Then I looked at his girlfriend, at Brenda whatever. I watched how she moved and spoke and pouted. And I began to understand. She was the new Emma. It was hard then to zoom out the way Witt could. I wanted to stop everyone right there and yell,That’s it? All of it was for nothing? We went through all of that when there was a new Emma right around the corner?I didn’t know if I could stop myself. I took in air and then pushed it down into my lungs. I pushed it down until it hurt and my head started to get dizzy.
When we had exhausted the more difficult parts of my story, Hunter leaned into the sofa, his hands laced together, and pressed against the back of his head. “And you never found out who the father was? If it happened in June, I bet it was some prick she met in Paris. We should sue the camp. That’s what we should do. Get their insurance to pay out.”
He nodded in agreement with himself. Then he continued.
“Jesus Christ, Cass. I can’t believe this happened to you. I’m so sorry. I’ve thought so many times that maybe I could have helped prevent whatever it was that led to your disappearing. I guess I was wrong to think that.”
I shrugged. “You couldn’t have done anything.”
“I know. Now I know.”
Mr. Martin spoke then, for the first time since we’d sat down for tea. “No one could have done anything about this. Emma had a head of steel. She did what she wanted and no one stopped her. We all loved her for that. But it got her into trouble… right? And more than a few times.”
I wanted to break his face open with my teacup at that moment. He knew nothing about my sister except what he stole while he was spying on her in the basement with his degenerate son who was now so perfect with his fancy job and his pretty girlfriend. I wished in that moment Dr. Winter had stayed. She would have seen right through all of them!
I did not break his face with my teacup. Instead, Iused my words… the way they taught us at our fancy school. “Why don’t we all just keep working to find her? Then we’ll know, won’t we? We’ll all know what could have been done to save her.”
Mrs. Martin looked at Mr. Martin. She seemed unnerved. She opened her eyes wide the way people do when they’re trying to send an unspoken message that someone in the room is out of line. I suppose that person was me, and it made me feel better. I wanted to be out of line. I wanted them to wonder what I would do and, for once, fear that it would be out of their control.
I excused myself and went upstairs to lie down. They were all whispering about me once I’d left the room. But I could hear the murmur.
When I cleared my head and calmed my anger, I thought about Hunter and the way he had held me and not wanted to let go. I considered the possibility that he had missed me. That he had cared for me more than I’d thought. But then the truth came rushing in and I smiled when I felt it. Knowing it felt good because it was true.
He had thought his past had vanished along with his sisters that night three years ago. And now one of us had returned. He was holding me not because he was happy I was home. He was holding me because somewhere inside his dark mind, he thought he could make me vanish all over again.
TEN
Dr. Winter
On the second day of Cass Tanner’s return, the Martin house was in a state of chaos. Or maybe that was just what it felt like to Abby.
Media trucks lined the street. Patrol cars blocked the driveway. Two field agents sat at the dining room table with equipment that could trace a call from the landline if Emma called—or the Pratts, for that matter. There was always the possibility of a ransom. Unlikely—but what if they did call and nothing had been done to prepare? Just like the disappearance three years before, there was no protocol that fit this case, and to Abby, it all seemed cobbled together. Chaos inside and out.
Leo was waiting for her in the living room. He was alone. “Hey,” he said. Abby could see the concern on his face.
She’d woken up on her kitchen floor, sitting upright, the dog still in her lap, not more than two hours gone by. She’d gotten up and gone through her files, but it was not good, not sleeping. And now it was starting to show on her face.
“Come and sit down, kiddo.” He handed her coffee in a papercup poured from a paper box someone had picked up at a doughnut shop.
Abby took the coffee and inhaled deeply near the rim. “So nothing from the physical exam? Is she on any meds?” she asked.
Leo nodded. “Small doses of Xanax. We just got the sketches done. We’ll have copies in an hour. Soil analysis from Cass’s shoes turned up shale and limestone. Consistent with coastal Maine.”
“Where is she?”
“Upstairs with her babysitter,” he answered sarcastically.
Abby smiled. “And the husband? Owen? They’re not here?”
“Jonathan Martin went to the store. Owen went to see his son. Delivering the story in person, I suspect. Not the kind of thing you do on the phone.”
Abby felt irritated, impatient. “Are we doing this?”
“She’ll be down. I told her you were on the way,” Leo said calmly.
“We need the rest of the story, Leo. Start to finish. I don’t have a handle on these people yet. Or Emma, for that matter.”
“Okay. I hear you.”
