Page 71 of Is Anyone Listening?
I shook my head in bemusement. "I don't think I could have let my child disappear like that and have absolutely no contact. I feel like you're leaving something out."
"We've talked enough about the past. Let's discuss the present and the future. You should go home, Cassidy. Your life isn't here." She paused, tilting her head as she gave me a speculative look. "Does your father know you're here?"
"No. We're not that close."
"Does he know about your podcast?"
"I mentioned it when we first started it, but I don't think he was listening. He just said it sounded like a foolish waste of time. He was often disappointed in me. Ironic, since his father was disappointed in him. Knowing what that felt like, he should have acted differently."
"If David never wanted you to come here, to know me, to learn about his past, then you should respect his wishes and go home."
"I had more than one reason for coming here, and you know that."
"There's nothing to find here, Cassidy. There is no crime."
"If there's nothing to find, then why did someone try to kill me last night?"
"Tom said that you probably got spooked by the road and a fast driver behind you."
"Finn saw the other car. It's not just my word being questioned. And I don't know why the sheriff is so determined to make up an alternative story for my accident. Just like he's so determined to force everyone to believe that the women who stayed here and were never seen again just chose to leave and disappear. I don't think that's what happened." I paused, unable to read her very guarded gaze.
"It is what happened," she said. "And Anna didn't disappear. I walked her to the door, and a friend picked her up."
"Before dawn? Why so early?"
"It was when her friend arrived."
"Anna had bruises on her body. She was scared, jumpy."
"She'd gotten away from an abusive situation," Ellen said. "And I was happy to put her safely in her friend's car."
"Who's the friend? Can I talk to her? Can I talk to Anna, confirm she's safe?"
"Anna didn't want anyone to know where she was going in case her past caught up to her. There are reasons people choose to disappear, Cassidy. Did you ever consider that you might be jeopardizing their safety by publicly talking about all this?"
"Did you ever consider that something bad happened to them either here at the inn or just after they left?" I countered.
"There's never been any evidence of that."
I was getting really tired of that line. "Everyone keeps saying that, but maybe there is no evidence because no one wanted to look for any. I understand that the sheriff wants to protect the reputation of the town, and I'm sure you feel the same way about this inn. But I would also think you would care enough about these women to want to find out what happened to them."
"I care about all my guests. But this is an inn. People come and go every single day. I don't know where they go. I can't go looking for everyone."
"How about just Natalie? How about we just focus on her? Or maybe on Natalie and Jessica."
"Jessica lost her life because she took a boat out without having enough experience to deal with the changing ocean conditions, and Natalie simply left. If she disappeared after that, it's because she wanted to start over. No one at the inn had anything to do with either of those events. There's nothing bad going on here."
"Nothing bad? I almost died last night," I repeated. "And Tessa thinks someone pushed her down the stairs."
"That absolutely did not happen. I can vouch for every one of my employees."
"You know someone put a note under our door telling us to leave. What about that?"
"I explained about the teenagers."
"Yes. You have a lot of explanations, but I think you're wrong about the note, about the car, and maybe about Tessa."
"Your friend was drunk."
