DON'T LIE TO ME: Eva Rae Thomas Mystery #1

by Rose, Willow

  "Could she have gone to a friend's house?" Olivia asked.

  "Without telling me? That's not very like her," I said. "She knows how terrified I get when I don't know where you are."

  Olivia gave me a look. "Because of what happened to your sister, oh, yes, but think about it. Maybe that's exactly why she didn't say anything. To get back at you. You two were fighting earlier, right?"

  "Yes, she got really mad and ran upstairs, and then…you think she snuck out while I was sleeping?" I asked.

  Olivia threw out her hands. "What better way to get back at you? That's what I would do."

  She was right. Christine knew how scared I got in these situations. If she really wanted me to suffer, this was the way to do it.

  I grabbed my phone and called her, but she didn’t pick up. "It goes directly to voicemail."

  "Because she doesn’t want you to find her," Olivia said.

  "You try," I said. "You call her."

  Olivia gave me a look. "Mo-om. First of all, don't you think she can figure out that you told me to call her? Besides, if she shut off the phone, it doesn’t matter who calls."

  "Then I'll just have to call everyone in her class and ask if they know where she is."

  "You really think that's necessary?" Olivia asked. "Think about it. You'll only embarrass her, and she'll end up resenting you even more."

  I exhaled. "Then I don't know what to do."

  Olivia put her arm around my shoulder. "Relax, Mom. Let's just go to Grandma and Grandpa's; then she'll probably be here when we get home."

  "Yeah," Alex said, holding out his ax in front of him. "Let's go now!"

  Chapter 77

  We all seemed to be getting on each other's nerves. I don't know if it was something in the air or the food, but everyone at my mom's dinner table seemed to be grumpy.

  The only one who was completely unaffected was Alex. He played with his ax around the house while my mom kept a watchful eye on him, making sure he didn't tip over any expensive antique vases or slam the toy ax into any furniture and make a dent.

  I had told them that Christine was at a friend's house but found it so hard to focus on the conversation we were having while my thoughts kept circling around my daughter and where she could be. With all that had been going on, I simply didn't like not knowing where she was.

  "What do you think, Eva Rae?" my mom said.

  I hadn't heard what they were talking about, so I answered in confusion. "About what?"

  "Dear Lord, Eva Rae, where is your mind these days?" my mom said. "I was talking about the Begonias in the front yard and how beautiful they were when they bloomed. I was wondering if I should remove the Periwinkles and make room for more. What do you think?"

  I stared at her, my eyes blinking. I had no idea what to say. I couldn't care less about flowers right now. I never cared about flowers. I liked looking at them, but that was about it.

  "Christine is missing," I said instead of answering her. As I said the words, tears finally escaped my eyes, and I couldn't hold it back anymore. "I don't know where she is, and I keep imagining these scenarios with all the kidnapped children lately and with Sydney and all that…I just…"

  My mother stared at me, mouth gaping. Her eyes flickered a few times back and forth, and then she rose to her feet and was about to walk away.

  "No, Mom," I said and grabbed her hand. "You can't go now. You always leave when…"

  But my mom wouldn't hear me out; she pulled her hand away. "I have to check on the bean-flour pie," she said.

  I slammed my hand onto the table, and the silverware clattered. "No, Mom! I want you to stay now. I need you to stay here and talk to me. My daughter is missing. You can't just run away from me when I tell you something like this. I need you, dammit. I need you to comfort me, to tell me it'll be all right, that she'll be fine."

  My mom froze in place. She stood for a few seconds with her back turned to me, then turned around.

  "I can't say that."

  "Why, Mom? Why can't you say that? Why can't you, for once, comfort me when I need you to?"

  She swallowed. Her nostrils were flaring. "Because…it might not be okay, Eva Rae. It wasn't for us. It never became okay again. Life was never okay again. That's why. So, forgive me if I am not very good at comforting you when things go wrong, but it is not my strong side."

  She was about to turn again and leave, but I wasn't ready to let her. "Why did you never want to talk to me anymore. When it happened? Why did you freeze me out? Was it because you blame me for what happened to Sydney? Was it because you wished the kidnapper would have taken me and not her? You blame me for it, don't you? Because, believe me; I do too. Every day, I tell myself I could have done things differently and maybe saved Sydney. Because I didn't call for help early enough. Because I fought myself out of his grip and then he chose her instead. It's all my fault, isn't it, Mom? You've always believed it was. And you could never look at me the same way again. Every time I sought you, you'd turn your back on me."

  My mom stood like she was frozen. Her eyes stared into mine, and her hands were shaking. I waited for her to respond. I wanted a response from her, no matter what it was. I needed to know.

  She walked to me and stood so close I could smell her perfume.

