I turned and looked at Lukas’s red face. For the first time I noticed the heat rolling off his body. How singed and agitated he was. “What? What do you see?”
“It’s not Jeremy.”
No. That wasn’t right. No one else could be in there.
“I don’t understand.” I spun back around. Lukas’s hold had loosened. I could take a step. Get a better look.
Lukas’s voice stopped me. “It’s a woman.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Stella
I’d been trained to help people wade through the intolerable. To enter a tentative stalemate with the unimaginable. Standing at the front door to what once had been Xavier’s house, soaking in the October sunshine even as it clashed with the lingering sense of hopelessness in the air, I couldn’t think of a single word of comfort. Whatever wisdom I’d gained through my practice failed to materialize.
I came over because Hanna’s voice on the phone earlier had been rambling, incoherent. She swore about the police being useless. She cursed the waiting press and the choking smoke still hanging in the air. She blamed herself for not installing the alarms on her house earlier, though it was hard to see how they would have stopped this disaster.
Eleven restless hours had passed since the ambulance crew dragged her away from the smoke-filled scene and took her to the hospital. She refused to stay for very long. Now it was early afternoon, and she wandered the huge house in search of answers. I canceled my therapy schedule again. This time to be here. To ensure she wouldn’t walk this path alone.
Marni drove into the circular driveway behind me as the big front door opened. Without a word, Hanna stood there. She looked ragged and worn. Hair escaping her ponytail. Wearing jeans and sneakers still marked with streaks of ash and soot.
I knew what she’d been doing—not showering but searching. I also knew it wouldn’t help.
“There’s nothing... I...” She shook her head as if the right words refused to come out.
“I know.” I’d watched the news. Lukas filled me in on the unreleased information he knew.
He’d stumbled over the tragic fire during one of his strange late-night jogs to clear his head. He’d been several streets away when he smelled fire and switched directions to check it out.
For as long as I’d known him, he’d run whenever pressure built up and he couldn’t release it. Some weeks it was the only way he could sleep. He insisted the night air helped him concentrate and relax. I blamed Aubrey’s reappearance for his current bout of stress-induced insomnia.
Describing Hanna’s state, her emotional disintegration, took a toll. Lukas had been shaken by what he saw and lacked his usual confidence. He sounded haunted. Looking at Hanna’s drawn face now, I understood why.
But that wasn’t the worst. That wasn’t the news that dragged Hanna down, pummeling her until her energy bled into the hard ground. Her baby boy, now a man, was gone.
Jeremy Sato had vanished.
Like Tanner family members before him, he wasn’t where heshould be. Couldn’t be reached. Hadn’t bothered to call. No keys. No wallet. No messages. No car. No texts. No sign he’d contacted anyone.
The café had caught on fire. Fire trucks rushed to the scene. An ambulance whisked two women to the hospital. But no Jeremy.
Another devastating Tanner family fire.
Even in his anger, if Jeremy thought his mom needed him, he would have been there. I’d seen their bond, that dynamic, firsthand.
Skipping the welcomes and the small talk, Hanna turned and walked into the house, leaving the door open for us to follow. Her steps dragged. Her shoulders stooped as if pulled down by invisible weights.
“Any news?” Marni whispered the question to me the second we stepped into the grand foyer with the carved wooden ceiling and wood-paneled walls. An impressive staircase twisted up on our left, winding its way to the upper floors. In front of us, a large open area anchored by a massive marble fireplace and a grand piano no one ever played greeted us.
Xavier’s presence lingered here. The opulence. The formality of it.
“Lukas drove to Jeremy’s school. Filled in the administration. Talked to Jeremy’s roommate.” I spit back in a low voice every piece of information Lukas had passed on. “No one has seen or heard from Jeremy, and his car isn’t there. They checked the security tapes and don’t think he went back last night.”
“At least he wasn’t in the fire. Only one body,” Marni said.
Hanna nodded. “Daniela is still in a coma.”
The news had the whole town reeling. Daniela was a fixture.She maneuvered her way around the café, reluctantly accepting compliments as if they embarrassed her. Hanna owned the place. She was the heart. The friendly, outward face. But Daniela provided the structure. Every local knew who made the delicious food we all craved because Hanna was Daniela’s loudest cheerleader.
