Stolen Daughters (Detective Amanda Steele)

She looked at him now, but like before, there was a fire that burned in her eyes when she met her husband’s gaze. “It could be her, but it’s hard to say for sure. Where did you get that?” She flicked a finger toward Amanda’s phone, indicating the picture. “It looks computer rendered.”

Henry glanced over at Leila again, and his shoulders sagged. He turned to Amanda. “Is she dead?”

There’d be no more putting it off. “The girl pictured is, yes, but we need to determine if she was, in fact, your daughter,” Amanda started. “There was a dragonfly pin found with her, and it had the engraving ‘to our dear Crystal’ on the back. You had reported it—”

“I told you it would get our girl back,” Leila burst out and faced her husband.

Henry clenched his jaw, and tapped the arm of his chair, but said nothing.

Amanda thought she might have figured out what was going on here. “You reported the pin as stolen in the hopes that it would be found and, in turn, deliver your daughter to you?”

“That’s right.” Leila picked at something on her pant leg.

“The pin was a gift for her thirteenth birthday,” Henry volunteered. “That was four months before she disappeared. I can’t imagine her letting it out of her sight.” His eyes darkened as if he may be giving himself over to accepting that his daughter was dead. He added, “She loved dragonflies, always had a fascination with them since she was really little. That’s why Leila and I decided to get her the pin.”

Amanda could tell that Henry hadn’t truly let his daughter go, and she could understand the difficulty in that all too well. Letting go was more than a matter of release; it mean

t acceptance, which was even harder. “Do you know why she ran away?”

“She left us a note saying that she’d be better off on her own,” Leila stated.

Amanda wasn’t seeing evil in the Fosters, but if the girl in the morgue was, indeed, their daughter, the numerous broken bones and fractures were hard to ignore entirely.

“Did she say why?” Trent interjected.

A few seconds of silence passed before Leila spoke.

“You’re probably aware that my husband is the founder and CEO of Protect It.”

“We are,” Trent replied.

“Well, that kept him busy,” Leila added. “It also kept me occupied. The business grew fast, and we were left trying to catch up with everything that was happening. Crystal was three at the time we started the company. Before that, I was often at home. After, I just didn’t have the same amount of time. We employed a full-time nanny, and she basically replaced us—only she didn’t. Not really. Crystal started acting out and doing things to get our attention. We responded by buying her anything she wanted.”

And by doing so, they had rewarded bad behavior and became guilty of neglect. All this by the two people who should have made Crystal the priority in their lives. And maybe the physical abuse hadn’t come from the parents, but rather the nanny. Before she could ask about the woman, Henry spoke.

“Crystal got in with some kids at school who loved doing drugs and drinking. At twelve.” Henry stopped there and rubbed his jaw. “Who would have thought they’d start so young? I used to criticize the other kids’ parents, but after Crystal disappeared, I realized how hypocritical I had been. After all, as Leila said, it wasn’t like we were around for our girl. Crystal even got herself hauled in by the cops. I talked them out of laying any charges.”

“Like you’re a hero.” Leila rolled her eyes.

Again, Amanda noted how he’d used the word “disappeared.” It was like he still wasn’t willing to accept responsibility for his role in Crystal running away. “Why did the cops bring her in?”

“She was caught smoking weed. It could have been worse,” Leila said.

“Worse?” Henry snapped back. “She was twelve, Leila.”

Leila shook her head. The tension in the room was tangible.

“You mentioned that Crystal had started acting out once the nanny came into the picture?” Amanda asked, hoping to regain control of the conversation.

“It started with her talking back to her teachers and picking fights with other kids,” Henry said.

“Was that how she broke her left arm?” Amanda asked.

Leila looked at Henry. Her brows down, lips pressed.

“Crystal never broke any bones,” Leila said. “I would have remembered that. Does that mean that this girl you found isn’t Crystal?” Her voice cracked.

“But why would this girl—if it’s not Crystal—have her pin?” Henry’s forehead compressed, and a deep groove formed between his eyes as he looked at Amanda for an explanation.