“So did you get Josh’s toolbox?”
“Oh no. It’s huge; you actually need a tow truck to move the things. West said he could send a couple of guys over to pick it up tomorrow. One of them worked with Josh a long time, so he’ll be able to see if anyone messed with it.”
“Do you think this Steve guy is going to break anything? I remember how much you guys spent on Josh’s tools.”
“I don’t think so.” Val sipped her coffee. “I kind of threatened him.”
“You threatened Smiley Steve?” Monica asked. “I want to be you when I grow up. Minus the disorganization and laundry issues.”
“How did you threaten him?”
“I told him I knew about the affair he was having with his secretary.”
Robin wrinkled her nose. “Gloves off in the office?”
“They’d been going at it right on the desk. Could he be any more of a middle-aged-male stereotype?”
Monica rolled her eyes. “I mean, if you’re going to be a lying prick, at least be imaginative.”
“I don’t think imagination is in Smiley Steve’s wheelhouse.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “We’ve talked with West. We’ve talked with the current employer. We still don’t know who the client is, but West says he’s waiting to hear back from a couple of people.”
“Do you still want to go to Rachel and Josh’s house?”
“I don’t think I can.” She rubbed her temple. “Can we just go home? This headache is killing me. I had my gloves off in that office for like an hour and there was a lot of shit coming in. I think I’m going to need to be fresh for Josh’s house.”
“Let’s go then.” Robin rose. “I have aspirin in my purse.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Val, Robin, and Monica walked out to the minivan, and Val got in the back seat, slid her glasses on, and leaned the bucket seat as far back as it could go. She felt her phone buzzing in her pocket, but she ignored it while she grabbed the water Monica handed her and the two aspirin from Robin’s purse.
They were headed back to Glimmer Lake and her phone was ringing again. She kept ignoring it. If it was her boys, they’d be texting. She didn’t feel like talking to her parents right now.
Robin’s phone rang. “It’s Sully.” She touched the screen. “Hey.”
Val opened her eyes. “What does he want?” She checked her phone. Yep. Sure enough, three missed calls from Sully. She sat up straight. “Is there news about Josh?”
Robin handed her the phone.
“Sully, did you hear something from—”
“Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
“I have a headache. I put it on mute.”
“Where are you?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Driving with Robin and Monica. Why?”
“Why are you harassing Josh’s employer, Valerie?”
Shit.
Val put him on speakerphone. She couldn’t handle the speaker that close to her ear when her head felt like this. “I’m not harassing anyone.”
“Bridger PD is calling me, asking me why Mason’s ex-wife is going around Bridger City, asking people about her ex. Trying to get Josh’s stuff. Did you threaten Steve Garcia? Do you know how many people on the city council he knows? He’s neighbors with the mayor, for Christ’s sake.”
Robin’s eyes went wide, but Val only waved a careless hand. “I don’t give a shit. He threatened to sell Josh’s toolbox. Do you know how many thousands of dollars Josh spent on that toolbox? Those tools are his professional life. It took him years to build. If something happened to him, they belong to his sons, and I’ll be damned if some asshole who knows the mayor—”
“Did you threaten him?”
“What on earth am I going to threaten him with?” Her head was pounding. “Did he tell you? What? I’m going to beat up a guy six inches taller than me? How am I supposed to have threatened this guy? He’s the one threatening me.”
Sully was quiet for a moment. “Did he threaten you?”
“He threatened to sell Josh’s tools.”
“Did he threaten you, Val?”
“What difference does it make?” She pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Because if he threatened to sell some tools, that’s one thing, but if he threatened you, then I’m going to have to drive down to Bridger City and find Steve Garcia and beat the shit out of him for threatening you, so tell me did he threaten you, Valerie?”
She could hear the simmering anger in his voice. She spoke calmly. “Sully, he did not threaten me personally. And I didn’t threaten him.”
Lie. She completely threatened him.
“I don’t think he likes me very much,” Val continued, “but I don’t really give a shit about that. Tell the truth, Bridger PD isn’t doing jack about finding Josh, are they? They’re not doing anything.”
Sully was silent.
Val felt tears come to her eyes. She cleared her throat. “You know, just because he’s not a rich guy with connections doesn’t mean he’s not worth looking for. He has two children who love him. He has friends. He has family. He’s been missing for five days, and I haven’t seen a single thing on the news. No one is looking for him except for me.”
“Val—”
“So back off.” She sniffed. “I need to do this. I can find answers. I know… I know things, okay?”
“No one is saying—”
“All of you are saying it.” She pressed the heel of her hand to her eye. “Why are those women asking questions? Don’t they know they’re not the police? What do they think they’re doing?”
“Valerie, you, Robin, and Monica are not trained investigators. If foul play was involved—”
“If foul play was involved and someone came after him, no one would know because they’re not looking!” Val let out a choked laugh. “Are they? Are they looking, Sully? Are they treating him like a… a regular dad who went missing? Are they treating his case like they would if Steve Garcia went missing?”
Sully was still silent.
