by Willow Rose
That made the figure smile.
“That’s my girl.”
The figure leaned forward, grabbed her chin, and placed a kiss on her lips. It made her want to gag, but she suppressed it. The figure looked deep into her eyes and gently stroked her face while Sarah struggled not to whimper in fear.
Chapter 17
I drove up the small, quaint street. The stores and restaurants on each side of Park Avenue were packed with people. It was a nice day out, temperatures in the mid-seventies, and sunny. It was a classic February day, with crisp air and clear skies above. To me, that was when Florida was at its best.
“Are you sure she grew up in Winter Park?” Scott asked nervously next to me in the minivan. He looked out at the sidewalk cafés and people strolling in and out of the stores, then turned to face me. His hair had grown a little long in front and fell onto his forehead in a way that framed his eyes cutely. I stared at him, feeling myself get lost for a second, then looked away.
“It just…it doesn’t match up with anything she told me,” he continued. “She said she was from Athens, Ohio.”
I searched for a parking spot along the street, but they all seemed to be occupied. I spotted a couple as they walked up to their car, looking like they were about to leave, and I decided to wait.
“I know, Scott,” I said, putting on the blinker to signal that I wanted their parking spot once they left. “I know that’s what she told you, but this is what the case file said. This is where she grew up, right outside of Orlando, and this is where her family still lives.”
“But why?” he said. “Why would she lie about that? And why haven’t I met any of them? If they were here the entire time? Just an hour away?”
I exhaled, hoping these people would hurry up and leave. I didn’t have all day. I had left Matt alone with two babies while I did this for Scott, and he wasn’t happy about it. It had been two weeks, and still, we hadn’t found Amy. She had left that day when Owen cried so helplessly, and no one knew where she was. I was terrified she might have harmed herself, so I involved Matt and Chief Annie in the search. Still, it was like she had vanished from the face of the earth.
Meanwhile, her baby needed her, and I was getting worn out from having to take care of two infants simultaneously. Luckily, Owen had responded well to the bottle and slept better now. Still, it was quite a lot for all of us and putting a strain on our little household. Matt wasn’t happy with me, even if he didn’t say it much. Frankly, he didn’t have to. I could tell by his disapproving looks when I rolled out of bed in the middle of the night to take care of a baby that wasn’t ours. But what else was I supposed to do? He thought we ought to call the Department of Children and Families, the DCF, so that they could find a foster home for Owen, but I told him I wasn’t ready to give up on Amy yet. I just needed to find her; that’s all. I was hoping she would come back on her own, but as the days passed, I felt less confident it was going to happen.
Finally, the car backed out, and the couple left. I slid into the spot and killed the engine, smiling triumphantly. I looked at my watch. We still had ten minutes before meeting with Sarah Abbey’s brother. I had contacted everyone in the family, and he was the only one who had gotten back to me after two weeks. He had agreed to meet us for brunch at The Briarpatch. It was supposed to be the best brunch in town, and I was beyond starving. Breastfeeding always made me so hungry, and while my mom and Matt both hoped it would help me shed a couple of pounds—make that fifteen to twenty—my eating habits lately hadn’t exactly carried me in that direction, I had to admit.
“Let’s find our table,” I said and walked up under the yellow awning outside the building that housed the old restaurant. The place was packed, and there was even a line outside, which was a good sign. It told me it was a sought-after place, one worth the long drive. Luckily, I had reserved a table just in case. I walked up to the guy by the entrance and told him my name.
“Thomas, three people.”
He nodded and grabbed three menus. “Right over here. Your third party has already arrived.”
Chapter 18
THEN:
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
Lynn blinked her eyes. “Sorry? What?”
Jeffrey chuckled. “You’ve literally been staring at me for like five minutes without saying a word.”
Lynn looked down at her notepad, hoping that he wouldn’t notice she blushed. “I hardly think it was that long.”
“It was. I looked at the clock just now, and it was five minutes.”
“Okay, then, I guess I was just…” Lynn trailed off. She couldn’t really tell him she had been fantasizing about him, a fantasy she had a lot lately, of him ripping off her clothes and pushing her against the wall. They had been staring into each other’s eyes, and it had felt like he was making love with her through them, penetrating her deepest inner self with his gaze. It was intoxicating.
“Where were we?”
“Are you all right, Doc? You seem a little off.”
“I’m fine. I just…well, I have a lot on my mind.”
“The hubby not giving you enough?”
Her eyes grew wide as she lifted her gaze to meet his again. “Excuse me?”
He grinned. “It’s okay. Lots of women your age don’t get enough. It’s only natural. I can help with that if you like.”
His smile was so dashing it felt crushing to her.
“You can’t say things like that,” she said. “We need to have clear boundaries on this.”
“I’m sorry. I was just joking.”
She continued, mumbling under her breath, “Besides, I’m not married.”
His eyes lit up. “You’re not? A woman like you?”
