Chasing Amanda by Melissa Foster

several children playing and a few parents watching over them. “Late September, if my memory serves me correctly.”
    Mac confirmed, “Remember, they were late harvesting the corn that year because Ned broke his combine machine, and Harley here had to fill in after he finished Hannah’s fields.”
    Harley nodded in affirmation, “Yup, September,” he sipped his coffee. “Anyway, I guess the kids were playing hide and seek, and when they got in their cars to leave, they noticed she was missing.”
    “Where were her parents?” Molly asked.
    “Mrs. Plummer, Bonnie, she was ill,” Joe said. “Had the cancer, you know? She’d had it for about a year by then. They operated, did some chemo, you know, she was real sick. So Kate was taken care of by neighbors, mostly. Other moms would take her to school, take care of her after school, run her to Girl Scouts, and whatnot. They were a tight-knit group back then, the moms.”
    Molly asked about her father, and Harley told her that Paulie had worked two jobs just to make ends meet.
    “That type of thing never happened,” Harley’s voice trailed off.
    “It never happens anywhere, until it does happen,” Molly was screaming inside, incredulous on the surface.
    “Anyway,” Harley began, “they searched, but they ain’t never found no sign of her.” Harley finished his coffee and crushed the Styrofoam cup with his hand.
    Mac got off the bench and threw away his cup. He went to the end of the porch and leaned against one of the wooden columns, his back to the others.
    Joe kicked his shoes against the concrete and cleared his throat—when Harley looked over, Joe shot him a stern look. Harley shrugged.
    Molly picked up on the cues. “What?” Her eyes darted from Harley to Joe and back again.
    Harley drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Well,” he said, “they never found Kate, but they knew who did it.”
    After a long, uncomfortable pause, Molly prompted, “Well…who did it?”
    Mac’s words fell fast from his lips. “Pastor Lett’s damned younger brother, Rodney.”
    Molly was bewildered, “Pastor Lett has a brother? I’ve known her for years and never heard her talk about him.”
    “ Had a brother. Rodney,” Mac said. “He died that year, too.”
    Molly thought about Pastor Lett, the way she’d hurried past, the look she’d given them. “What happened to him?”
    Joe suddenly became enraged, “He knew too much, Molly!” He paced across the porch, muttering under his breath, “Goddamn killer.”
    Harley explained that shortly after Kate had gone missing, Rodney had been outside on his front porch when a reporter had stopped by, looking for the pastor. As he spoke, Harley rubbed his hands on his jeans, which appeared permanently stained from that specific move. “He looked right at the reporter and just starts sayin’, ‘She’s in a dark place. She doesn’t hurt.’” Harley sat back down on the bench, as if preparing himself for a tiring story. “Everything seemed to fast forward from that point. The police arrived, reporters, angry residents.” Harley sighed. “They took Rodney to the station, and he told them that Kate was with her mommy, which you know meant that he’d killed her—that he buried her somewhere to go to heaven like her mother eventually would, Bonnie, you know?”
    “Well if he was saying all those things, then no wonder the police arrested him, but if he knew where she was, why didn’t they find her?” Molly asked.
    “They didn’t have enough evidence to keep his ass in jail. I have no idea how these dumb-ass police work, but they let the son-of-a-bitch go!” Mac threw his cup into the trash and said, “They have a guy telling them that she’s in a dark goddamn place, and they let him go ?”
    “But you said he died. How’d he die?” Molly asked.
    When the three men remained silent and avoided Molly’s eyes, she pressed for an answer.
    Harley lifted his eyes, met her gaze, then turned away. “He