The Girl and the Unlucky 13 (Emma Griffin™ FBI Mystery) A.J. Rivers (historical books to read TXT) 📖

she didn’t, and her mom told me she hadn’t even come back the night before, I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. So I went to Vivian’s house.”

“Misty said you looked as if you were in such a hurry, you were wobbling on your bike. But it was because you were still weak and sore, wasn’t it?”

Allison nods. “Vivian and I talked about it and we decided the best thing to do would be to stick with the same story we’d told to begin with. That we were at the park to go camping, she got mad at us and left. We’d figured she’d called her parents to pick her up because that was always an option for her. Obviously, the police wanted to talk to us and that was what both of us told them. They believed us and that was it.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask.

“I was fourteen years old and got pregnant by a nineteen-year-old I wasn’t even supposed to be seeing. The baby was dead and buried in a field where we were trespassing. And our best friend who witnessed it all was missing after we left her drunk out of her mind and sick in a hospital waiting room. I was terrified. I had no idea what to do or if they would even believe me. Maybe they would think I did something to her because Vivian, Tegan, and my boyfriend would turn against me to save themselves.”

“Why do you never say your boyfriend’s name?” I finally ask, after having taken note of it for the last several minutes. “You’ve been talking about him all this time and haven’t once said his name.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t like talking about him. And I don’t want anybody to be able to track him down and ask him about what happened.”

“Do you think he might hurt you?” I ask. She draws in a breath and looks at the grave again. Realization trickles down my spine like ice water. “Did you think he might have hurt Ashley?”

“I thought about it,” she admits. “I didn’t want to think that was possible. For a fourteen-year-old, dating someone for six months feels like forever. I thought he was my everything. We were going to grow up and get married. We’d have babies I would get to keep and raise. Everything was going to be perfect. I didn’t want to think for a single second that he could have done something to her.”

“But you did.”

“He took me to the hospital and left. He said he didn’t want to be there and possibly get in trouble. They would arrest him and put him in jail and I’d never see him again. Of course, I believed him. I was fifteen. I didn’t know better than to believe him. I wanted to protect him. In my heart, he loved me. So,I sat there with Vivian and went through everything without him. He was back by the time I was discharged and ready to take me back to the campsite. But I didn’t know what he was doing during that time. After I found out Ashley was missing, there was a part of me that wondered if he could have gone back to the hospital and done something to her so she wouldn’t be able to tell what happened.”

“Right now, we don’t know for sure that he didn’t,” I point out.

Her face drops and she shakes her head adamantly. “No. He couldn’t have. Ashley’s back. She’s there in the hospital. He wouldn’t have kept her like that. He couldn’t have.”

“You know I’m going to have to tell the investigators what you’ve told me. And they’re going to bring you in for questioning. You’ll have to tell them who your boyfriend was and every detail you can think of. Don’t try to lie anymore. They’re going to be even more suspicious of you now,” I tell her.

She swallows hard. “Am I going to be in trouble?”

“I don’t know. I can’t tell you for sure that they won’t bring you up on charges. But if you are upfront with them and tell them everything, they are more likely to be lenient,” I say.

“Will you go with me?” she asks.

“Of course.”

Thirty-Seven

The next day I’m still at the police station with Allison when I get a phone call from Misty. I ignore it, intending to call her back when the interview is done. I don’t want to leave the girl’s side. She doesn’t want her parents here with her. She isn’t yet ready for them to know what happened, but she also doesn’t want to be alone.

She’s also twenty years old. That means the investigator could refuse to allow her parents in the room with her during questioning. This is part of my investigation, so professional courtesy has the detective let me in the room to listen to her statement and participate in the questioning.

Allison doesn’t hesitate. This time, she’s ready to tell everything. It’s difficult for her. I can see the pain in her eyes and the fear of what might come because of it. But I can also see how much of a relief it is to finally have the story out in the open rather than carrying it around as she has been for five years. This has been tormenting her. She wants to be able to mourn for her child and not try to keep up with the lies.

“I never wanted anything to happen to Ashley,” she says. “I never wanted her to get hurt. I hate myself for what happened to her.”

This is the moment in movies when a kindhearted investigator would offer her coffee and tell her what happened isn’t her fault, but this isn’t the movies. The truth is, Allison is at least partly to blame for whatever happened to Ashley that night after they left her in the hospital. Along with Vivian, Tegan, and Allison’s boyfriend, who I just now learned is a man named Sean Melrose. They