Emily Kenyon 01 - A Cold Dark Place

what’s her name?”
    “Do you really want to go there?” David was ice. It was a practiced affect. He used to be a different kind of man, gentle, caring, even loving.
    “Go where? I just want to find out where Jenna is.”
    “She’s my daughter, too” David kept his answer curt. “And I love her.”
    Emily softened a little. She hated herself for badgering him. After all he didn’t take her. He didn’t know a thing about her whereabouts. It sputtered through her mind that he might know, but she set the idea aside as beyond cruel. Even for David. Ultimately, Emily didn’t think he’d stoop so low as to conspire with Jenna to get her back to Seattle.
    “I know,” she said. Her teeth were clenched and her eyes hurt from crying.
    Sheriff Kiplinger appeared in the doorway. He motioned to Emily that he needed to speak with her. He mouthed the words: “It’s important.”
    “I have to go,” Emily said into the phone. “Call me if you hear anything. I’ll do the same” She looked up, clutching her cell phone tightly against her breast.
    “What is it?” she said, almost daring the sheriff to tell her. She could barely read the man. She had no clue what was coming.
    “There’s someone here to see you”
    It passed though her mind that Jenna was there. Thank God! I’ll read her the riot act, but thank sweet Jesus that she’s all right. But as the sheriff motioned around the corner, another young girl appeared in the doorway.
    It was Shali Patterson. She’d obviously been crying. Her usually somewhat heavy-handed makeup had left a pair of mascara tributaries down her cheeks. Kiplinger ushered her into Emily’s office.
    Emily stood up, and then froze, reading Shah’s face like a search warrant. “What’s going on? What is it? Have you heard from Jenna?”
    Kiplinger backed off toward the doorway, removing his hand from Shah’s shoulder, now visibly shaking. The teen shook her head in an exaggerated “no” indicating that she wasn’t bringing any news. She looked like a ten-year-old, not the reckless driver who terrorized the neighborhood with a too-fast VW bug.
    “Mrs. Kenyon, I’ve been thinking a lot.” Tears had already fallen, but her big eyes threatened a deluge. “And I think I remember one thing about Nick and Jenna”
    Emily moved closer. “What was it, Shah?”
    “It’s about Nick Martin.” She hesitated.
    “What about Nick?”
    “I know that he’d talked a lot about like finding his real dad. That he and his adopted dad weren’t that close. His dad was an engineer and he was, you know, artsy. His dad just didn’t get him, you know.”
    “No, I didn’t.” Emily wondered if the scenario that had played out before the tornado held something even darker than she could imagine.
    “Did his father hurt him?” she asked.
    The question seemed to stun Shali. She shook her head. “No, not that I know of.”
    “Then what? Was it worse?”
    “No. Not that. It was just that he wanted to find his real dad”
    “Was he actively looking?”
    The girl nodded. “He registered on one of those Web sites.” She reached for a tissue box, and Emily pulled one out and passed it to her. Shali was pulling herself together. There was guilt there, of some kind, but it wasn’t so sinister as Emily had imagined.
    Emily prodded her. “And?”
    Shali wiped her eyes. Her tissue was black. “Not that I know about, but it really wasn’t my thing. Jenna was helping him because she felt bad about her dad”
    “Her dad?” Emily had no idea where this was going, or if Shali was even paying attention to her best friend’s status. “She wasn’t adopted”
    “I know that, Mrs. Kenyon. What I mean is that Jenna was mad at her dad and didn’t think she could be that close to him after what he did to you and her. You know. Like the new girlfriend, Dani.”
    Emily winced. It seemed like this teenager that peppered her entire speech pattern with extraneous “likes” was getting a little personal. The conversation wasn’t going in that direction. Not even an inch.
    “All right.” Better just to acknowledge what she said and move on.
    “She and Nick kind of bonded over that. I think once she got to know him, you know, once she got to see that there was a reason for him acting all sad and artistic, you know.”
    None of this was tracking. None of it was making sense. What did Jenna’s disappearance have to do with Nick not knowing his biological father?
    “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I don’t