Jeff Shelby - Thread of Hope

I didn't answer.

She raised both of her eyebrows. “Tell me. What should I have done? Had them hold hands in a circle and talk about how much they missed Meredith?” She let the eyebrows come down and shook her head. “Don’t act like you understand me. I don’t care if she ever plays again. I said you should find her because it’s the right thing to do and you would seem to know how to do it.”

She adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “That’s the only reason and fuck you for thinking otherwise.”

I stood in the hallway for a few minutes, thinking over Kelly’s words.

Had I been unfair with her? She hadn’t asked if I thought Meredith was alright, hadn’t asked if I knew what might’ve happened to her and she didn’t ask any of the other girls if they knew anything.

She’d been focused on basketball.

But over the course of the week, I'd seen her demonstrate genuine concern and empathy for her players, not to mention the conversation we’d shared in the diner. She liked Meredith and not just for her playing ability. She hadn’t struck me as one of those win at all costs coaches. I hadn’t seen anything to indicate that her win-loss record superseded everything else.

Until she told me she thought I should look for Meredith.

Her timing stunk. It was hard for me to take it any other way when she walked out of a dead locker room after a crushing loss without their best player-and then asked me to go find that best player. I didn’t think she could switch gears that quickly, moving from defeated coach to concerned adult.

But maybe the truth was somewhere in between.

I walked outside and Gina Coleman was waiting for me.

“Tough loss,” she said, gesturing at the gym.

I nodded.

“You heard about Meredith, I assume?”

“Still missing?”

“Yeah. Didn’t come home from school yesterday afternoon, no one’s heard from her since.” She hesitated. “In fact, I think you were the last one to see her.”

“How’s that?”

“Couple of the girls said they saw you talking to her in the hall after practice.”

“I tried talking to her,” I said. “But she wouldn’t talk to me. Ran out of here and I didn’t follow her.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “You didn’t follow her?”

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

“Just checking.”

“Don’t do this, Gina.”

“Do what?”

“Stand here and jerk me around,” I said. “Show up outside the door to the gym and brace me. If you think I have anything to do with Meredith’s disappearance, you’re fucking nuts. I know Jordan sent his guys after me this morning. Those two are stupid. You aren’t.”

She rolled her shoulders forward and some of the tension in them disappeared. She uncrossed her arms and tilted her head toward the parking lot. “Come on.”

“No thanks,” I said. “I’ve got my own ride.”

She took a deep breath, let it out and looked at me. “Jordan wants to talk.”

“Tell him to call me and make an appointment.”

She blinked quickly several times. “You’re gonna wanna talk to him, Joe.”

“Doubt that.”

“I’m serious,” she said, leveling her eyes with mine. “And that’s not a threat. You should talk to him.”

“Really? Why’s that? He gonna make more wiseass remarks about my daughter?” I shook my head. “I’ll be fine.”

An empty smile settled on her face. “I know you’re pissed. You should be. I don’t blame you. Sending those two ass-clowns after you was a mistake. He knows it now.” She paused. “He wants to talk to you and it’s not what you think.”

I didn’t see anything that told me she was lying to me. She was serious and she wasn’t trying to strong arm me. And other than dumping me on my ass that first night, she’d been straight with me.

“Then tell me what it is,” I said.

“Just trust me.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder. “He’s out here in the lot. He can tell you himself.”

Jordan was prowling next to a Black Cadillac Escalade, pacing back and forth, wired with nervous energy, his eyes on the ground.

He looked up as we approached. “What took so long?”

Gina held out her hands. “Relax, Jon.”

He glared at her for a moment before leveling his gaze on me. “You haven’t seen my daughter?”

“I saw her yesterday afternoon after school,” I said. “That’s it.”

He kept his eyes locked on me. They were bloodshot and tired. I doubted that he’d slept for even a moment the previous night. I remembered those nights.

He glanced at Gina. “You tell him?”

“Just that you wanted to talk to him,” she said, leaning against the back of the SUV.

“Tell me what?” I asked.

Jordan stopped his pacing and ran a hand over his jaw. “I’m going to hire you.”

“You’re going to hire me?”

He started pacing again. “I want you to find Meredith. Find out where she is, what’s happened to her.”

“Have you contacted the police?”

He waved a hand in the air. “She's eighteen and it'll be hours before they even finish the paperwork. I'm hiring you.”

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“You’ve already started looking into her life,” he said, ignoring me. “Talking to her friends about what happened between her and Winslow. It makes sense.”

“No.”

“And I want you to start tonight,” Jordan said. “Right now.” He stopped in his tracks and looked at me. “You need some kind of retainer or something?”

“You need to listen to me,” I said. “I’m not working for you. I’m not for hire.”

“Doesn’t matter how much,” Jordan said, staring through me. “Just tell me what your fee is and I’ll triple it to find Meredith.”

I looked at Gina. “Is he deaf?”

She pursed her lips and turned in Jordan’s direction. “Tell him what you’re offering, Jon.”

“I don’t care what he’s offering,” I said, irritated that they were talking around me and not listening to me. “It doesn’t matter. Both of you need to open your fucking ears. He treats me like an asshole, sends his two gorillas after me, threatens me? Are you kidding me? I’m not working for him.” I pointed to Jordan. “I’m not working for you.”

Jordan’s eyes bore into me. “You find my daughter, your friend walks.”

I wasn’t expecting that and it caught me off guard.

“Did you hear me?” he asked. “Locate Meredith and we drop the charges against Winslow.”

“I heard you,” I said, working it over in my head. “But if Meredith is gone, there’s no witness against Chuck. Charges will fall if she’s not around to corroborate.” I paused. “I don’t think I need your offer.”

Anger flashed through his eyes and he took a step toward me. “I will make certain that he rots in that prison.”

I shrugged. “Good luck.”

He started to say something, then stopped, his mouth hanging open. Then it closed. He took a step closer to me, looking at me, like he was trying to get a read on me. “I’d think that with your history, you’d wanna help out a father looking for his daughter,” he said, staring at me. “Or maybe what I heard was true.”

His words sliced like razor blades down my spine. “Do not talk about my daughter.”

His mouth turned into a small sliver of a smile. “They couldn’t find her, right? And a few of the cops, some of your colleagues, what was their theory?”

“Don’t,” I said, feeling it coming up from my gut.

“They think maybe you did it and hid her so well no one will ever find her,” he said, pointing at me. “That this whole grieving thing is an act.”