Zachary looked down at the picture. It was just Madison. No Noah in the picture. No laughing friends. Not a posed family picture. But it didn’t look like a selfie, either. Rhys had probably taken it himself and, since Madison was not looking directly at the camera, it had probably been a candid shot that she was unaware of.
“Okay.” Zachary slid it back across the table after studying it for a moment. The Madison in that picture looked like any other student. Calm, pleasant, just a student sitting at her desk on a regular day. She was wearing jeans and a simple peach blouse. Not one of the designer items that Noah had given her later.
Rhys flicked through the photo album again, moving forward this time. He found another picture and slid it in front of Zachary.
It was another picture of Madison at her desk, from the same angle. She and Rhys apparently attended a class together, and both shots were taken while they were in their assigned seats. In the second shot, Madison had her head down on the desk, sleeping.
There were other subtle differences.
She had on quite a bit of makeup. In the first picture, she’d had some on, but it had been understated. It was much more dramatic and noticeable in the second picture. Her clothing was different. The camera angle didn’t make it easy to identify, but Zachary could tell by the stitching around the shoulder that it was a higher quality product. Not something produced in a factory in huge quantities. Designer. He remembered the pictures he had seen on her social networks. More daring outfits. Off the shoulder or strapless, short skirts or shorts, cleavage. Formal cocktail dresses and sporty shorts and halter-top sets.
She didn’t have the same glow in the second picture as she’d had in the first. Maybe it was just because she was sleeping, her face slack, not much of it visible to the camera. He wouldn’t call her gaunt, but it looked like she had lost weight. She looked worn. But maybe she was just tired from a weekend of partying.
Zachary nodded at Rhys. “Her teachers said that she was tired, particularly after weekends. She wasn’t going home. Her parents thought she was sleeping over with her girlfriends, but she was with Noah. You think she was partying too much?”
Rhys shrugged. He took the phone back. He didn’t look at Zachary as he fiddled with it some more. He eventually handed it back to Zachary.
The triangle in the center of the screen told Zachary that it was a video. He tapped it and watched. It was a noisy environment. School had let out, and there were kids everywhere, chattering and on the move. The camera centered on a female figure, and Zachary realized it was Madison. She was walking more slowly than the other girls she was with, hanging back from them slightly, looking tired and sore like she’d been working out. There was a part in the crowd and Madison’s friends moved out of the way as Noah came onto the scene. Zachary saw Madison flinch when he reached out to her. He put his arm around her waist and, at first, she looked like she was going to pull away from him. He moved his arm up to her shoulder and pulled her closer, squeezing her against his side. Madison’s arm went around his waist and they kissed.
Madison, looking over Noah’s shoulder, saw Rhys. “Are you recording me?”
Noah turned around. His face got red. “What the…? You can’t go around recording people! Put it away, retard!”
“Noah!” Madison reprimanded. “Don’t call him that!”
He glared down at her. “We don’t want that idiot recording us. Why does he always have to be around you? Tell him to take a hike. You already have a boyfriend.”
Madison looked at Rhys, warning him with her eyes. But also apologetic. “You better go, Rhys.”
The video ended.
Zachary dragged the time indicator back to the beginning of the video and watched it a couple more times. He looked up at Rhys. “Do you think he was abusive?”
Rhys spread his hands wide.
“Did you ever see her with bruises? Do you think he was hurting her?”
Rhys shook his head.
Zachary pondered this. “Is there anything else?”
Rhys considered. The fact that he didn’t answer immediately told Zachary that Rhys still hadn’t shared everything he knew or was concerned about. “If you want me to help Madison, you have to tell me what you know.”
Rhys took a big bite of his pizza and chewed it. Zachary rolled his eyes.
“It’s not like you can’t talk with your mouth full,” he pointed out.
Rhys grinned broadly and covered his mouth to keep from spitting any of the pizza back out. He touched his phone, not doing anything at first, just considering it. Then he picked it up. Zachary watched him quickly finding the app he wanted and looking through a list. Eventually, Rhys pushed it back toward him. Zachary saw the messaging app that Rhys often used to communicate with him. But it was Madison’s name up at the top of the screen.
Zachary saw a cartoonish puppy—Rhys seemed to have a thing about dogs—with the words ‘you okay?’ scrawled across the bottom of the graphic. He scrolled down and saw Madison’s answer on the left side of the screen.
Rhys, I can’t talk to you. You need to stop messaging me.
There was a single word question from Rhys. Safe?
And Madison’s reply. I don’t want you getting involved. Leave me alone.
Zachary looked at the date stamp on the message. The Friday before Madison’s disappearance. He slowly pushed the phone back to Rhys. “You haven’t heard from her since?”
Rhys shook his head.
“Tell me what you think.”
Rhys just pointed to his phone, raising his brows. He shook his head.
Zachary sighed. Rhys couldn’t tell him what had happened to Madison. He’d done everything he could to keep track of what was going on with her and to try to help her, but she had turned him away. He was the only one who had reached out to her personally, but she had refused.
