“Yes,” I said.
“And you’re sure you got his name right?”
I nodded. “He said. Heaney, he said.
Pinecliff police, he said. I think. I’m pretty sure. He was going to arrest us for trespassing on private property. He said.”
She shrugged. Then said what she really meant. “Are you sure you talked to someone that night? Are you sure you’re not . . . confused?” There they were again. The shadows on her face that showed she doubted me. Now she thought
I
was
having
imaginary
conversations with authority figures and lying to make my story more convincing.
“Jamie was there with me. He met the guy. He talked to him. Officer Heaney.
He had on a uniform. He . . . I think he had on a uniform; it was dark.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It doesn’t matter. They’ve opened an investigation, so if she’s out there and needs help, they’ll find her, okay?”
I didn’t feel okay.
Not anything close to okay.
Yes, I wanted them to be looking for Abby, but there was more to this. There was the fact that I didn’t know if I could trust my own mother.
That was when I saw it on her chest.
The hint of red. Bright and searing red.
Like a patch of flames.
My mom had new ink. Did she get another tattoo while I was out at the party? Because a blazing crimson thing was
newly
visible
beneath
her
collarbone on her chest. Her shirt was open beyond the third button, and somehow I’d missed what looked to be an unfamiliar picture there, until now, because now I couldn’t seem to see anything else. The tattoo was a fiery heart above her real heart.
“Mom,” I said carefully, “you didn’t tell me you were getting a new tattoo.”
“What?” she said. “But I’m not.”
“You already did. Can I see?”
“What, when? I didn’t. What do you mean?” And right then, so I could see her do it, and so the shadows watching us could see, my mom took her hand and held it over her chest. Covering the new tattoo.
It was here, while studying her, while paying attention, that I noticed the difference in her face. It was very slight, and there was a good chance I wouldn’t have
noticed
if
I
hadn’t
been
concentrating. But I was. And my mother —the one I’ve had all my life—has a beauty mark on her left cheek, just beside her lips. So black it’s almost blue. I always wanted one of my own, and when I was little she’d pencil one on me with her eyeliner and say I was just like her, except mine washed off in the bath at night.
This mother, this one sitting at the kitchen table with me in the early, early hours of a dark morning—she had a beauty mark on her right cheek.
Same spot and same color and same shape. Wrong side.
She saw me staring and rubbed her cheek. “Have I got some food on my face or something?”
“No,” I said, “it’s nothing. I’m tired. I should sleep.”
But, oh, it wasn’t nothing.
The secret tattoo was one thing, but now this? This made me question everything about her. It made me wonder if telling her about Abby had really been the right thing.
I shouldn’t have asked for help, should I? I shouldn’t have trusted her. I should have done this on my own. With only myself. And the girls.
MISSING
JANNAH AFSANA DIN
CASE TYPE: Endangered Missing DOB: April 4, 1995
MISSING: January 2, 2013
AGE NOW: 17
SEX: Female RACE: Middle Eastern HAIR: Brown EYES: Brown HEIGHT: 5'3" (163 cm) WEIGHT: 135 lbs. (62 kg) MISSING FROM: Clarkestone, MA, United States
CIRCUMSTANCES: Footage of Jannah was caught on surveillance video at a gas station in Clarkestone, Massachusetts, in the early-morning hours of January 2. She may have been meeting someone but appears to have left before that person arrived. She was wearing a white coat, blue jeans, and a Red Sox baseball cap. Jannah also wears contact lenses.
ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION
SHOULD CONTACT
Clarkestone Police Department (Massachusetts) 1-617-555-4592
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