Secrets of Redemption Box Set

by Michele Pariza Wacek

  Mia shot Barry a triumph look. “See?”

  Barry rolled his eyes.

  “Why are you looking for a fresh start?” Mia asked.

  “Jesus, Mia,” Barry interrupted. “Would you give the man a break? I know it’s easy to forget, but you’re actually not a lawyer yet.”

  Mia held up both hands. “Hey. I’m creating win-wins here. I may have solved our dishwasher problem and gotten JD a job. Who knows what I’ll discover with a few more questions?”

  “Oh, is that what we’re calling interrogation now, a ‘win-win’?” Barry asked. Mia punched him on the arm.

  “It’s fine,” JD said easily. “I don’t mind. It’s not really all that interesting. My mother died, and I found myself ... well, it made me realize how short life really is. And how much of it I was wasting. So, I decided there was no better time to reinvent myself. And here I am.” He smiled at all of us as he raised his beer in a toast.

  “I’m so sorry,” Mia said, her words in a rush. “I didn’t mean ...”

  JD waved his hand as he took a drink. “It’s fine. That’s why I don’t talk about it. I don’t need anyone feeling sorry for me. It got me to do what I’m meant to do. That’s all that matters.”

  “I’m sorry, too, for your loss,” I added awkwardly, wondering if I had misread him all this time. Grief can make people do strange things. Maybe all of this was just a big misunderstanding.

  And yet ...

  JD gave me a slanted smile. “Thank you. But honestly, we don’t have to make a thing of it.”

  “So, if we’re done grilling JD, maybe we can move on to other topics of interest now,” Barry said. “Like Daniel.”

  I spilled my wine.

  “Oh, clean up on aisle ten,” Barry said, as JD handed me his coaster napkin to mop it up. “Maybe we need to get a refill.”

  “I’m good, really,” I said. The last thing I needed was more wine. Or to talk about Daniel.

  “It’s not a big deal. Daniel can bring it over when he comes.” Barry started signaling with his hand.

  Wait a minute. Daniel was here? He was supposed to be working. That’s why he canceled our date. Did he lie to me?

  A part of me wanted to march over to wherever he was and give him a piece of my mind. I had asked him straight out if he really wanted to do this, to try dating. I had already told him I would understand if he thought it was going to be too complicated for him to date me and be a cop in this town.

  He assured me he wanted to try.

  I believed him.

  And, here he was, standing me up again.

  A small voice inside me immediately wanted to argue—fifteen years ago, Daniel didn’t actually stand me up. It was CB, meddling. And, regardless, Daniel wasn’t standing me up right then, because he had called to cancel.

  Yet it somehow still felt like I was sixteen again, standing alone in the woods, wondering where Daniel was … and feeling like a total fool.

  Of course, I couldn’t say any of that in front of all our friends. Maybe I should just leave. That would kill two birds with one stone. Not only would I avoid seeing Daniel, but I could also get away from JD and his strange, intense energy.

  Before I could figure out how exactly to sneak away, there was Daniel, doling out drinks—including another glass of wine for me. He was wearing a blue tee shirt that brought out the blue in his eyes. His blonde hair was getting a little long, curling around the back of his shirt.

  Speaking of his eyes, they darted between me and JD, but he didn’t say a word. Not only that, but his face was completely unreadable—a professional mask. His cop face. He pulled a chair over and turned it around before he sat down, so he was straddling it backwards. He was careful not to look at me, but I could still feel the sparks dancing between us. I was having trouble breathing, something that happened often when I was near him.

  “So, since you’re here, does that mean Ellen is safe and sound?” Mia asked.

  He took a pull from his beer. “No, but there’s not much we can do right now.”

  “What happened?” Daphne asked. On the surface, her voice sounded neutral, like she was simply inquiring about an acquaintance, but I could hear the confusion and worry swirling beneath the calm.