“I’ll do my best. If you have any ideas of where she might be, I need to know. It’s already been a few days… the police didn’t find anything and the trail is cold.”
Rhys picked up his phone and returned to the video of Madison and Noah together. He pointed to Noah.
“They’ll be together,” Zachary agreed. “But no one knows who Noah is. They don’t even know his last name.”
Rhys pointed at Zachary. He was the private investigator. He should be able to find Noah. Rhys was counting on it.
13
It had been a long day. Zachary was determined to spend the evening relaxing with Kenzie, not thinking about the case. He couldn’t work twenty-four hours a day to find Madison. As much as he wanted to find her and make sure she was safe, he couldn’t be expected to find her the first day. It was going to take some time, and he would be more likely to make the proper connections if he got the rest and regeneration he needed than if he ran himself into the ground.
Kenzie had texted him to let him know she was on her way home and he could come over any time. Zachary stopped in front of her house and waited a few minutes, breathing deeply and trying to put all of the squirrely thoughts trying to distract him to the side so that he could focus on his girlfriend. If he was going to repair the relationship with Kenzie, he needed to give her the time and attention. Ignoring her or piling all of his troubles onto her wouldn’t help them.
When he got into the kitchen, Kenzie was making a sandwich. She smiled over at him.
“You should probably eat too. You can handle making a sandwich, can’t you?”
“I already ate.”
“Sure you did. I mean a real meal.”
“I did. I had pizza with Rhys.” Zachary put a hand over his aching stomach. “He forced me to eat way too much.”
“He forced you, did he?”
“I’m not used to eating that much. You wouldn’t believe the heartburn I’ve got.”
“Well, it’s probably a good thing. You need to get fattened up.”
“Mmm. Not like this.”
“Have a seat. I won’t make you eat, but you do have to visit.”<
br />
Zachary was happy to sit down at the table with her.
“How’s the case going?” Kenzie asked.
“I probably shouldn’t talk about it. Why don’t you tell me about your day?”
She sat down and took a big bite of her sandwich. “Why shouldn’t you talk about it? Confidentiality? You already told me who it was.”
“I just think… I shouldn’t just talk shop. We should spend time together, talking about something other than work.”
Kenzie chewed, considering. “I’ve always enjoyed talking shop together. There aren’t too many guys that you can discuss corpses with.”
Zachary snorted. He covered his mouth and cleared his throat. “Is that the only reason you want me around? So you can talk about corpses?”
“Well, it’s a definite draw.”
“I don’t have any to talk about yet. And hopefully… I won’t on this case.”
Kenzie sobered. “Yeah, I hope not. That would not be a good resolution.”
“But you could tell me about your bodies if you want to.”
“With how much you’ve eaten, that might not be a good idea.”
Zachary touched the notepad in his pocket. After fiddling with it for a moment, he pulled it out and looked at it. “I haven’t had a chance to gather all of my thoughts and process everything yet.”
“Do you have any good leads?”
“I don’t know yet. The boyfriend is definitely key. But no one knows his full name. He didn’t go to the school. He just showed up one day and… picked her up.”
“She must have met him sometime before that.”
“He said that he recognized her from a party. But her friends had never seen him before, so how likely is that to be true? If she’d been at a party, they would have been with her. And she didn’t remember him. If they’d hit it off at a party, wouldn’t she have remembered?”
“Depends how drunk she was at the time.”
“I don’t think they’d met before.”
“So, what…? You think that he was lying? Why?”
“I think it was just a line. He wanted to pick her up.”
“Possible,” Kenzie agreed. “But why? He had to have seen her somewhere before. Then we’re back to where.”
Zachary shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s one of the questions to be answered. Along with his name. And where they have disappeared to.”
“Do you think it was foul play?”
“Rhys doesn’t think that Noah was hurting her. So that leaves… either she went off with him of her own free will, or he kidnapped her. I talked to Campbell. They didn’t come across anything in their investigation that suggests there was any coercion or violence. And I didn’t find anything like that either. So that means she chose to go.”
“Girls do. All the time.”
“Her parents have been calling her. The police have been calling her. Why hasn’t she answered her phone? Why haven’t the police tracked the signal to figure out where she is? Did she ditch it?”
“How about Rhys? Has he tried to call her? Or her girlfriends. They must have at least tried to find out if she was okay and what they should tell her parents.”
“She told Rhys not to contact her anymore. He’d apparently… stepped on some toes. Hers or Noah’s, I’m not sure which.”
“So he didn’t try to get her when she didn’t show up on Monday and the police said she was missing and started asking questions?”
“Not that he told me. I’m not sure that’s the same as no.”
Kenzie nodded her agreement. She had a drink of water and another bite of her sandwich. “Does he know more than he’s telling you?”
