The police searched. Neighbors helped. My daughter’s photo sat in the grocery store window, the gas station, and every church bulletin board in town.
My daughter had vanished at sixteen.
Nothing came back. Not one real lead. Not one answer.
Paul blamed me first in private, then like he wanted an audience.
« You should have known, » he told me the week after she disappeared.
« I didn’t know she was leaving, Paul. »
« Yeah, you never know anything until it’s too late, Jodi. »
He said worse after that, enough that I started believing him.
« You should have known. »
***
Continue on the next page:
