“Mom, where is she? She didn’t die in a shark attack. I don’t believe that for a second. I don’t know what happened to her. I want to find out.”
“Stan has been in this family for seven years. Can you really be certain Evie married such a...?” Her voice trailed off, and tears ran down her face.
Lainie could barely speak. “I’m considering the whole picture. At the very least, Stan has some explaining to do.”
Archie stood and ran both hands over his face. “If you find Stan, will you arrest him?” he asked Shea.
“We’ll have warrants to search his home and place of business soon, and we want to talk to him.”
“Is it possible this woman you mentioned, this Benton, coerced him in some way?”
Lainie held her breath, not surprised her brother would ask such a question. Archie had a soft heart; he always saw the best in people.
“Right now, anything is possible. Our goal is to talk to both Stan and Crystal and find out what exactly happened,” Hugh Collins explained.
“Do you know where she is yet?” Lainie asked.
Shea shook his head. “The Feds are trying to track her down.” He and Collins left after a few more minutes and asked to be notified if Stan came to the house before they found him.
With moist eyes, Archie touched Lainie’s arm. “I don’t want to believe Stan could hurt Evie.”
“But where is Evie?” Her voice threatened to break—she hated the fact that this was the foremost question. “Why did he lie about the shark attack?”
“This breaks my heart, Lainie. Everything points to a horrible truth.” Her mother sniffled and blew her nose. “What are we going to tell the boys?”
Lainie didn’t have an answer.
She left shortly after Shea and Collins, feeling as wrung out as a microfiber towel just squeezed tight in a vise. It was late by the time Lainie got home. Tired and emotionally drained, she took a quick shower and then tried to go to sleep.
Her phone rang, and it was Mike. “Hey, partner.”
“Are you back in LB?”
“I am. I keep praying I’ll wake up and find that the last couple of days were simply a bad dream. Yet the nightmare continues.”
“Anything I can do for you?”
“Pray we find out the truth.”
“Got it,” Mike said. “I talked to Bobby Shea. He’s sharp. He’ll get to the bottom of things.”
“I trust him. I just can’t believe this whole situation.”
“It’s crazy, no doubt.”
“Sorry about leaving you with the whole workload,” Lainie said.
“Not a problem. Take as much time off as you need. If I can help with anything, let me know.”
“Actually, there was one thing. Can you find out what happened to Bucshon?”
“The little wife beater?”
“Yeah, I met the FBI agent who took him away from us. The agent was in Hawaii. He said he didn’t get anything they could use from the guy. If you can talk to him—just to find out exactly how close he was to Vine and if he knew Crystal Benton, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks, Mike, I owe you.”