  He shrugged. “No one seems to know. She didn’t show up at work today, which is unlike her. They had tried calling her home and her cell, but there was no answer, so they called her mother. Her mother was the one who came in to file a missing persons report, but since there’s no sign of foul play, there’s not a lot we can do right now.”

  I felt a shiver run down my spine, like I had just been blasted by air conditioning.

  “What about putting an alert out?” Mia asked.

  “We can, but she hasn’t even been missing for a day. It’s not a crime for an adult to disappear. We’re in wait-and-see mode.”

  “And, Ellen has been known to just take off without telling anyone,” Daphne said darkly, pressing her lips together so hard they turned white.

  “Not to mention it’s pretty common here for people to leave quickly, making it seem like they’ve disappeared,” Mia said, after a quick glance at Daphne.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that,” JD said. “Something about how, if the town doesn’t like you, it makes sure you don’t stay?”

  Celia rolled her eyes. “It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”

  “It is NOT a bunch of nonsense,” Mia said. “Weird things DO happen here. And, they have for years. Over a hundred years.”

  “Weird things happen in every town,” Celia said. “It’s no different here.”

  “I don’t know, we sure seem to have more than our share of weirdness,” Daphne said.

  “In fact, tomorrow we’re going to a memorial service for one of the people this town didn’t seem to want,” Mia said.

  “Actually, for two people,” Daphne corrected. “Jesse, too.”

  “Oh God, that’s right,” Mia said. “How could I forget? And that doesn’t even include Jonathan.”

  “Wait,” I said, my head spinning. “Who is Jonathan? I thought this was about Jessica.”

  “It is,” Mia said. “But there’s Jesse, too. Jessica’s uncle who disappeared.”

  “Then who is Johnathan?” I remembered Jesse. Jessica had been named after him, but this was the first I’d heard of a Jonathan.

  “Jesse’s friend,” Daphne said, but she didn’t quite meet my eyes. “He disappeared, too. About a week or so after Jesse.”

  “It all happened before we were born,” Barry said. “There were, well, at least a few people who disappeared, all in this short span of time. Jesse, Jonathan, Rosie...”

  “Oh God, Rosie,” Mia said. “That waitress. I forgot about her.”

  “So, when Jessica disappeared,” Daniel said. “There was this total panic that it was all starting again. Another cycle of people just … disappearing.”

  “There was someone else, too,” Mia mused. “I’m sure of it. I just can’t remember now.”

  “Did anyone else disappear with Jessica?” I asked, feeling like I had just walked an episode of The Twilight Zone.

  “No, Jessica was the only one during that time,” Daniel said.

  “Thank God,” Daphne added.

  I stared around the table in disbelief. “How have I never heard about this before?”

  Celia rolled her eyes. “Maybe because they didn’t really disappear?”

  “How can you say that?” Mia asked.

  Celia picked up her cosmo. “Easily. It’s called ‘moving.’ People do it all the time.”

  “Without telling anyone?”

  “They probably did tell someone, but that part has been conveniently forgotten, because everyone wants to think there’s something more ‘sinister’ at play.” Celia wiggled her fingers as she said the word “sinister.”


  “How do you explain Ellen?” I asked. “She didn’t tell anyone anything.”

  “Maybe she just needed a break.” Celia said. “She probably just decided to get out of town for a bit. Take a vacation. Can you blame her?” She gave me a hard look. “It’s been a difficult few weeks.”

  What, this was my fault? I bit my tongue, deciding it probably wasn’t a particular helpful thing to say, and instead asked, “And not tell her boss? And leave her coworkers in a lurch?” I asked.

  “She didn’t leave anyone in a lurch,” Celia scoffed. “People are always covering for people last minute at the hospital.”

  Daniel leaned forward, putting his hand out to stop me from asking a question. “Celia, what do you know about Ellen disappearing?”

  Celia’s eyes widened before she quickly ducked her head. “No ... I mean ... nothing, really ...”

