Once Lost

Riley felt a pang of sympathy.

Denial, she thought.

It was going to take a while before the reality of Lisa’s daughter’s death sank in.

Meanwhile, Riley guessed that she and Jenn ought to address most of their questions to Drew.

She said, “Mr. Philbin, we’re terribly sorry for your loss, and we hate to disturb you. But my colleague and I need to ask you a few questions.”

Still holding his wife’s hands tightly, Drew simply nodded.

“When did you notice that your daughter had gone missing?” Riley asked.

Drew knitted his brow as if trying to remember.

Shock, Riley thought.

Although he had accepted the reality of his daughter’s death, Riley knew that he was still struggling with confusion. She worried whether he might find it difficult to answer even the simplest questions.

“Last night, I think,” he said. “No, the night before last.”

Lisa appeared to be emerging from her fog of denial at least a little. She said, “Yes, it was the night before last. She was out late for a club meeting at her school. We expected her late, but she didn’t come home at all.”

“Did you report her missing?” Jenn asked.

Lisa and Drew looked at each other uncertainly.

“We did – didn’t we?” Lisa asked her husband.

Drew stammered, “Y-yes. We called Chief Sinard … I can’t remember exactly …”

Riley looked at Chief Sinard, who said, “It was Lisa who called me. She called last night. I put out a local alert online.”

Riley noticed that Jenn seemed to react to this information with suspicion. They knew that Katy had almost certainly been killed Wednesday night. She hadn’t come home, but her parents hadn’t reported her missing until last night, Thursday night.

Jenn asked Lisa, “You mean you waited a full day? Didn’t you know that another girl had already gone missing?”

Lisa’s eyes darted among Jenn’s, Riley’s, and Chief Sinard’s faces.

She replied, “We did hear about that. But we didn’t actually know her. And she just ran away, didn’t she? It was … it had … nothing to do with us … with Katy … Did it?”

Riley knew there was nothing she could say in reply. After all, as far as anybody knew at this point, Holly really had run away and might turn up at any time.

But that didn’t stop her partner from asking questions.

Speaking rather sharply, Jenn said, “I’m afraid I don’t understand. Why wait so long? Didn’t you start worrying when she didn’t show up Wednesday night?”

Riley started to cut her partner off, but she told herself that Jenn’s suspicion was understandable. At this point, every person they met – especially male – might be Katy’s killer. That might even include Drew Philbin.

But Riley also worried that Jenn might let her suspicion get the best of her. She was definitely not as skillful at questioning as Lucy had been. Even Bill had been better at putting others at ease. Riley knew that she herself tended to be blunt sometimes and she had depended on her partners to be friendlier.

Lisa seemed to be on the verge of panic.

She stammered, “I … we … this isn’t …”

Drew gently interrupted his wife.

“What Lisa means to say is that this has happened before. I don’t mean that Katy was ever gone for this long. But she stayed out until the wee hours of the morning once before without calling home. We thought she was doing something like that again.”

Lisa nodded and chimed in, “And we did call other people yesterday morning – her ex-boyfriend, some of her friends, even a couple of her teachers.”

“But not Chief Sinard?” Jenn asked.

Lisa looked shaken and ashamed.

“We just … we didn’t think …”

Before Jenn could prod Lisa and Drew with more questions, Riley touched her on the shoulder to quiet her. She ignored the sidewise glance that Jenn gave her. Riley had a pretty good idea why the couple might not have called the police chief right away, but now was no time to get into it.

Riley asked the couple, “Did Katy mention being frightened of anything or anybody recently? Was anything making her uneasy?”

Lisa and Drew looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Not exactly,” Lisa said. “But she hadn’t been herself lately. She’d been quiet, stayed in her room a lot, and she seemed … I don’t know, sad or upset about something. She wouldn’t tell me what it was all about.”

Drew shook his head.

“Lisa’s right,” he said. “She was behaving oddly. She used to be so happy and enthusiastic about everything – school, sports, friends.”

Lisa said, “We kept waiting for her to pull out of it. Whenever I asked her what was the matter, she said it was nothing.”

Lisa paused for a moment. Then she said, “I think she changed when she broke up with Dustin.”

Riley’s attention quickened.

“Her boyfriend?” Riley asked.

“That’s right,” Drew said. “Dustin Russo.”

“Did she say what the breakup was about?” Riley asked.

Lisa shrugged slightly.

“No. She wasn’t telling us much of anything around then.”

Riley asked, “Did anything about Dustin’s behavior worry the two of you?”

“Not really,” Drew said. “I mean, he’s a kid. He’s just a regular teenage kid.”