Little Girl Gone by Gerry Schmitt Page A

counter, where Lish was busy grating a hunk of Parmesan cheese, and smiled at her impishly through masses of tangled blond hair. “Want me to set the table?”
    â€œMore than anything,” Lish said.
    â€œMommy,” Poppy said as Tess stood on tiptoe to gather plates and glasses from the cupboard. “How come you changed your name? How come you have a different name than Daddy?” It was sweet that she still referred to Mickey as her daddy, even though they’d only been together as a family for little more than a year.
    â€œIt’s all about identity, honey,” Afton said. “When you’re a little older, you’ll understand.”
    But Poppy wasn’t about to drop the subject. “What if
I
want to change my name someday?”
    â€œHoney,” Afton said, bending down. “
Do
you want to change your name?”
    A grin split Poppy’s mischievous face. “I want to be Rapunzel!” she declared.
    â€œPoppy Rapunzel,” Afton said, gathering her daughter up in her arms. “It has a nice ring to it. Presidential even.”
    *   *   *
    BY eight o’clock the kids’ eyes were growing heavy as they sprawled on the sectional sofa eating popcorn and watching a DVD of
Finding Nemo.
Lish was upstairs, trying out Clairol’s Ravenous Red hair color and singing along to an old Van Halen album. Afton was planted firmly in front of her computer.
    She’d been curious about what Thacker had told them about Richard Darden, the missing baby’s father. Wanted to see if there was anything in the business section of the newspaper that might shed some light on thelawsuit against him. She didn’t think it possible that a reputable company would get so outraged about pilfered business secrets and that they’d retaliate by kidnapping a man’s child. Then again, you never knew. In more than a few countries, kidnapping was commonplace.
    Afton found two archived articles on the
Tribune
website. One was a short sidebar detailing Richard’s move to Synthotech. The second was a lengthier article in which the
Tribune
business reporter, B. L. Aiken, interviewed Bruce Cutler, the CEO of Novamed, Richard Darden’s former company, as well as Richard Darden himself, and Gordon Conseco, the CEO of Synthotech, Richard’s new place of employment.
    Cutler had only harsh words about Richard’s defection; Conseco had only praise for his new employee.
    But Conseco can’t be that happy
, Afton decided,
especially
if Richard Darden was bringing questions of impropriety down on their heads.
    Afton found a few more articles, but they were just routine business press releases. A new product, yadda, yadda, yadda.
    Bored now, she clicked over to her Facebook page and scanned a few posts from her friends. Ah, there were her neighbors, Deana and Bud, looking happy and sunburned on Waikiki Beach. It was difficult sometimes, to look at pictures of perfect couples. Even though it was a relief to be divorced, she sometimes felt like a screwup. Her first husband, the kids’ father, had been a disaster. Then she’d met Mickey and struggled to make that marriage work. But it had quickly become obvious they weren’t destined to be together. When collection agencies started calling, when the zone manager from GMAC came knocking on her door, she knew it was over. Slammed shut. There wasn’t anything that Dr. Phil or Dear Abby could have done. Like Humpty Dumpty, their marriage had slipped off the wall, cracked wide open, and couldn’t be put back together again.
    Afton lifted her fingers from the keyboard, ready to shut it off. Then, on a whim, she Googled the word
reborn
. And watched in amazement as hit after hit spun out.
    Curious now, feeling a tingle of apprehension, she perused the website for Marcy May’s Reborns. Then Sarah Jane’s Beautiful Babies. And thenKimberly’s Kuddle Kids. All these sites featured the