  “Celia,” Daniel said.

  “Celia, what are you hiding?” Barry asked.

  “I’m not,” Celia said defensively, her lips pushed down into pout. “I ... alright, look, she may have said something ...”

  Daniel slapped the back of his chair. “Are you kidding me? Celia, why didn’t you say something sooner? Or, better yet, tell her mother? Do you realize how worried she is?”

  “I just ...” Celia sighed. “Last Saturday night, we went out for a few drinks, and she was ranting about how much she hated this town and wanted to get away. I ...” she went back to staring at her cosmo, carefully stirring it like her life depended on it. “I ... might have encouraged her to leave.”

  Barry’s jaw dropped as he stared at his wife. “You did what?”

  “Jesus, Celia,” Daniel said, digging out his phone. “You have to call her mother. Now!”

  “It’s past ten,” Celia said.

  “I don’t care.”

  Celia looked wildly around the table, reminding me of a cornered rat. “I didn’t tell her to leave without telling anyone,” she said, a note of pleading in her voice. “I would never tell her to just ... vanish, without letting people know. You have to believe me.”

  “But you know she’s prone to doing just that,” Daphne said. “She’s done it before. You know this.”

  “She only did it that once,” Celia said. “Well, maybe twice if you count that other time, but she wasn’t even gone a day. I never dreamed ... she caught such hell disappearing the way she did. It never occurred to me she would do it again. I thought ... look, I told her if she wasn’t happy to just go. Quit her job, pack up her things, and move out of town. Her mother is here, but otherwise there’s nothing holding her here. So, why should she stay?”

  “I still don’t understand why you didn’t say something earlier,” Barry said.

  Celia’s shoulders slumped. “I guess ... I didn’t think it was related. What we were talking about was her telling people she was leaving. Giving notice at work, to her landlord. Packing her things. When I heard she was missing, I thought maybe something else had happened. Like she got into a fight with someone or something like that. I figured she just disappeared for a few hours to cool off, and then she’d be back.”

  Daniel shook his head as he stood up, cell phone in hand. “I’m going to call her mother. She may be reaching out to you herself, so consider yourself warned.” He strode away from the table.

  Barry eyed his wife as he reached for his beer.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped. “You know how difficult it can be to leave this town. Maybe she did just have enough.”

  “Hold on,” JD drawled. “I thought you said before that people left here all the time. So, what do you mean, ‘It can it be difficult’?”

  Celia didn’t answer, just pressed her lips together. Her lipstick had smeared, and she looked ... messy … unlike her “normal” self. Mia must have noticed, too, because she took it upon herself to answer.

  “It’s like what you said you heard earlier, JD. This town, well, it has a way of deciding who it wants to keep and who it wants to leave,” Mia said. “Some people want to move here, but they can’t. Others want to leave, but they can’t.”

  “What do you mean, they ‘can’t’?” JD asked.

  “Like, if they’re trying to move here, all these weird things happen. Every house they want to buy or rent falls through. Or if they’re trying to leave, the same thing happens—deals fall through, and they just ... stay.”

  JD looked around the table incredulously. “But, that’s just bad luck or something. You can’t really think it’s the town.”

  Mia shrugged. “A lot of strange things have happened here over the years,” she said. “It goes way back—to the 1890s, when all the adults disappeared.”

  JD stared at Mia like she had just sprouted a second head. “What?”

  “It was the year of the terrible blizzards,” Barry said. “1888, I think. They called it “The Children’s Blizzard.” By the time all the snow melted, every adult who lived there had disappeared.”

  “Disappeared? Where did they go?”

  “No one knows,” Mia said.

  “But that makes no sense,” JD said. “How could a whole town just vanish?”

  “The whole town didn’t vanish,” Barry corrected. “Just the adults. The kids were still here.”

  “So, what did they say?”

  “They didn’t,” Mia said. “They claimed to have no idea what happened.”

