Free Tell My Dad by Ram Muthiah Page B

pleaded with her eyes.
    “Okay. I’ll listen to you. Go on.” He sat down and ran his fingers down the rope attached to the couch.
    She looked at him with teary eyes. “My name is Teresa. I am in seventh grade. I am the only daughter of my parents. I volunteer in Belmont library. I am a singer—”
    He raised his right hand. “I don’t want to hear all this bullshit.”
    “Please listen. I have a choir performance in Notre Dame Church in two days. I have to practice. It’s for God. I sing for God.” She paused for a second. “You do believe in God, right? Please let me go. I will pray for you. Please …”
    He sat cross-legged, raised his chin up, and grinned. “ You pray for me? Huh!” He shook his head back and forth. “Let me tell you something, little girl. There ain’t no God!”
    Teresa sniffled. She pushed both palms together and fixed her gaze on him. Her eyes begged for mercy. She remembered the lyrics from the song she had been practicing in choir, “You bind us up when we’re broken,” and the lyrics gave her strength.
    You bind us up when we’re broken in body and heart;
    You fill us up when we’re empty; Your nature imparts
    Perfect wisdom and guidance for life’s many tests;
    Perfect comfort and healing and promise of rest,
    Perfect comfort and healing and promise of rest.

Chapter 16
    A gent Theaker controlled his anger . “Mr. Goldberg, we are doing everything we can to find your daughter. Right now, our entire force is on this case. Please work with us to help you.”
    Gabriella held her husband’s arm tightly and made him sit down. Bill Goldberg looked up and cried, “We moved here because we thought this would be a safe place. We believed in cops taking care of our safety. Our neighborhood is supposed to be safe—” He felt the heavy pain in his chest. Gabriella gently squeezed his hands.
    Bill Goldberg took a deep breath, looked at Theaker, and sobbed. “Teresa is my only daughter. Please find her.”
    Theaker pulled out a chair and sat directly in front of Bill. “Mr. Goldberg, we want to narrow down our focus to find your daughter quickly. Do you have any enemies at work?”
    He shook his head. “No. I can’t think of any.”
    “Did you fire anyone recently?”
    “No.”
    “Did any of you notice strange behavior with Teresa’s schoolmates, friends in this complex, or anything that struck you as unusual?”
    Bill shook his head. His tears continued to run down to his throat. He pulled a napkin from the coffee table and wiped the tears away. “You have to trust me on this. You are wasting time. Teresa wouldn’t run away. She is a happy child. She looks forward to every day. She is our reason to live. Her friends are very decent kids. No one gets into trouble. Some sick bastard took our daughter away. Please go and find her instead of asking me all these questions. You have no idea what we are going through.”
    Theaker fixed his gaze on Bill. “Actually, I do…” He paused before adding, “We have FBI agents and the CARD team working round the clock. We placed a nationwide Amber Alert. Even if the bad guys move to a different state, we will still find them.”
    He watched Bill sniffling and nodding without saying a word. He gave a silent nod to Detective King, walked out of the living room, and issued a series of instructions to the assistant special agents waiting in the hallway.

    * * *
    H arrison’s phone beeped with the Amber Alert at three minutes past eight o’clock. He moved his shopping cart out of the way and checked the text message on his phone. A twelve-year-old girl had been kidnapped in Belmont. His head started hurting badly just like every time he saw the Amber Alert. He abandoned the cart and walked out of the Safeway store, which was located at the corner of Ralston and Alameda. He heard the sirens in the distance.
    The sirens grew louder. An ambulance sped through the intersection and took a left on Alameda. Two police cars followed the ambulance