  "Why, Mom? Why did you have to freeze me out when I needed you the most?" I asked.

  She swallowed like she needed to clear room for the words that were about to leave her mouth.

  "I…I couldn't look you in the eyes, Eva Rae. I simply couldn't face you."

  Tears rolled down my cheeks now, and she wiped one away.

  "Why, Mom? Why not? All I wanted was a hug or a kind word?"

  "Because I couldn't. I couldn't face you because I was too…ashamed."

  I wrinkled my forehead. That wasn't the answer I had expected to hear from her.

  "Ashamed? What on Earth are you talking about?"

  My mom looked briefly at my dad, who nodded in agreement. "It's time," he said.

  "Time for what? What is he talking about, Mom?" I asked, unable to stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks.

  She gave me another look. Inside her eyes was the warmth I had searched for so long, the care I knew was in there, but she never let out.

  "Because I knew who took her."

  It felt like she had punched me. She might as well have. I shook my head, dumbfounded.

  "I…I don't understand."

  "It was her father," my mother said, her voice trembling. "Her real father…your real father."

  And there it was—the knockout that blew all the air out of my lungs. I heard a ringing in both my ears, and it felt like my blood had started to boil.

  "Excuse me?"

  My mom reached out for my hands and grabbed them in hers. Tears were in her eyes now too.

  "I am so sorry, baby. I am so, so sorry."

  "I…I don't understand. Dad?" I said and looked at him. I wanted him to tell me this wasn't true; I desperately needed him to tell me she was lying, to make things right again.

  He nodded. "It's true, Squirt. I will always be your father because I raised you, but I am not biologically."

  "We were young," my mother said. "He left. I didn't know he would come back for you. I married your father, and we decided to raise you like he was your real father because he was. You could never get a better father than him. But then he came back. Your real father did. He wanted half of the custody. We fought him in court and won. But then he…he came back, and he tried to take both of you. We saw him later on the surveillance video from the store. There was no doubt it was him. He came for both of you, sweetie, but he only got your sister."

  "But…so…so, you knew who did it? All this time, you knew?"

  She nodded. "The police searched for him everywhere, but they never found him. They suspected he might have taken her out of the country. He had family in Europe."

  "So...so, what you're telling me is…so, she could be alive?" I said, crying. "Sydney could be
alive? I thought for sure she was dead?"

  My dad nodded. "We don't know if she is, but yes, there's a possibility that she is alive."

  "But…how…how could you lie to me like this? I grew up thinking that…that my own mother didn't love me, that she didn't want me. And then…then you were both just…lying?"

  "We did what we thought was best for you," my dad said. He said the words, but they made no sense to me.

  "I have a sister out there somewhere, and a…a dad? And you thought it would be best for me not to know? What kind of logic is that?"

  I stared at the man I had called my dad, suddenly feeling so confused I got dizzy. I leaned on a chair while gathering my thoughts. Everything I believed had been a lie so far. Everything. I had gone into the force because I wanted to make amends for what happened to my sister, for not being able to save her from the faceless man, her kidnapper and who I presumed was her killer. But now…now, it had all changed. And my dad? He wasn't who I believed he was, neither was my mom.

  And who the heck was I?

  "Eva Rae…I…" my mom said and stepped forward.

  I pulled back. I needed to get away, get out of there, out of the house where I had been lied to for thirty-five years. I couldn't trust either of them anymore.

  "I need to…I have to go. Come on, kids. We should get home."

  Alex sighed disappointedly, while Olivia, who had watched it all play out, sprang to me and held me. I leaned on her most of the walk home, none of us uttering a word, except Alex who was pretending he was saving us all from some feisty bushfire.

  Chapter 78

  THEN

  "Come on, join us in the fun."

  It was the third time the boy's mother urged him to come and play cards with them. But the boy still refused. He didn't think his sister should either. He thought she was being ridiculous, the way she laughed and had fun without thinking about the consequences.

  "I think we need to go home now," he said. "Mom and Dad might be worried now."

  "Nonsense," their mom said. "They'll be fine. Have some fun instead. You're always so serious."

  The boy didn't know how long they had been in their mother's apartment, but as he watched the clock on the wall move, it made him feel more and more anxious.

  It had gotten dark outside, and the boy knew his dad would most certainly be home by now. He always came home when it grew dark outside. And he would be mad if he found out where the boy and his sister were. Oh, boy, he would get so mad.

  "Come on; we need a third man," his mother said. Her voice sounded strange, and he wondered if she was drunk or high. Was it just a matter of time before she hurt one of them?

  Her baby sister drank from her soda and ate some gummy bears. The boy shook his head, staring at her. Didn't their mom know that little sister got too hyper when she ate all that sugar? That it wasn't good for her?