  JD gave Barry and Mia a hard look before picking up his beer. “You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?”

  “What are we talking about?” Daniel asked, sitting back down and picking up his beer.

  “The legend of Redemption,” Barry said. “JD thinks we’re pulling his leg about all the adults disappearing.”

  “Oh, that. Nope, it’s all on record. You can visit the public library if you don’t believe us. They have all the research on file.”

  “I may have to do just that,” JD said. “So, how do you know if the town wants you or not?”

  “You’ll know,” Daniel said. “Trust me. The town isn’t shy about telling you.”

  JD still didn’t look convinced.

  There was a bit of an awkward pause, and I thought again about leaving. Celia was staring into her empty cosmo glass, but I could see black streaks on her face from swiping at her eyes to keep from crying. I didn’t want to feel sorry for her. She certainly had never felt any empathy for me, with everything I’d been through in this town.

  On the other hand, it was pretty clear how much she hated living here.

  Equally clear was that the town wasn’t going to let her go.

  Still staring down at the table, she dabbed at her eyes with a cocktail napkin, trying unsuccessfully to wipe away the black mascara stains. I deliberately turned my attention to my own nearly empty wine glass.

  I should just go home. On top of everything else that had happened, I was way too uncomfortable being at the same table with JD and Daniel. I could feel their energy prickling against my skin, and it was exhausting.

  I failed to catch Mia’s eye (hoping I could wordlessly communicate that I was ready to head for home), so instead, I squeezed out of the booth on the pretext of using the restroom.

  The bathroom was cool and quiet, a welcome respite from the overheated bar that stunk of smoke, beer, perfume, and fried food. The bar had stopped serving at least an hour before, but somehow, the smell of food lingered. I wet a paper towel and pressed it against my overheated forehead.

  I looked as hot and unkempt as I felt. My face was flushed, my eyes glassy, and my hair was everywhere. I was wearing a sleeveless, emerald-green tunic, one of my favorite tops (it brought out the green in my hazel-and-gold eyes, and the red in my reddish-brownish-blondish hair), but at that moment, I looked frazzled and out of sorts.

  I had always been envious of those women who seemed perfectly po
ised and pulled together no matter what. My mother was one of them, and despite her best efforts to get me to follow suit, I perpetually looked like I was one step away from utter chaos.

  I fluffed my hair and repaired my blotchy lipstick. Not that it really mattered—I was just going home. But, at the very least, I could look somewhat presentable making my exit. I steadied myself, taking a deep breath before pushing open the bathroom door.

  “Took you long enough,” said a deep, male voice.

  Daniel.

  Great. Just great.

  He leaned casually against the wall in front of the bathroom, arms crossed, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world. But his demeanor—his energy—said something altogether different. I could feel it … he was a coiled spring, ready to pounce.

  “What is it with you?” I asked crossly, trying to cover the fire I felt in every cell of my body with him so close. I could feel beads of sweat pop up on my forehead, even though I had just mopped my face with cold water. “Every time I go to the bathroom in this bar, you’re here waiting when I come out. Are you stalking me or something? Is this going to be a thing with you?”

  His eyes narrowed and his gaze grew more intense. “Why are you here with JD?” he asked abruptly.

  His bluntness took me by surprise. “First off, why do you care? You’re the one who canceled on me.”

  “I told you, I had to work.”

  “Yet here you are. You could have asked if we could meet later, but you didn’t.”

  “I didn’t know how long I would be. I didn’t want to keep you waiting all night if I had to keep delaying. I wanted ...” his voice broke off. “Well, it doesn’t seem to matter what I wanted. It sure didn’t take you long to find my replacement.”

  “Replacement? As in, JD?”

  He leveled a look at me. “It’s pretty obvious. He’s sitting right next to you.”

  “I’m also sitting next to Daphne,” I retorted. “Do you think I’m on a date with her, too?”

  His jaw clenched. “It’s more than that, and you know it.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get going.”