Little Lost Angel Read Online Free PDF Page B

hadn’t figured on the boy bringing two male friends with him, however, and one of the boys knew about a party where Kristie could find some cocaine. Melinda was upset about the change in plans, but Kristie persuaded her that the night was still young and there’d be plenty of time to abduct Amanda—after they got high.
    They drove to an older boy’s apartment. Melinda was not interested in doing any drugs, as she wanted to keep her head clear for her confrontation with Amanda. Kristie didn’t have any money, so she paid for her cocaine by having sex with one of the boys. It wasn’t the first time she’d worked such an exchange. The innocent-looking young girl was strung out on the drug and would, a few weeks later, be checked into a detox center by her mother. As the hours dragged on, Melinda became impatient and started begging Kristie to leave, who by this time was also angry. The high just didn’t feel right, and she suspected that the cocaine was bogus, a mixture of baking soda and speed.
    Finally they all left the party and drove to Amanda’s house. Kristie went around to Amanda’s window and knocked but there was no rousing the fourteen-year-old, who was now in a deep sleep.
    The whole plan had been screwed up because Kristie couldn’t keep her nose clean. Melinda vowed to herself that the next time she’d choose her accomplices more carefully. And the next time the victim wouldn’t be Amanda. It would be Shanda.

3

    S handa’s physical relationship with Amanda was still a secret from Shanda’s parents, but they had begun to suspect that something was not right with their daughter.
    “Shanda used to spend hours in the bathroom fixing her hair,” said Shanda’s stepmother, Sharon Sharer. “I’d have to tell her to quit spraying all the hair spray because everything in the bathroom would be lacquered up. All of a sudden she didn’t care about her hair anymore. She didn’t care about her clothes, either. She started dressing like Amanda, wearing flannel shirts and baggy old pants.”
    Jacque was also concerned about the changes in appearance, but Shanda’s older sister, Paije, assured her mother that it was just a phase. “Mom, leave her alone,” Paije said. “All the kids dress that way.”
    But Shanda’s taste in clothing wasn’t the only thing that had changed. She became withdrawn. Her bubbly personality was replaced by a sluggish detachment. After making the basketball team, she began to complain about going to practice and eventually quit the team. Jacque encouraged her to go out for the swim team, but Shanda would have nothing to do with it.
    “Shanda, you love sports,” Jacque said one night. “Why don’t you want to go out for anything?”
    “I’m just not into it anymore,” Shanda said, then immediately changed the subject.
    Jacque said later, “It was like I saw her dwindling. She went from this robust child that could never do enough, to this child that didn’t even want to talk. That would close the door to her room and not come out all night. She changed completely within a matter of a month. I tried to get her to go outside and meet the kids in the neighborhood, but she wouldn’t. It was like she was hiding from everything, like she was ashamed of everything. I can look back now and see that, but at the time I knew something was wrong but I didn’t know what.”
    Shanda seldom seemed to have much homework, explaining, in response to her mother’s questioning, that her teachers rarely gave take-home assignments. As the school year progressed, Jacque began to wonder why her daughter hadn’t yet received a progress report.
    One day in late October, while Shanda was at school, Jacque’s worries got the best of her. She went into Shanda’s room and found a note written by Amanda, instructing Shanda how to forge her mother’s name on a detention slip. Jacque immediately called the school. She was told that Shanda had been placed in detention numerous times since her