“Or are they assuming because he was a working-class guy with some debts who pissed off a rich man that he’s a thief on the run?” She closed her eyes and leaned back. “Just tell me, Sully. Is anyone looking for him?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing to find my boys’ daddy.” She ended the call and pushed the phone forward into Robin’s waiting hand. She stuffed her fist in her mouth and bit down hard to keep from screaming.
Josh, where are you?
What did you do?
Where did you go?
She was going to find out what happened. If it took her the rest of her life, she was going to find out what happened to Jackson and Andy’s dad.
“Are you okay?” Robin asked. “Do you need more water?”
“I’ll be okay.”
“What happened between you and Sully?” Monica asked. “He just threatened to go beat the shit out of a guy he doesn’t know if that guy threatened you. That is not casual and flirtatious behavior. That’s ‘I care a hell of a lot about this woman’ behavior.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Val said.
“Was it bad?”
“No. It wasn’t bad.” In fact, it was good. It was nice. And thinking about the cold walk home from Sully’s house in the early-morning hours after she’d slipped away from his bed made her sad. She should have stayed. She should have given him a chance. She should have gotten out of her own head and tried.
But she didn’t have time for that. She had a business and two kids to worry about. And now she had an ex-husband who was missing.
Chapter 10
Val was exhausted by the time they got home, but she was able to lie down for an hour before Jackson and Andy got out of school. She was up and making grilled cheese sandwiches for an afternoon snack when they came barreling through the door.
“Hey, Mom!” Andy the whirlwind burst into the kitchen, hugged her around the
waist, and slung his backpack on the kitchen table before he ducked under her am. “Grilled cheese! Is it ready?”
“Give me a minute.” She ruffled his hair. “How was school, professor?”
“Great. We’re building rockets in science class and I really think my group is going to do the best. There’s a contest next week on Friday I think; can you come?”
“I have to check my schedule, but I’ll try.” She kissed the top of his head, realizing that she only had one or two more years before Andy’s head, like Jackson’s, would be well out of reach.
“Hey, Mom.” Jackson’s deep voice still surprised her. “Any news today?”
Val looked over her shoulder and shook her head. “Sorry. I talked to Sully, but nothing.”
Jackson nodded. “Right.”
“You want a grilled cheese?”
He smiled. “Yeah. That sounds good. Who’s sick?”
She usually only made grilled cheese and tomato soup when one of them was sick. “This time it’s me. I have a killer headache.”
“You want me to make the sandwiches?” Jackson said. “You could go lie down.”
Val smiled. Yes, he was an alien parasite, but he was her alien parasite and he was the best. “Thank you so much, but I better not. If I do, I’ll fall asleep and I don’t want to wake up at two a.m.”
It wouldn’t be the first time. When her powers first manifested and she didn’t know what was going on, she ended most days curled into a ball in her bedroom. A year plus, and she was better. Between the gloves and the antianxiety medication, she was coping, but she still got tired easily.
“Cool.” Jackson drummed his fingers on the door. “I was thinking of going to the library, but maybe I’ll stay home.”
“Could you?” Val knew Jackson wasn’t going to the library to study. He was going to see the girl she wasn’t supposed to know about. “I’d appreciate it.”
It was the delicate dance of the mom and the teenage son. Jackson likely suspected that Val knew he was going to the library for reasons other than academic, but he didn’t say anything, and Val would let the mild deception stand as long as Jackson didn’t slack off around the house or let his grades drop. She knew from picking up his backpack his feelings about this girl were serious, but she had no way of knowing how the girl felt.
Who knew why he wasn’t telling Val about her? Maybe her parents didn’t allow her to date. Maybe she was shy. It could be any number of reasons. Val wasn’t willing to push.
He’s allowed to have a private life.
Kind of.
“Yeah.” Jackson tugged on Andy’s sweatshirt. “Hey, let’s go wash some clothes while the grilled cheese is finishing. Mom’ll call us when it’s done.”
“Laundry?” Andy groaned. “I don’t need to do laundry.”
Laundry was the first thing she’d put her foot down about after her powers hit. She could not handle going through her children’s dirty clothes anymore. Just… no. On many levels.
Jackson said, “Dude, I can hardly walk on your side of the room. You need to do laundry.”
“Fine.” Andy sighed. It was the end of the world. Clearly.
She might have felt overwhelmed earlier, but Val really didn’t know how she’d lucked out with her two boys. She wasn’t going to question it—it was probably because of her parents anyway.
Jackson was far from perfect, but he knew how to take responsibility when he needed to. And Andy… he was still her sweetheart even if he’d inherited her hatred of folding clean clothes.
Val had just finished the last grilled cheese sandwich when she heard the knock on the door.
“Andy! Jack!” she shouted down the hall. “Sandwiches are ready.”
She heard the clomp of footsteps on the hardwood as she opened the door. Sully was standing on the porch.
She closed the door and spun around.
Jackson was frowning. “Who was that?”
“Val!” He knocked on the door again. “Open the door please.”
“It’s the sheriff,” Val said. “We kind of had a disagreement earlier in the day, and he’s part of the reason I have a headache, so I don’t want to talk to him.
