“I didn’t. But if you’re asking, we met a couple of years ago.”
“I thought you were doing some undercover operation in Afghanistan two years ago?”
He glanced at her. “I hadn’t realized you were paying attention.” She didn’t respond, just waited for his answer. “Yeah, we met during the op. She was an analyst then. Once our mission was over, like me, she needed something different. I might have once mentioned the incredible views of my hometown a few times, and since she’s a skier, she decided to check it out.”
Now she was turning skeptical eyes on him. “Of all the places in the world with renowned ski resorts, she chose to come here. Your hometown.” She folded her arms in front of her chest and shook her head. “Fine. Don’t tell me. Not like I couldn’t tell from the looks you were giving each other you two had something together.”
He didn’t answer. Not immediately. “Is that really what you want to talk about? Because you just learned some pretty scary things, but instead of dealing with it, you’re harassing me about my dating life?”
“I just want to know if your focus is where it should be. You’re making googly eyes at the blonde when—when—”
He met her eyes, raising his brows, waiting for the insults to continue. Only her eyes widened as she recognized the truth of what he’d said. Almost immediately the brown depths pooled with tears.
Meredith Sanders was crying. He hadn’t seen her cry since that day—when she’d decimated him.
He willed himself to harden up, to not be taken in again by the act. “You done yet?”
She brought her hand up to her mouth and nodded, then looked away, taking in deep breaths.
“You’re right, of course,” she said, her voice almost returned to normal. “It’s just this not knowing. Not knowing if she’s dead, left somewhere to find, and then you talk about the possibility that she could be taken, drugged or beaten, forced to comply in some sex trade. And I’m not sure what’s worse.”
She choked back another sob. Another breath.
Before he could make any comment, she continued. “I was thinking…about this interview thing. What if I talked about Darcy? Would I be putting her in danger?”#p#分页标题#e#
He considered it. He’d even mentioned that very possibility yesterday. But now that they had some idea what they were dealing with—and he had no reason to doubt Meems’s instinct as she’d been dead-on every other time—he wondered if it could have some benefits. “This organization—these human traffickers, if that’s what they are—they’ve been keeping a low profile. Selecting girls who would easily disappear with little to no alarm set off. The usual mode of operation would be to select girls who have low self-esteem, who are easily misguided and likely living with no one who will care if they never come home. The runaways, girls from broken homes, like a struggling single parent, that sort of thing.”
“But Darcy has me.” She sounded fierce as she said this.
She wasn’t going to like him for what he was going to say. Well, she’d like him less. “I’m guessing that they underestimated you and the depth of your feelings for your daughter. Take a step back. Look at what’s publicly known. Darcy’s biological mom took off when she was a kid, and her dad was left to raise her. But then he dies and she’s dumped on a stepmom, barely a girl herself. A stepmom who, by some accounts”—he remembered the reactions from people they’d spoken to yesterday, people who could be described as surprised at the level of Meredith’s feelings for her stepdaughter—“wouldn’t have thought you’d be so invested in Darcy’s interests. Maybe would have been relieved that she’d turned eighteen, graduated high school, and maybe gone off to find herself. That she was no longer your responsibility.”
She didn’t say anything, and he glanced over to see she was staring out into space.
“Go on,” she finally said, not looking at him.
“I’m just saying to the casual observer, Darcy appeared to be someone whose disappearance would go unnoticed. Maybe. It’s just a theory. But I think your appearance now, telling everyone watching that you care and you’re not giving up…it might work. It’s worth a shot.”
“Good.” She nodded quickly, smoothing her hair around her shoulders. All businesslike. Cool. Unaffected.
A contrast to the real, raw emotion he’d seen just moments ago.
If that’s what she needed to do to get through the next hour, then he’d let her have it.