could not get him out of my mind, until Thomas came along and broke the spell. He’s a wonderful man and with him I found what I was missing through all those lonely years. Please don't start with accusations or suggestions that he had anything to do with what happened to Jennifer. He is devastated by our loss and he could not take that burden. Find out who did this and give us some peace, so she can rest with her ancestors. I am going to take her ashes back to where she was born. Her spirit will rest among the great Mayans she is descended from. Maybe in some small way her father will have a chance to know her now."
Thomas, a mild mannered and extraordinarily average-looking man, returns with iced tea for the group. The combination of this exotic beauty with such an aggressive personality and such a meek man seems a bit out of proportion, unless you understand the psychology of abuse. This woman has not avoided men for so long out of love and desire for a long lost lover, someone somewhere hurt her and hurt her deeply; she is good at hiding her wounds, but some behaviors are impossible to disguise. She is proud of her daughter but also has resigned herself to the loss. It seems to James she knows more than she’s letting on. The odd story of the Mayan lover is either meant to throw him off, or is the best that she can do to give him some kind of a hint. Something here feels way off.
Jennifer was an honor student, and involved in many community organizations. She took up just about every needy cause under the sun; her awards and letters of recognition line the walls of her simple room. She was a book worm and her books are neatly stacked everywhere. Though the room is cluttered, her tidiness is visible in every detail. She enjoyed a highly diverse taste in music and literature and her collections are alphabetized.
James knows that a clue might be folded up or written in the margins of any one of these books, or inside a cd case, but he does not have the manpower nor the time to be as thorough as he wants to be. Allison is showing her discomfort with James searching through her daughter’s things. She’s restless and fidgety. " Are you ok ," he asks her. The answer surprises him, she explains how it gives her comfort knowing Jennifer touched these things and that in doing so she left a bit of her imprint there, the more James touches them, the less of her daughter remains. He says he understands and decides he will return if he needs to; he feels deeply that any clue he might possibly find in her daughter's things is not nearly as valuable as what information is hidden within Allison.
He’s having that same feeling of missing something obvious that he had when he looked at the girls’ photos. There is something here, he just needs to pick up on. He needs to read between the words she speaks and hear the real story. The truth behind the lies she tells herself for comfort. This is not a woman who wants to play victim, but she has been a victim nonetheless, and he has to figure out what really happened in that small town. If nothing comes of the case soon, he may have to take a trip to Peru and see what he can stir up. Since the girls are sisters, the identity of their father is crucial to the case. His identity may be the case closer, and Peru is the first real clue he has received about this mysterious man and his potential whereabouts.
He wonders if this case might be even bigger than they know. He has only searched local towns for missing girls, what if this man is some kind of serial rapist that continues to be active with other women. They are all around twenty now, but there could easily be many younger children as well that might be in danger as they reach adulthood. He will have to put feelers out with other agencies to see if there are older cases as well as it is possible this has been going on for a long while. Something has to make sense, to fall into place eventually. He wonders about
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
John O'Riley
Brenda Sinclair
Christopher George
Stephen Lloyd Jones
Karl Iagnemma
Celya Bowers
Jill Gregory
Aria Cunningham