“If you say so,” she says skeptically, eyes still on Broadway.
“Doyouknowanythingabout what happened to my mom?” I ask. “I mean, isn’t that the way this is generally supposed to work? You find out things and tell us?”
She nods. “Well, let’s see, the blood we found is a match for your mom’s type. DNA will take longer. But more than a reasonable likelihood that the blood is hers, as we suspected. And the fingerprints on the glass aren’t in the system, unfortunately. I’m not surprised, but you always hope you’ll get lucky. We can take comparative fingerprints from anyone we interview who develops into a suspect. They’re still running you and your dad’s DNA comparison. You know, for completeness.” But was there an edge to the way she said that about my dad? I’m not sure. “Your mom’s friend here, Lauren Pasternak, tell you anything useful?”
Of course she knows I was there to see Lauren. We’re only steps from her apartment, an address the detective has probably already come across in the investigation. Still, I feel unsettled. Maybe she’s suspicious of me, too. Confessing about messaging my mom’s dates doesn’t seem like a great idea now. But there may be a work-around.
“My mom was on some dating site called Hitch. All these guys … I mean, who knows who they are?”
“That’s unusual for a married couple,” she says.
I shrug, but I don’t meet her eyes. “I didn’t know they were separated. But you must by now. His clothes were all gone.”
She nods. “We did notice that. What did your dad tell you?”
“That it was no one’s fault. That nothing was set in stone.” I turn to look at her now. I want her to know that I’m not an idiot. “He didn’t exactly tell me about the separation on his own. He only told me after I asked him directly about his clothes. But it was apparently my mom’s idea to keep it secret.” I sound like I’m defending him. “She was trying to protect me, I guess, which does sound like something she would do.”
Detective Wilson nods again, waits for me to return her gaze. “We can look into the online dating. But with these kinds of … It’s almost always someone well known to the victim.”
“Victim,” I repeat, like saying the word aloud might keep it at bay.
“Of something, that’s all I mean,” she says, more gently now. “Only of something.”
She thinks my mom is dead, though—it’s the first time it sinks in. But I need her to stay focused on finding my momalive.Because I know she’s still out there. And she could be running out of time.
“It does seem like your parents were a little further along the divorce path than maybe your dad told you. According to your neighbor, Janine, your dad has a divorce lawyer who’s going after some kind of inheritance.”
“What?”
“You’re surprised?”
“No, I mean, that’s wrong,” I say. “I don’t know where Janine heard that, but she’s wrong. He wants to work things out.”
“Your mom told her.”
“My mom?” I ask. “They’re not even friends anymore.”
“According to Janine, your mom was surprised and upset about this lawyer being brought in. Could have been it resultedin some kind of moment of conflict between her and your dad. One thing led to another, things got out of hand.”
I blink quickly to head off the tears. My throat already feels scratchy. “I don’t think so.”
I think of his affair with Bella. I couldn’t imagine what Detective Wilson would conclude if she knew about that.
“You should know—your dad did callmewith some information.” Detective Wilson is looking at me now in a way I really don’t like. Like she feels sorry for me.
“He did?”
“He told me thatyouand your mom had a bit of a tough relationship.Volatile,I believe that’s the word he used.”
The word rings in my ears.Volatile?
“Okay,” I say, because it’s clear she’s waiting for me to respond. Obviously, my dad was not trying to point the finger at me, even if that’s exactly what he did. There has to be a reason he told the detective that. Or a context to his comments that she’s not sharing.
“He specifically mentioned some recent conflict over a boy,” she goes on. “He didn’t get into details. That ring any bells?”
I grip the side of the bench. He told adetectiveaboutKyle? Is he trying to get me arrested?
“What kind of conflict?” I ask, fishing gently. I need to know exactly how much he told her.
