"Don't you dare speak to my daughter in that fashion!"
Karen could handle herself. "Money doesn't have anything to do with protecting your daughter and standing by her!" She snorted.
"Look," Kennedy said. "Let's calm down." Sheila thought better of confronting Karen further and sat down. We all took a deep breath.
"We have to find her; soon," Buddy said.
"Why the hurry?" I asked. "Let her sort out her problems in her own time. I'm sure she's frightened."
Sheila looked at me as if I were stupid. "She'll be okay when the kid's history, but we can't wait too long to get that business done." While I looked surprised, my daughter didn't. A light bulb went on in dull Sarah's head. Karen was helping to hide Mary Ellen so they wouldn't abort her baby!
Sheila tried another tactic. She walked over to Karen and tried to take her hand. Karen pulled away. "She was your best friend, Sweetie. She said so. Once she ain't pregnant no more the two of you can hang out and go swimming and stuff. I know you didn't like Swifty but now he's gone. Just tell us where she is. I know she'd tell you."
Karen wasn't buying and remained silent. Sheila looked down and saw Karen was holding her diary behind her back. "What are you hiding?"
"It's just a book," she said as she pulled away.
"That's your diary, ain't it? You got Mary Ellen to write in one too."
"Yeah," Buddy said. "I found the lying shit she was writing in it!"
"Let me see it! I bet you wrote where she is." Buddy crossed the room and grabbed for the diary.
The look on Karen's face showed more than I wanted her to convey. I stepped between them. "That's her private journal. You have no right to touch it." I bit my lip.
"She's hiding my daughter! I have a right!"
"She hasn't written anything about Mary Ellen in a week." I turned to Karen. "Sorry, I peek in it all the time. I'm just nosy." Bless me father, for I have sinned. I'm a bold faced liar. . . and Karen knew it. I turned to the policeman, trying for a guilty smile. "I read it. I do it all the time."
"I don't know where Mary Ellen is right now," Karen said. "I wouldn't tell you if I did know!"
"You little liar!"
"Don't you dare call my daughter a liar!" I snarled in a voice that caused Officer Kennedy to take a step backward. Woof began barking and growling from the kitchen where I'd thankfully locked him. He'd have eaten the pair alive.