“I think that’s true of every teenager. And every client, for that matter. They almost always have something they are hiding. And even if they are not being deceptive… they still know something they don’t realize they know.” Zachary flipped to random pages in his notebook, not reading anything. “I think that he’s told me everything he believes is relevant.”
“So, what’s your next step? Or do you know yet?”
“Not yet. I need to think about it. Sleep on it.”
“We’ll have to make sure you get some sleep tonight, then,” she teased.
“We could go to bed now and get a head start.”
“Let’s not move too fast,” Kenzie warned, putting the brakes on.
Zachary should have been happy about that. He was the one who had been feeling uncomfortable with too much intimacy and needing more time. He was the one who had held back and caused the separation in the first place. But he felt a twinge of anger and frustration at Kenzie’s words. She had been ready for more. She was the one who had gone to Zachary’s foster father, Mr. Peterson, to ask him personal questions about Zachary’s previous relationships and the possibility of past abuse. She was the one who had gone to Zachary’s ex-wife to ask her about how he’d been between the sheets—specifically, whether he had dissociated when they had been together.
And now she was putting on the brakes?
Even though he knew it was a good idea for them to go slowly and take things one tiny step at a time, it still made his already-sore stomach feel tighter and heavier.
He picked up his notepad and held it in front of his face to hide any change in his expression from her. She had become too proficient at reading him.
“I might be able to track some mutual friends. Madison mostly spent her time with Noah, but the girlfriends were invited to a couple of parties and remembered the names of a few other people who were there. I might be able to connect through a friend of a friend of a friend.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And I have a couple of pictures with his face. I’ll run facial recognition and see if I can track down his social media. Even if he’s using a pseudonym, that might give me his friends or followers list, and I can get closer.”
“Yeah.”
Zachary looked at Kenzie. She was watching him closely. Serious again. Zachary cleared his throat and closed the notepad. “So, that was my day. You get anywhere with the stiffs you work with?”
Kenzie gave a forced laugh, and launched into a description of her day and the various puzzles and problems that she had run into. Zachary watched her eyes and her mouth as she spoke, hearing very little of what she said.
14
While he had expected Kenzie to want to spend all evening together, she suggested that they take a break so that she could read her personal email and check a few things off of her list.
Zachary was very bad at keeping lists, but it had been a while since he had touched base with Lorne Peterson, an old foster father, so he decided to take the opportunity to see if he was at home. He didn’t have the energy to deal with a Skype call, so he just dialed the number on his phone and stretched out on the couch, listening to the line ring.
It was only a few rings before Mr. Peterson—Zachary still had trouble thinking of him as Lorne—picked up. “Zachary! Good to hear from you,” he greeted cheerfully.
“I know it’s been a few days,” Zachary admitted. “So I didn’t want to let it go too much longer.”
“How are you keeping? Everything good?” the older man asked tentatively.
“Actually… I’m calling from Kenzie’s house.”
“Kenzie’s?” Lorne’s voice was surprised. “Well, that’s a surprise. The two of you decided to give it another try?”
Zachary shrugged, his face heating. He was glad no one could see his face. “Yes. I tried giving Kenzie a call when I needed a place to stay for the night, and she accepted…”
“Nothing like the direct route.”
“I didn’t know if she would say yes. She didn’t want to talk about getting back together before. But…”
“But obviously you managed to talk her into it. So does that mean you’re officially back to being a couple again…?”
“I don’t know what it means… I guess so. We’re giving it another try.”
“Wel
l, you don’t know how glad it makes me to hear that. That’s fabulous news.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty pleased about it.”
“The two of you make a good couple. You really seem like you’re good for each other.”
“I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think… I don’t know. I’m hoping.”
“Now you make sure you talk,” Mr. Peterson’s voice took on a stern, fatherly tone. “You can’t communicate and keep your relationship healthy if you don’t talk to each other. Even when you don’t feel like it. You know you tend to bottle things up and not talk when you need to.”
“Yeah.”
“You could try some family therapy. Get a good couples counselor. Or a group. Or just ask your regular psychologist. But someone else in the equation could help the two of you to connect better with each other. Figure out what things need to be brought out in the open.”
“I don’t know if Kenzie would want to do that.”
“Do what?” another voice asked.
Zachary’s eyes flew open. He hadn’t realized that Kenzie was walking by while he was talking on the phone. He choked, looking at her, trying to figure out what story to tell her.
“I, just… I was just talking to…”
“Tell her the truth,” Mr. Peterson said in Zachary’s ear.
Zachary licked his lips, considering. There was only one way to find out whether Kenzie would object to couples counseling or not.
“Lorne said… we should do some… therapy together.”
Kenzie nodded. “Not a bad idea,” she agreed. She continued on her way into the kitchen. “Say ‘hi’ for me.”
Zachary breathed out. His eyes burned with tears and there was a lump in his throat. He coughed, trying to maintain his composure. Kenzie really didn’t need a man who burst into tears at the slightest provocation. He swallowed and tried to continue the conversation with Mr. Peterson.
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