Page 4 (1/1)

"Co!" I hear a woman yell A few seconds later, she appears behind the desk Her eyes grow alarmed when she sees Charlie andher hands together nervously "Yeah," she says "I’m here for my stuff A backpack?"

The woman stares at Charlie for a few seconds and her eyes drop to Charlie’s hands The way Charlie is standingThe woo see what she can do, and she disappears around the desk again

"Try to relax," I whisper to Charlie "Don’t make it look like I forced you to do this They’re already suspicious of me"

Charlie folds her hands over her chest, nods, and then brings her thuins to bite the pad of it "I don’t kno to look relaxed," she says "I’m not relaxed I’m confused as hell"

The woman doesn’t return, but a door to our left opens and a uniformed officer appears in the doorway He looks over at Charlie and then me He motions for us to follow him

He walks into an office and proceeds to sit behind his desk He nods at the two chairs opposite him, so we both take a seat He doesn’t look at all pleased when he leans forward and clears his throat

"Do you realize howlady?"

Charlie stiffens I can feel the confusion roll off of her I know she’s still trying to grasp what’s happened in the last hour, so I answer for her

"We’re really sorry," I say to him His eyes reot in a fight She decided to disappear for a few days to process everything She didn’t know anyone would be looking for her, or that she would be reported "

The officer looks bored with irlfriend, but I’d really like to hear what Ms Wynwood has to say" He stands, towering over us, and motions toward the door "Wait outside, Mr Nash I’d like to speak to her alone"

Shit

I don’t want to leave her alone with hi hand on my arm "It’s fine Wait outside," she says I look at her closely, but she seems confident I stand up a little too forcefully and the chairsound as it scoots backward I don’t look at the officer again I walk out, close his door behind es a fewover her shoulder and a s I never should have doubted that her nerves would get the best of her This is the fourth time she’s started froh the first few times okay This time shouldn’t be any different

She doesn’t sit in the front seat this time When we approach the car, she says, "Let’s both sit in the back so we can go through all this stuff"

Landon is already annoyed that he thinks we’ve carried out what he thinks is a prank for so long, and noe’re forcing him to chauffer us around

"Where to now?" Landon asks

"Just drive us around until we figure out where ant to go next," I say

Charlie unzips the backpack and begins rifling through it "I think we should go to the prison," she says "My father ain?" Landon asks "Silas and I tried that yesterday They wouldn’t let us speak to hilances over at ree with Charlie," I say "Let’s go see her father"

Landon sighs heavily "I can’t wait until this is over," he says, ht out of the driveway of the police station "Ridiculous," he mutters He reaches for the radio and turns up the volu items out of the backpack There are two separate stacks I re through these items One of them is useful to us, one is not I hand Charlie the journals and I begin sorting through letters, hoping she doesn’t notice I’ some of the ones I know I’ve already read

"All these journals are full," she says, flipping through them "If I wrote this much and this often, wouldn’t I have one that’s current? I can’t find one froood point When I was in her attic taking all of this stuff, I didn’t notice anything that looked like she was actively using it I shrug "Maybe we rabbed all of these"