Missing with Bonus Material: The Secrets of Crittenden County, Book One by Shelley Shepard Gray

to give me some to try.”
    Her eyes turned to saucers. “And what did you say?”
    “I said I wasn’t interested.” He was afraid it was meth—there had been no way he’d get near that. “I’m not into drugs. I don’t even drink.” She looked so worried, he had a sudden thought. “Hey, did he ever offer you anything?”
    She shook her head. “Never. But he started drifting away from me. From us. From everything we believe in.” She paused, her eyes widening. “I mean everything Amish.”
    “Did you ever talk to anyone about Perry?”
    Her expression turned troubled. “When I was seeing Perry, I pulled away from my girlfriends. They didn’t like him, you see.”
    “But you did?”
    She shrugged. “I thought I did. I wanted to; I’d known him forever. And my parents had encouraged us. They thought he was still the same, you see.”
    Now he understood. She felt like she was completely alone. The guy she’d once trusted was gone. Her parents had encouraged her to date a guy who’d been lying to just about everyone. And then it turned out that they’d been lying to her, too. Now her siblings weren’t even her real siblings.
    That was why she’d forced herself to see him. Because he was one of the few people who had been honest with her. “You know, my grandfather says it’s not who you are that makes a person, it’s what you believe.”
    “Walker, I’m not even sure what I believe anymore. I don’t know who I am, and I don’t even know who to trust.”
    It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that she could trust him. But he held the words back. After all, they hardly knew each other.
    After sipping her drink again, she opened her purse and pulled out a ten-dollar bill. “Thank you for meeting me here, Walker.”
    “You can pay next time. Put the money away. I’ve got this.”
    She turned to him in surprise. “Next time?”
    Walker knew he should feel relief. She didn’t want another thing from him. She didn’t want to meet him again.
    He should feel happy. Really glad. They’d lived this long in Crittenden County without crossing paths all that much. There was no need to see her again or to deepen their friendship.
    But as he looked at her, and as he thought about Abby and how lost she always seemed to be, he knew he had to do something. For whatever reason, their lives were now intertwined because they’d once known Perry. And if he knew anything, it was that God didn’t do anything without a reason.
    “Look, we never got our stories straight about that night at Schrock’s. Meet me tomorrow at Stanton Park.”
    She shook her head. “Walker, there are a lot of people there. Already, I’m sure everybody’s wondering what the two of us would have to talk about.”
    “The park will be crowded. No one would notice us.” It was true. Stanton Park wasn’t known to be a hangout for Amish or for college students. No, it was a place where people down on their luck hung out.
    She bit her lip. “I don’t know . . .”
    “Look, it’s the only place for us. It’s close. No one will see us. No one will know. It will be our secret.”
    Apprehension flashed in her eyes before she slowly nodded. “All right. I’ll see you tomorrow at the park at four o’clock. I think I had better go now.”
    “Wait a minute. Aren’t you going to let me drive you home?”
    “There’s no need.”
    “But with my truck, it’s no problem to take you home. It’s not out of my way at all.”
    “I’ve already taken up enough of your time.”
    “Driving won’t take me long at all.”
    She smiled softly. “I imagine it wouldn’t. But I’d rather walk.”
    After setting her napkin on the table, she slid out of the booth and walked out, her back straight in her royal blue dress. Her head held high with a perfectly creased white kapp covering her light brown hair.
    Never looking back.
    B y now, Luke had interviewed over twenty people about Perry. From what he could discern, Perry Borntrager had been