She looked down at her notepad but didn’t tell him about the boyfriend, Stan, she had been seeing for the past six years, who didn’t believe in marriage and therefore, there would never be one if she stayed with him, which she wasn’t sure she would. Especially not at this moment. Heck, they didn’t even live together. Not that Lynn wanted him to come live in her new house she had just bought. She liked her peace and quiet and being able to do whatever she wanted to whenever. She didn’t answer to anyone.
“So, you were just telling me about your new girlfriend?”
“Yes,” he said and leaned back on the couch, placing his hands behind his head, smirking. “And that’s when you dozed off and suddenly looked like you could rip my clothes off.”
She closed her eyes briefly. “You’re overstepping the boundaries again, Jeffrey; we talked about this.”
He laughed. “All right; all right. I’ll leave you alone. Yes, I told you I had met someone. Her name is Alice. I really like her. Do you want to see a picture of her?”
He pulled out his phone and turned it on, then showed the screen to her before she could tell him that, no, she actually didn’t really want to see a picture of the woman who got to go home with him at the end of the day.
“Here.”
Lynn stared at the screen, her pulse quickening. She could barely swallow. She stared at the woman with the dyed red hair, alabaster skin, and black-framed glasses on the screen.
She was the spitting image of Lynn herself.
Lynn lifted her gaze and met his while she wondered if he could see the resemblance.
“Cute, right?” he said. “Normally, I like blonde girls, but this one really stood out to me. I met her on this dating site. We’ve had a few dates, and I think she could be it, Doc. She could be the one. Don’t you think?”
Chapter 19
Bryan Abbey was a man in his mid-thirties with long brown curly hair sweeping across his shoulders as he moved and a thick brown beard. He was big and sturdy, and with his many tattoos, he came off as quite intimidating at a first impression. But as soon as he opened his mouth, that changed completely. It became quickly evident to us that he was worried about his sister and missed her greatly. His dark eyes teared up a few times as we spoke about her, and he grew silent for
long periods.
“I just don’t understand why she would leave us like that,” he said as the food had arrived and we dug in. Bryan didn’t touch his at first. His eyes remained on me, and his fingers were fiddling with the edge of his black shirt.
“One day, she was there, and the next…gone. That was three years ago now.”
“You didn’t hear from her at all?” Scott asked.
“She called me a couple of days after she left. She told me she was fine and not to worry. That’s why we never went to the police. She sent my parents a letter, explaining that she was fine and not to look for her. It broke their hearts. She left no address and no number to contact her. When our dad got sick, we had no way of letting her know. And now, it’s too late. He doesn’t remember any of us anymore. We had to place him in a nursing home.”
“That’s awful,” I said.
I shoveled in scrambled eggs like I hadn’t eaten in weeks while pondering this new information, wondering what on earth would make a young woman leave her entire family like that without any way for them to contact her.
Scott looked at me and chuckled. I blushed, feeling embarrassed. His warm gaze was still on me after I had swallowed and washed the eggs down with orange juice. I felt his eyes on me a lot when we were together, and it brought back some feelings that I wasn’t sure I wanted to let back into my heart. I lifted my gaze, and our eyes met again, making my knees go soft.
I closed my eyes briefly to shake it, then looked away.
“And then…now, a couple of weeks ago, the police contacted my mother and told her Sarah was missing. I can’t…and that’s how we find out that she was there all along? In Viera? That’s so close. We could have…” Bryan trailed off as tears once again filled his eyes. I could tell he was struggling to fight them.
“And you have no idea why she left?” I asked.
He shook his head and drank his Pepsi Max. “I have thought about it for so long. Was it her boyfriend? Was it Tommy? Or was it something between her and our parents? But I can’t put the pieces together.”
“And that Tommy, he was good to her? Could she have been running from him?” I asked.
“Tommy Waltman was a great guy. He wouldn’t lay a hand on my sister. He adored her and worshipped the ground she walked on. Sure, they had their issues. He told me later that they didn’t sleep together anymore and that he believed they were drifting apart, but that’s hardly a reason for her just to run off like that. It broke his heart. She didn’t even leave him a note. I felt so bad for him. He was my best friend.”
I looked up. “Was your best friend?”
Bryan nodded. “He died six months after she disappeared. He was struck by a car, right over there, actually.”
Bryan pointed down Park Avenue.
“On the corner down there by the Panera Bread. He was crossing the street when a car rammed into him, then drove off.”
“A hit and run?” I asked.
Bryan nodded. “I know that my sister would have wanted to say goodbye to him at least. But we couldn’t find her, so what can you do?”
I looked at Bryan, narrowing my eyes. “And the driver? The hit and run? Was the person ever found?”
Bryan shook his head. “Somewhere out there is a person with a very guilty conscience. I don’t even know how you could live with yourself after doing something like that. Even if it was an accident, you still killed someone, you know? You can’t just run from something like that.”
I couldn’t argue with that, and as we said goodbye to Bryan later on, it was all I could think about. How do you hit someone with your car and run from it, then go on living with good conscience? It had to be beyond tough—unless you did it on purpose, of course.
Chapter 20
My house was a regular warzone when I got back home. I opened the door and heard babies crying, not one, but two. Alex was screaming in the living room, yelling at his sister, Christine, while the TV was left on, some cartoon blasting loudly while no one watched. I turned it off, then told Alex and Christine to take their fight upstairs.
