“Did she tell you where she was headed?”
“No,” Sara says, shaking her head. “I’m sorry—she didn’t tell me a thing. And honestly… I don’t think she knew herself.”
Disappointment sours through me. Another dead end.
So close and yet so far away.
How much longer will I be chasing a ghost?
And then I remember something.
“She didn’t have a car, did she?”
Sara frowns and thinks about it. “No, she didn’t,” she remembers. “I guess she took the bus out of town.”
I nod. “Thank you,” I tell the girl as I move past her towards the exit.
“Wait!” Sara calls out after me.
I glance behind me.
“If you find her, tell her…” She swallows hard, straightens up tall as if to psyche herself up, and then finishes, “Tell her I think of her every day.”
I nod solemnly. “So do I.”
Then I head for the bus station.