Edith was flustered. “I don’t really have time for all that—I have to make my shift at the hospital.”
“Then we can send you photos. Do we have your email address?”
She handed Reyes a business card. “You can use the one on here,” she said.
Reyes paused, let the discomfort ease in. “I think that’s everything.”
Nic touched her arm softly. “Thank you for coming all this way.”
“Well, you know how to reach me—if you have any questions. Or if this helps you find your mother. I didn’t come forward because of the money, but I’m sure you’ll let me know if this information turns out to be useful.”
Of course, Nic thought. There was nothing pure in this world.
Reyes answered. “We’ll let you know.”
They started to turn away from one another, but then Nic remembered the question her father had asked her.
“Hey—one last thing.”
Edith smiled, but she seemed nervous as she glanced between Nic and Reyes.
“How did you get my number?”
She shrugged, again looking between the two of them. It was an easy question. The answer should have rolled off her tongue.
It was Reyes who answered. “Was it Mrs. Urbansky?”
“Is that the woman at the police department?”
“Yes,” Nic said.
“Right. That’s it. Sorry. That’s not an easy name to remember.”
They said their goodbyes. Edith Moore left. Nic and Reyes got back in his car.
“What was that about?” Nic asked. “The way you grilled her.”
Reyes drove back onto Hastings Pass, heading into town.
“She’s lying. She never went to New York. She was never driving home.”
“Maybe she was at the casino. Maybe she didn’t want her boyfriend to know. She said she lives with him, right?” Nic threw out scenarios but they sounded unlikely, even to her.
Reyes hit the gas harder.
“Look—I don’t want to dick you around like everyone else. This woman is lying. Her E-ZPass records show her on the New York State Thruway the day before the storm, getting off at the exit that leads to Route 7. It’s not the fastest way to the casino. Only thing that makes sense is that she was headed right here, to Hastings, coming from the north, not the south. She must have spent the night.”
“Then someone in this town knows her.”
Reyes continued. “If she’s the reason you came back here and started looking again, and if you do find your mother, she’ll get the money even if there was no truck. It won’t matter—she brought you back.”
Nic had considered this. “But then why make up the story about the truck? It would only lead me in a wrong direction, further away from finding my mother. Further away from her getting the money. Why not just say she saw my mother—and I know she did because of what she said—about my mother’s purse with the letters.”
Reyes considered this. “So maybe there is a truck with a broken taillight.”
They were back at the inn. Nic reached for the door handle, then stopped.
“You really think she was in Hastings? That she was with someone here the night before the storm, before she left for home?”