Matt came toward me, holding Owen on his arm. His white T-shirt had two big yellow stains on the chest; his hair was tousled and had leftover food stuck to it. I would have laughed had he not looked so profoundly destroyed. I heard Angel crying from the kitchen. Matt saw the frustration on my face as I realized my baby wasn’t being cared for.
“I already fed her,” he said, “but I had to take care of Owen too. Angel has been crying all morning.”
I hurried into the kitchen. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Bowls of cereal everywhere, milk and crumbs smeared on the counter. Meanwhile, Angel was in her Maxi-Cosi rocker chair, strapped down, crying her heart out.
“I was gone three hours, Matt,” I said. “I take care of those two babies all day long while you’re at work, and you couldn’t even do three hours?”
“That’s not fair, Eva Rae.”
I exhaled while unstrapping my child and grabbing her in my arms. She was helplessly crying while I rocked her from side-to-side until she finally calmed down. Meanwhile, Owen took over, and Matt tried to calm him, but with no luck. With Angel on my hip, I warmed milk for him and handed Matt the bottle. Owen finally calmed down, and soon Matt could put him down for a nap while I cleaned the kitchen with Angel strapped on my chest in her sling. She cried every time I tried to put her down like she was afraid I would leave her and never come back.
Matt sat on a stool and rubbed his temples. “I don’t think this is going to work, Eva Rae.”
I gave him a look. “What do you mean?”
“We can’t have two infants in the house at the same time. It’s too much. I can only carry one around at a time. I am not made for this.”
“You could have asked Olivia or Christine to help. They would be happy to hold one of them,” I said.
“I told Christine to take care of Alex,” Matt said. “He spilled milk on his pants during breakfast but refused to change them. That’s what they were still arguing about when you came home.”
I grabbed a cloth and wiped up some spilled milk mixed with sugary cereal. The sugar had made it almost stiff. I felt so tired and alone. I knew Matt would always step up and try his best to help me out if I asked him to, but I felt alone in the end.
“Can’t we call the DCF now?” Matt asked. “They can find a foster home for Owen.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do that. I am certain Amy is coming back. I won’t give up on her.”
“Then at least drop whatever it is you’re doing with Scott.”
I threw the wet cloth in the sink. “I am the only one who has to throw everything down, huh? I was gone three hours, Matt. You’re gone all day long, all week long, even sometimes the weekends as well.”
Matt rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “Can’t you see we’re in over our heads here? Why is it so important to help this guy out anyway? It’s not like you were friends or anything. Is it really worth it? I mean, look at the house.”
“I am helping Scott because I can,” I said. “Because he needs it. The house is fine. No one died because of a little mess.”
He shook his head. “There’s more to it than that. Don’t you think I’ve seen the way he looks at you?”
I flinched. I didn’t think anyone else had noticed. I looked at the floor and turned away from him, facing the sink.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Matt scoffed, then left the kitchen, mumbling, “Sure, you do.”
Chapter 21
Lily grabbed her water bottle and drank from it, still while running on the treadmill. Cocoa Beach Health and Fitness, where she worked out on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, was packed as usual.
Lily wiped her forehead with a towel, then stopped running and moved on to the bike, where she worked another fifteen minutes until she moved on to lifting weights. She looked at herself in the mirrors when she spotted someone behind her and dropped the weight.
I
t was him again—the guy from the café.
Their eyes met in the mirror, and she could tell that he blushed. Why was he looking at her that way? It made her feel uncomfortable. Lily gave him a strange look, one to make him back off, then returned to her weightlifting.
Maybe she was just being paranoid. After all, the guy was allowed to work out in the same place as her. Everyone from Cocoa Beach worked out here when they didn’t run on the beach or surf.
She just didn’t care much for the way he stared at her. There was something creepy about that look in his eyes. Maybe it was just the fact that he constantly stared at her that made her freak out.
He might just think you’re hot.
Lily continued her lifting while keeping an eye on him in the mirror. She saw him stop working out, then grab his stuff and leave. Relieved at this, she finished her session, but as she left and walked outside to the parking lot, she saw him sitting in his car. The motor was running, but he wasn’t moving. He was just sitting there, still staring at her. It made her shiver, and she rushed to her own car and got in. She took off, speeding and hurrying through an intersection just as the light turned red. Still speeding and with her heart racing, she looked in the rearview mirror and noticed his car had stopped at the light.
He wouldn’t be able to follow her anymore.
She took a deep breath, thinking she had escaped him. Yet she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling, and as soon as she got home, she called her boyfriend, Peter.
“Can you come over? I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
They hadn’t been doing so well lately, and if she was honest, she had been avoiding his calls. But now, she needed him.
“Be right there.”
She stood by the window, looking out through the thin see-through curtains, jumping at every car that drove by. Peter arrived fifteen minutes later, and she threw herself into his arms. He lifted her and carried her to the couch. As he helped her get her shirt off, she glanced briefly at the window and then screamed.