slumped shoulders and wan face, did his best to rally his emotions. “We’ll find them,” he said quietly. His own words sounded hollow and meaningless. He repeated them with more conviction. “We’ll find them.”
Amelia’s own voice sounded torn with emotion. “There has to be more we can do. You heard him; we have to do everything we can to help.”
Rob gazed down at Amelia’s hand in his lap and considered the police officer’s suggestion to call the local news, remembering the reporters who had been keenly interested in his daughter’s medical condition only the night before. He thought about the predatory gleam in Nate Dowering’s eyes when the reporter asked Rob why he was visiting the hospital. His gut reaction was to recoil from the idea of contacting the slimy journalist.
Raising his eye’s to his wife’s bloodshot ones, he said, “I called you from that journalist’s phone.” His voice was ragged and full of indecision, and it sounded harsh to his own ears. “We could call him. He might help us.”
Amelia understood Rob’s reluctance to involve any of the reporters from the hospital. They all had seemed as if they would do whatever they could to get a juicy story. However, she didn’t care. If there were a chance, any chance, that involving Nate Dowering would bring them back together with Meredith, she would take it. She pulled her phone from a side pocket on her purse and handed it to Rob. “Call him right now,” she said definitively.
Rob was relieved that Amelia was so sure of calling the reporter, since he felt so ambivalent himself. He scrolled through the call history and found the unfamiliar phone number, hitting send.
The phone rang twice before a voice came on the line. “Hello?”
“Hello? Is this Nate Dowering?” Rob asked nervously, hoping they were doing the right thing.
“Yes?”
Even if it wasn’t the right choice, Rob was desperate to find his daughter. “Please, we need your help.”
Nate’s smooth voice was full of concern. “Of course. Who is this?”
“I don’t know if you remember me. I met you at the hospital yesterday. I was there visiting my daughter?”
“Yes, I remember you,” Nate said, hesitating. His voice had a strange quality to it, like he was trying not to be overheard.
“My daughter has gone missing from the hospital, and the police said we should use every possible means of finding her. I thought that maybe since you’re a news guy, you could get her picture on TV?” Rob said it all in one breath, the words rushed and jumbled together. He took a deep breath and continued, “Her name is Meredith Carpenter, and she was last seen yesterday at about eight P.M.”
The other end of the phone was silent, long enough that Rob said, “Hello?”
“I’m still here, sorry. I was just thinking for a second about the best way to handle… this. I’d like you to send me an email with a picture and all the pertinent information, and I’ll do what I can.”
Rob snapped his fingers impatiently at Amelia, miming for a piece of paper and a pen. She retrieved the requested objects from within the bowels of her purse and handed them to him. He scribbled down the email address that Nate provided, saying, “Thank you so much. We’ll send it over right away.”
“No problem,” Nate said casually, in a way that irritated Rob. Nate didn’t seem too concerned about their missing daughter.
Rob swallowed his anger and said, “I know my daughter is nothing to you, but she’s everything to us. We’re desperate. Please, whatever you can do, do it.”
Nate paused again, choosing his words carefully. “I’m sure everything will be all right. I’ll help you, okay?”
“Okay.” Rob ended
the call and handed the phone back to Amelia, who tucked it back into her handbag. “He said he’d help us,” Rob said morosely, feeling like it was a wasted call. Nate Dowering was going to blow them off; he'd moved on to other, more interesting, stories.
They sat quietly for a few moments until their attention was drawn to the front doors of the building, where two police officers were escorting in a young man with his foot in a cast and a woman with a familiar face.
“Vi!” Amelia exclaimed, leaping up out of her seat.
“Mrs. C!” Vi’s eyes glistened with relieved tears to see the Carpenters. She looked rumpled and tired, as though she had barely slept. Her deep brown eyes were unusually devoid of makeup, though Rob personally thought she looked prettier that way. “I am so glad you’re here,” she said. “Did Meredith call you?”
Rob rose and followed his wife toward the front of the room. The police officers who accompanied her stopped to allow them to speak.
“No, we were here filling out a missing persons report for you!” Amelia hugged Vi awkwardly, as Vi’s hands were still in cuffs. “Thank God you’re all right. Where is Meredith?”
Vi shook her head with a small frown. “I don’t know where she went.”
“We need to go,” the police officer who held on to Vi’s arm said authoritatively.
Rob looked at the officer in the eye. “We just filed a missing persons report for this young woman, along with our daughter. Our daughter is still missing. Are you really going to refuse to let us ask her a few questions?”
The officer paused before assenting.
As soon as she had permission, Amelia asked, “Weren’t you with her? Why did you leave the hospital? What were you thinking?”
Vi briefly glanced over at the police officer before answering. “I was with Meredith until this morning. We spent the night at a friend’s house. There is way too much to explain right now, but I promise we had a good reason for leaving.”
“What friend?” Rob demanded.
Vi hesitated, trying to decide how much to reveal.
“Vi,” Rob said, in his best stern-parent voice.
“Her name is Eleanor. Chances are Meredith will go back to her house at some point. She’s the one who told us… things that made us want to leave the hospital.”
Rob’s jaw clenched when he heard the nurse’s name. Eleanor had come to their house and lied to their faces about Meredith.
Before Rob could ask any more questions the police officer standing next to Vi spoke again. “You should be providing this information to the detective who is working the missing person case. I’m sorry, but we need to go now.”
“What are her charges?” Rob asked the officer.
“Don’t worry about it,” Vi replied. “Right now you need to go find Meredith.”
“I’m going to call one of my buddies to come down here and help you, okay? He’s a lawyer. Don’t talk to anyone until he gets here, got it?”
“Got it. Thanks, Mr. C. I really appreciate it.”
Amelia scribbled her cell phone number on a scrap of paper from her purse and pressed it into Vi’s hand. “Call us for anything, Vi. We love you.”
“I’ll call you once I know what’s going on, I promise.”
Vi and the young man with her were led away, leaving Rob and Amelia alone in the waiting room again. Rob felt anxious to get in contact with Eleanor and demand a straight answer from her.
“Should we wait for the detective?” Amelia asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
“Forget it. I want to find out what the hell that nurse wants with our daughter.” Rob spat the words out angrily while stalking toward the doors.
Amelia followed close behind while digging into her pocket for her car keys. “We’ve got Eleanor’s number, but we can’t just call demanding answers, you know. She lied to us once, so she probably will again.”
“What do you suggest we do?”
“Let’s tell a little lie of our own,” Amelia said with a grim smile.
They went to their car and slid inside, but Amelia didn’t start the engine. Instead, she dialed Eleanor’s phone number and turned the volume up so they could both listen.
After a few rings, Eleanor’s steely voice came on the line. “This is Eleanor,” she said.
“Eleanor,” Amelia said breathily, trying to sound excited. “We’ve found the girls, but they’re both asking to talk to you. They said they spent the night at your house last night but can’t remember the way back.”
“Oh good,” Eleanor said austerely. Rob wondered if that was as effusive as she ever got. Eleanor quickly rattled off her address and asked when to expect them.
“We’re heading there right now,” Amelia said warmly. “We’ll see you soon.”
As soon as she hung up the phone, Amelia dropped the act. “Okay, at least we have her address. What do you want to do when we get there?”
“I’m going to get answers, even if I have to wring them out of her with my bare hands,” Rob said darkly. If that nurse thought she could get between him and his daughter, she had another thing coming.