Read Online The Missing Place by Sophie Littlefield - Free Book Online

noticed?
    â€œI got sand and shit up under my nails and I didn’t care. There was sleet or rain or something coming down and I just lay there, all cried out, and then I started to worry that the guy had called the cops, which, come on, wouldn’t you? I know I would. I got up andgot back in the car and got on the highway and drove that forty miles, and there was a Shell there with a bathroom and I cleaned myself up. I got a coffee, and when the guy asked me how I was doing, I said fine. I said I was fine , Colleen.”
    After a minute Colleen nodded, because it seemed as though Shay was waiting for a response. She adjusted the towel.
    â€œSo that’s once for each of us. But that’s it. That’s all you get. You are not going to fall apart on me again. Because I’ll cut you loose, Colleen. I swear I will.”
    Colleen nodded again, because it suddenly made sense. Grief was an indulgence. A weakness. She’d been careless and she’d let it come too close.
    It helped, knowing Shay had done it too. Even if she was lying. Even if she’d made it up for her.
    â€œI’m fine now.”
    â€œYes. You are.” Shay narrowed her eyes and considered her. “You got any makeup with you?”
    â€œNo, I—I left it back at the trailer. I didn’t think—”
    â€œOkay. You shower and get dressed. You only get twenty minutes and if you go over, you have to pay for another full twenty, so be fast. I’ll wait. It’s getting late enough in the day there’s a couple of showers free, so whenever you get out, I’ll go in.”
    Shay looked around the bathroom. She bent down and picked up all of Colleen’s clothes and laid them out on the counter, turning the socks right side out and retrieving the bra without comment. Then she let herself out the door, squeezing it shut so no one could see past her into the bathroom. And Colleen was alone again.
    She ran the shower hot and didn’t bother to get her shower gel out of the toiletry bag. She unwrapped the soap and tied up her hairin the elastic Shay had given her, and stepped into the shower enclosure. The water sluicing over her felt shockingly good, and she let her breath out in a long sigh, closing her eyes and letting it cascade over her breasts and shoulders and neck. She made an effort to punish herself for taking pleasure from the heat and the spray against her skin, but she was too weak to resist.

seven
    SHAY KEPT AN eye on Colleen as they drove the mile to the police station, gauging her reaction. Colleen watched the old downtown go by, her lips pressed together and her hands clutching the strap of her purse. Shay wondered what the streets of her town looked like—probably a far cry from both the ice-crusted, dreary streets of Williston and the dusty brown hills around Fairhaven. This trip was the farthest east Shay had ever been, and she had a made-for-TV notion of New England—horse-drawn wagons, crusty Maine fishermen, maple syrup, charming cobblestone streets lined with expensive little shops. In a way, Williston was just Fairhaven with snow and natural resources; for Colleen, it must be as foreign as another planet.
    At least she had come out of the shower with her shit together. She kept her chin high and didn’t acknowledge the curious and pitying glances from the other customers. Shay wondered if Colleen realized that the moment they walked into the place, everyone knew who they were. It was the third morning in a row Shay had eaten breakfast there, and twenty minutes into her first visit, she had made sure everyone in the miserable little place knew exactly who she was and what she was looking for. She’d held on to a faint hope that someone would be able to help that first day, that one of the customers or waitresses had been keeping a secret or a confidence. That when she laid Taylor’s picture flat on the counter next to the cash register, and they saw his big blue