She’d decided after talking to the police that it had been an unfortunate accident. The tourist was likely to come forward any minute and apologize.
“The road is narrow,”the officer who had come by said.“There is no sidewalk, just dirt close to the asphalt. Often people are not paying attention.”
To Lainie that sounded plausible.
“The car hit you?” her father asked.
“Sort of. I moved, she grazed me, and I fell into some rocks. Give me some time to change and clean up.”
She went to the bathroom to check out the damage herself. She’d scraped her right arm and chin, just enough to draw blood but nothing serious. Little bits of lava rock were stuck in her arm. She washed it out. Thankfully the bleeding had stopped. But she would have some angry red marks on her for a while, and her hip was sore. Lainie was glad the kids had alerted her to the Jeep’s presence. It would have been bad if the vehicle hit her full-on. Once she cleaned up and changed her clothes, she went back to where her father was.
Stan was now in the room, his bags packed.
“You’re leaving?”
“I am. There is nothing else I can do here. The boys need me.”
Lainie stared at him, angry but not sure why. Therewasnothing else Stan could do here. Nothing at all.
“We Facetimed the boys,” Dad said. His eyes were red, and that broke Lainie’s heart.
“They took the news hard. Stan wants to get back and so do I.”
Lainie stared at her father. “You’ve given up.”
He stepped toward her. “Lainie, we have to face facts.” He reached his hand out and she batted it away.
“I’m staying. I’m not giving up on her. I can’t.” She pushed past her father and left the room, fighting the threatening tears. Blindly she found her way to the elevator and down to the lobby. Running, she made her way back out to the shoreline and the crushed-coral walkway.
She was alone there, and she couldn’t stop the sobs.
CHAPTER 15
By the time her father texted her that he and Stan were waiting for an Uber to take them to the airport, the sun prepared to set and Lainie had come to her senses. Everything still hurt, emotionally and physically as the scrapes on her arm and face throbbed, and everything was still raw, but she was back in control of her emotions, and she met him in the hotel lobby.
“Sorry I wigged out on you, Dad. I’m not really sure how to handle all of this.”
He smiled. “I get it, baby, I get it.” He gave her a hug. “I don’t know that either.”
She looked around her father. “Where’s Stan?”
“Bathroom. The car will be here in a few minutes.”
“You don’t mind if I stay here and keep searching, do you?”
Before he could speak, Stan walked up. “What do you think you can accomplish? You’re not a cop here.” His tone was sharp and a little snarky.
Lainie waited for a beat before she responded. “I’m going to talk to the witnesses, get my own read on what happened.”
“You can do that?”
“Yamada said he’d send me the report.”
“Why don’t you just leave it alone?” he snapped. “She’s gone. You can’t bring her back.”
“I can’t let it go.”
For a second, they glared at one another. Lainie knew that everyone handled grief differently. As Stan’s anger incensed her, she realized she had her own anger problem. She had no pity or compassion for him at that moment. He was showing a side she’d never seen, and she didn’t like it any more than any of the other sides she’d already seen. All she could think was, what did Evie ever see in him?