“Valerie.” Sully knocked again louder. “I’m not here to fight with you.”
Jackson and Andy both looked confused.
“The sheriff’s here?” Andy asked. “Why?”
“Yes.”
“Why is he calling you Valerie?” Jackson asked. “Only Grandma calls you that.”
“You’re not going to talk to him?” Andy asked. “What if he knows something about Dad?” Andy started toward the door, but Val held him back.
“He would have told me on the phone earlier if he knew something about your dad.” And if she didn’t open the door, he’d have to go away. Eventually.
Probably.
Jackson was also looking skeptical. “But that was hours ago, maybe—”
“Val!” Sully knocked again. “Will you just open the door?”
Jackson started toward it and Val held up a hand. “You better not.”
“I’m not here to talk to you,” Sully said. “I need to talk to your boys.”
Val’s eyes went wide. She spun and yanked open the door. “You don’t get to talk to my boys. You want to pry information about Josh out of them? You have a lot of nerve, Sullivan Wes—”
“I’ll talk to you.” Jackson spoke over her. “Come in.”
Val looked at Jackson. “Kid, you may be closing in on adulthood, but this is not your house.”
Andy was tugging on her arm. “Mom, I want to talk to the sheriff. It’s like on the TV shows, you know? Maybe we know something that can help.”
Val looked back at Sully, who was waiting with as neutral an expression as he could manage, but she could tell he was pissed.
“Mom, I want to talk to him.”
“Me too.”
Val gave in to their plaintive voices and widened the door to allow Sully to enter. “Boys, go grab your sandwiches and take them to the family room. Sully can talk to you there.”
“Yes,” Andy said under his breath. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Val’s eyes never left Sully. “If you even breathe a word out of line—”
“I’m trying to help,” he said quietly. “The little one is right. They may know something they don’t even realize could help.”
“Andy,” Val said. “Andy is my younger boy.”
“And the older one is Jackson,” Sully said. “I didn’t forget.”
* * *
Val listened from the kitchen as Sully questioned her boys about their father.
“When was the last time you saw him?”
Jackson said, “It’s been about four weeks, but he talks to Andy almost every day.”
“That true?”
“Yeah.” Andy’s sweet voice chimed in. “Sometimes when I call him he can’t talk, but he always calls me back later.”
“So it’s unusual for him to go this long without calling.”
“Yeah,” Jackson said. “Really weird. That’s why we’re sure something bad happened.”
“He never takes off—like on a fishing trip or a road trip?”
“Sometimes,” Andy said. “But he’ll tell us about it. And this time he didn’t.”
“Andy… did you notice anything strange about your dad when you talked to him in the past couple of weeks?”
“No. Well… maybe.”
Val paused with her hands in the soapy dishwater.
“What do you mean, maybe?”
“He was worried, and he wasn’t happy with Rachel.”
“Yeah,” Jackson added. “I think he and Rachel were going to break up.”
Sully said something Val couldn’t quite hear.
“No,” Jackson said. “I mean, Rachel’s okay, but she doesn’t really like us much. You can tell she thinks we’re annoying. His girlfriend before Rachel was nice, but Rachel is… kind of whiny.”
“Yeah. An
d she wants a lot of stuff,” Andy added. “Like purses and a new car and that kind of stuff.”
“Did your dad say anything about breaking up with Rachel?” Sully asked.
“No,” Andy said. “Last time, when he broke up with Carrie, we didn’t even know for like a month.”
Val felt the hurt in Andy’s voice like a spear to her heart.
Damn Josh and his flippant attitude to his children’s feelings! Jackson was older and more jaded, but Andy had been attached to Josh’s ex-girlfriend. He asked for weeks whether he could call Carrie even when Val told him it wasn’t a good idea.
“So your dad and Rachel were having problems.” Sully’s tone shifted. Went deeper. “Jackson, did your dad talk to you about his work at all?”
Jackson was silent for a while. “I mean… I knew he was working outside of the garage. I didn’t know it was illegal though.”
“It’s not illegal,” Sully said. “A boss might fire you for doing something like that, but your dad didn’t do anything illegal. If your dad’s boss wanted to be a dick about it, he might have sued him, but probably he’d just fire him.”
“So Dad can’t get in trouble for that?”
“No. The police in Bridger are looking for him because there’s a man who says your dad stole some money from him that was supposed to go to buying parts.”
“I heard about that. It’s bullshit.” Jackson was angry. “My dad wouldn’t have stolen from a customer. Who’s saying he stole from him?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Why would someone say that?” Andy asked. “Did this guy not like Dad?”
Val was struck by the simple insight of Andy’s obvious question. Why had this customer claimed Josh stole from him? Was it personal? A misunderstanding?
Jackson asked, “When does this guy say he gave Dad the money?”
“About a week and a half ago.”
“But that’s stupid,” Jackson said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it can take at least that long to get parts in. Why did this guy assume my dad didn’t just order the parts and they’re taking a while?”
“I don’t know that,” Sully said.
Semi-Psychic Life: Glimmer Lake Book Two Page 9