Read What Comes Next for Free Online Page A

specific that happened in the past few days that would prompt Jennifer to try to run now?” she asked. “A big fight… maybe some event at school…”
    Mary Riggins simply sobbed.
    Scott West replied quickly, “No, detective. If you’re looking for some outward, triggering action by Mary or me that might have prompted this behavior on Jennifer’s part, I can assure you it doesn’t exist. No fights. No demands. No teenage temper tantrums. She hasn’t been grounded. She hasn’t been punished. In fact, things have been blissfully quiet around here the last few weeks. I thought—as did her mother—that maybe we’d turned a corner and things were going to calm down.”
    That’s because she was planning, Terri thought.
    In the cascade of Scott’s pretentious, self-justifying words, Terri believed there was at least one lie and maybe more. She would find it out, she knew, sooner or later. Whether learning the truth would help her find Jennifer was an entirely different matter.
    “She’s a very troubled teenager, detective. She’s very sensitive and bright, but deeply disturbed and confused. I’ve urged her to get treatment, but so far… well, you know how stubborn teens can be.”
    Terri did. She just wasn’t sure whether stubbornness was the issue.
    “Do you think there is any specific place she might have gone? A relative? A friend who has moved to a different city? Did she ever talk about wanting to be a fashion model in Miami or becoming an actress in LA or working on a fishing boat in Louisiana? Anything, no matter how offhand or small, might provide a lead we can follow up on.”
    Terri knew the answer that would come. She had asked these questions the two prior times Jennifer had escaped. But neither of these two other times had Jennifer managed to create the lead time she had this night. She hadn’t gotten far either of the other times: a couple of miles the first time; the next town over, the second. This occasion was different.
    “No, no…” Mary Riggins said, wringing her hands and reaching for another cigarette. Terri saw Scott try to stop her by placing his hand on her forearm, but she shook him off and seized the package of Marlboros and defiantly lit up a new cigarette, even though a half-smoked one was smoldering in the ashtray.
    “No, detective. Mary and I have tried to think of someone, or somewhere, but haven’t come up with anything we think might help.”
    Terri nodded, thinking.
    “I’m going to need the most recent photo you’ve got,” she said.
    “It’s right here,” Scott replied, handing over something he’d obviously already prepared. Terri took the picture and glanced at it. A smiling teenager. What a lie, she thought.
    “I’m also going to want her computer,” Terri said.
    “Why would you want—?” Scott started but Mary Riggins interrupted him.
    “It’s on her desk. It’s a laptop.”
    “There might be some privacy issues here,” Scott said. “I mean, Mary, how will we explain to Jennifer that we just let the police take her private…”
    He stopped. Terri thought, At least he knows how dumb he sounds. Maybe, though, he’s worried about something other than dumb.
    Then, abruptly, she asked a question she probably shouldn’t have asked.
    “Where is her father buried?”
    There was a small silence. Even the near-constant sobbing coming from Mary ceased in that moment.
    Terri saw Mary Riggins gather herself, lifting up as if what she wanted to say needed an injection of strength or pride between her shoulder blades, running down into her spine.
    “Up on the North Shore, near Gloucester. But what relevance does that have?”
    “None, probably,” Terri said. But inwardly, she told herself, That’s where I would go if I was an angry, depressed teenager filled with an overwhelming need to get away from home. Wouldn’t she want to make a last visit to say goodbye to the only person she believed had ever truly loved her before starting to run?
    She shook