Undiscovered Gyrl: The novel that inspired the movie ASK ME ANYTHING (Vintage Contemporaries) (24 page)

Dear Readers:

My name is Carol Grantham. I am the mother of Amy Grantham, whom you know as Katie Kampenfelt. Five days ago, within an hour of her last entry, at around 7:00 p.m., Amy got in her car, drove away, and never returned. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Everyone who loves Amy is sick with worry. Local police, as well as a private detective whom I have hired, are currently investigating her disappearance. We know very little so far
except that Amy has not withdrawn any money from her bank account, used her cell phone, or attempted to use her credit card, which was given to her for emergencies.

Like many young women, Amy is imaginative to the extreme, as well as enormously secretive. In this blog she changed not only her own name but the names of everyone with whom she came into contact. This has made the investigation of her disappearance difficult.

If any of you exchanged e-mails or phone calls with Amy in which she confided anything that might help us to locate her, please write to me at this website. I am offering a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to the discovery of her whereabouts.

No matter what you think of my daughter, I can assure you that she is a wonderful girl. A person of remarkable spirit, intelligence, humor, beauty, and courage. If you know anything that might help us to find her, please contact me at once. Yours truly, Carol Grantham

Dear Readers:

First, let me thank you for your letters of support. I know that Amy would be touched by your outpouring of concern. To those of you who write only to inflict pain, I beg you to stop. Please show some compassion.

In the week since I last wrote to you, a great deal of time has been devoted to questioning each and every person mentioned in this blog, in the hopes that one or more of them might hold the key to Amy’s disappearance. We began with the people who knew her best. It was not difficult to find the boy whom you know as Rory. Amy’s boyfriend has been a fixture in our home, on and off, since they began dating last year. We know from a review of Amy’s phone records that the call which Amy received while posting her final blog was from him. We were curious as to whether he would tell us this fact without being prompted. He did. He said that he called her the night she disappeared to apologize for his angry outburst. He claims that while he had lost his temper with her on many occasions, he has never shaken or struck her. He confirmed his affair with “Jade.” Our investigator asked how long they had spoken on that final night and he said ten minutes. Phone records show that, in reality, they spoke for thirty-eight. It remains to be seen if this discrepancy is meaningful.

This phone call was not, in fact, Amy’s last. Phone records show that two minutes after she hung up with Rory, she received another call on her landline, this one from a blocked caller. The call lasted less than two minutes. Approximately ten minutes later, Amy left the house without saying good-bye. Who placed this final phone call? Why did Amy leave the house in such a hurry?

Our investigator could find no one in the area teaching film history who matched the description or particulars of “Dan
Gallo.” Through a combination of good police work and blind luck, we eventually discovered the real Dan, who is the day manager of a local video store.

Given a chance to read Amy’s blog for the first time, he confirmed that the substance of their relationship as described was true, but he claimed never to have received a phone call from her about the possibility that he might be the father of her unborn child. He said that if he had, he would not have hung up on her. He said that the last time they spoke was five or six nights before her disappearance when she called him at work. He had told her many times never to call him there. Annoyed, he told her that he would call her back as soon as he could. He never did.

The local couple who hired Amy to be their nanny, the “Spooners,” confirm all of the facts of this blog except the most important one. The husband denies any improper sexual relations with Amy. We have no way of disputing this. We are urging local authorities to obtain a search warrant.

Amy’s former tutor, “Joel Seidler,” was not difficult to find, as Amy did not bother to change his last name. He says that her disappearance has devastated him. He is also burdened by a terrible feeling of guilt, because their last contact (the voice mail he left) was so unfriendly. His mother claims that he has never shown a history of violence toward anyone but himself.

Our investigator spoke to “Jade,” but found her in a very bad state due to obvious drug abuse. She confirmed that she and
Amy had not been in contact for months, but denied ever having had a sexual or romantic relationship with Rory.

We still have not been able to track down “Nick Dempster.” On each day that Amy claims he left her a voice mail, she did indeed receive at least one phone call from a blocked caller ID. Is this the same blocked caller who contacted Amy the night she disappeared? We have no way of knowing.

Which brings us to “Glenn A. Warburg.” While he confirms the truth of all of the early incidents Amy relates, he claims that he never saw or spoke to her again after she left his employ. Which would mean that everything which took place afterwards was a complete fabrication. We have found no record of Amy having received an abortion under her own name at any clinic within two hundred miles of here. While Mr. Warburg’s home has no free-standing garage, there is an empty guest bedroom.

I beg you once more for your help. If any of you exchanged e-mails or phone calls with Amy in which she confided anything that might shed some light on her whereabouts, please write to me here. Your help will be kept strictly confidential. There is now a $50,000 reward for any information leading to the discovery of Amy. Again thank you for your prayers and good wishes.

Yours truly, Carol Grantham

p.s. To those of you who continue to send hateful and threatening e-mails filled with contempt for my daughter and ridicule
of me, I beg you once again to stop. From now on your letters will be turned over to the police.

Dear Readers:

Again I want to thank those of you who have taken the time to write to me, not only to express sympathy and genuine concern but to offer help. I cannot tell how much I appreciate it. While most of your help so far has been in the form of conjecture and speculation (much of it quite shrewd), we are still hopeful that one of you might have something more concrete to offer.

Many of you have written with suspicions in regard to the man you know as “Mr. Silaggi.” In the days after Amy’s disappearance, I called the last phone number I had for the “Silaggis” and there was no answer. Yesterday our investigator tracked them down to a retirement community in Green Valley, Arizona. I just hung up with their daughter and would like to share with you what I have learned.

Amy’s letter was forwarded to them in Arizona. Since “Mr. Silaggi” is legally blind and no longer reads his own mail, his wife (I will call her “Elsa”) read it aloud to him. Needless to say, she was appalled. “Mr. Silaggi” denied Amy’s allegations, insisting that she was either crazy or a liar or both. This might very well have been the end of it, except that Elsa had the good sense to call their daughter and tell her of Amy’s accusations.
Elsa’s daughter (whom I have met just once or twice) called me tonight to say that she believes Amy’s accusations. In fact, she is certain they are true. She only wishes that she herself had shown such courage.

I doubt that “Mr. Silaggi” had anything to do with the disappearance of my daughter, but I am proud that Amy had the strength of character to confront him. I am sorry that she had to go through this trauma alone. I wish she had come to me. Yours truly, Carol Grantham

This morning the decomposed remains of a young female were discovered a hundred miles away, in a stream at a local forest preserve. Amy’s dental records are on their way to the coroner’s office.

Pray there is no match.

Since Amy’s disappearance, on nights when I cannot sleep, I read and reread this blog. I read your letters, even the cruelest ones. I ask myself who would want to hurt my daughter. I hear the answer: almost anyone.

Amy is my heart, my whole life. I cannot imagine that I will never see her again.