Someone's Watching by Sharon Potts

in a haze on the other side of the broad bay. The view was not that different from the apartment she used toshare with Jeremy. But of course, it would be about the same—the SOBE Grande was only a few blocks north of here. She wondered what Jeremy was doing. He hadn’t called since they’d met near the pier on Monday, four days ago.
    Four days. Well, he had made a life for himself—just like she’d asked him to—so what did she expect?
    “Can I get you something?” asked a waitress in a T-shirt and shorts.
    Robbie glanced back into the restaurant, then along the outside path beside the bay that ran from the parking garage. No sign of her father or Detective Lieber.
    “A diet Coke with lemon, I guess,” Robbie said. The waitress nodded and went to the table with the guys in ties.
    Lieber had mentioned in the voice mail that it was Robbie’s father’s idea that Robbie join them. That surprised Robbie, especially after their awkward parting at her apartment two days ago. She’d seen him on the TV news making a plea to whoever knew the whereabouts of his daughter, Kaitlin, to please get in touch with the police or call him directly. He’d even given his cell phone number.
    “Please send my daughter home to me safe and sound,” he’d said, his drawn face grotesquely large on the TV that was perched on the dresser in Robbie’s bedroom. “And Kaitlin, honey. Remember that I love you.”
    The waitress put the soda on the table with a straw and menu.
    Robbie pulled the paper off the straw and took a sip of her drink. She squinted into the sun. A man in a billed cap was walking toward the marina carrying a bucket, probably with live bait. She remembered that this was where Puck had his boat docked. She strained to see if the man was Puck, but he was moving too quickly for her to tell.
    Someone came up to the front of her table, blocking the sun and her view.
    “Hello, Roberta,” her father said. He must have come up from the path on the right. He was wearing a light blue polo shirt that was a size too large for him and had new-shirt creases. She guessed that he’d run out of clothes from home and had bought some new ones. “Mind if I sit down?”
    “Of course not.”
    He slid onto the bench opposite her. She was still taken aback by his face, expecting something else. She tried to picture him holding her small hand in his large one, leaning across her bed to kiss her good night. But she no longer had a clear recollection of what he had looked like when she was a child.
    The guys in ties were laughing too loudly.
    “I saw you on the news,” Robbie said.
    Her father ran his tongue over his dry lips. “No response yet.”
    “I figured or you would have called me.”
    He picked up the paper from her straw and rolled it between his fingers.
    “It was good what you did,” Robbie said. “If Kate saw it, she’d be happy to know how much you love her.”
    He squeezed his eyes shut and covered them with his hand. Then, he took his hand away and gave her a small smile. “Thank you for saying that.”
    Lieber came up the outside steps, noticed them, and took a seat on the bench next to Robbie’s father. She put her battered leather case down on the table. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” She was wearing an outdated pantsuit with shoulder pads and a sheen to the fabric from too many dry cleanings.
    The waitress left a pitcher of beer with the guys in ties, then came over to take their orders.
    “Just coffee.” Lieber’s brown eyes seemed more recessed and shadowed than the other day. “Black.”
    The waitress looked at Robbie’s dad and waited.
    “Oh, I’m sorry.” He glanced at Robbie’s Coke. “I’ll have one of those. Thank you.”
    “I appreciate you both meeting me.” Lieber reached into the leather case and pulled out some papers. There was an unfamiliar formality in Lieber’s manner that Robbie attributed to her father’s presence. “As I mentioned on the phone, Dr. Brooks, I have a few