  "Don't eat that," he said.

  His sister grabbed another one and chewed it, loudly smacking her lips at him. He looked away. The boy walked to the window and looked outside. The darkness had settled now. There was no way he could find his way home on his own from here. Especially not in the darkness. But he had to get back somehow. He simply had to. He couldn't leave his sister here, not with her. He simply didn't dare to, so instead he snuck into the bedroom where there was an old phone on the table. He dialed his dad's number.

  "Daddy?"

  "Son?"

  He sounded angry, and the boy's heart sank.

  "Where are you?"

  "I'm…I'm…" The boy began to cry. "At Mommy's place."

  "What? You're at her place? She kidnapped you, son? Did she?" he asked.

  "N-No…"

  There was another voice on his father's end, and the boy recognized it as his new mommy's.

  "What's going on?" she asked.

  "The Thing kidnapped our children," his dad said. "Can you believe her?"

  "Oh, dear Lord."

  "I’m calling the cops," he said, then returned to the boy. "Stay where you are, son. We'll get help. Stay calm, boy, and keep a close eye on your sister. Help is on the way. Just make sure to keep an eye on your sister, you hear me?"

  "Y-yes, Daddy."

  Chapter 79

  "Christine? Christine?"

  I ran inside the house and up the stairs, then opened the door to her room. But she wasn't there. I had to control myself in order not to panic. I breathed in deeply a few times, then told myself she was fine, that she would come home soon.

  "Is she still not here?" Olivia asked as she came inside her sister's room. For the first time, I now saw concern in my older daughter's eyes.

  "I'll try and call her," she said, then left with her phone in hand. She came back a second later. "She's still not answering."

  I ran a hand through my hair, trying hard to keep calm and to focus on where she might be.

  "I'll have to call her friends now," I said, then rushed downstairs to find the list of phone numbers I had for Christine. She hadn’t made a lot of friends so far, so it was quickly done.

  None of them had seen her all day. Not since school.

  Oh, dear God, no!

  "Relax, Mom," my daughter said. "I’m sure she's fine. She might just be hiding, or maybe she went down to the beach? Maybe she just went out because she was mad, and now she doesn’t dare to come home."

  I sent her a series of text messages, telling her to call me as soon as possible, then opened Mappen, the app I used to track my children, but, as suspected, it wouldn't show me where she was since it only worked if the phone was turned on. For now, it only showed me her phone's last known location, which was inside the house.

  "Okay," I said. "I'll go drive around for a bit and see if I can find her. Can you stay here with Alex?"

  I looked at the clock. "You know what? Instead, I think I'll call for someone to come over and be with you two. I don't like you guys being all alone."

  I called Melissa, but she was out of town, she told me. She and Steve had taken a couple of days off to go camping for the weekend with the kids. They had taken them out of school. I remembered that she had already told me they were going when I called her the day before. I didn't say a word about my daughter going missing. I don't know why I didn't tell her. I guess I didn't want her to worry. Besides, I kind of still hoped Christine had just run away from home, and I would find her down on the beach or maybe wandering around downtown.

  Dawn was out of the question since she was still in too bad of a condition to get out of bed, so I didn't want to bother her. Matt had enough on his plate with Elijah.

  That left me with only one option. My dad.

  I punched in my parents' number. It was my mom who picked up. "Eva Rae? Is that really you? I am so sorry about earlier; could we just…"

  "I need to talk to Dad," I said, cutting her off. I wasn't ready to accept any of her excuses or to forgive her yet. I wasn't sure I ever would be. At least not in the state I was in right now.

  "Your dad…well, he's not here right now. He left…I guess he was upset after what happened tonight. He didn't take his cell phone. It's still here on the counter."

  I closed my eyes. He was my last resort. Unless…I really didn't want to have to do this; it was the last thing I wanted to…to ask my mom for anything in this world, yet I did.

  "Can you maybe help me, Mom? Can you look after the kids while I go search for Christine?"

  "S-sure. I'll be right over."

  Chapter 80

  I left without a word to my mom. I had nothing to say to her. I simply let her in, then kissed Alex and Olivia, and left, thinking that she'd have to figure things out or else Olivia would be there to help her. If it wasn't for all the kidnappings lately, I would have let Olivia babysit Alex any day, but I just didn't like leaving them alone on a day like this.

  I jumped into my minivan, then drove off toward downtown. I drove through where all the small shops were, then turned around and drove past Juice N' Java and City Hall, searching
all the parking lots outside and calling her name. Still, no sign of my princess. Then I drove to the beach. I parked by First Street, the closest access from where I lived, then ran through the heavy sand toward the deep, dark ocean. I kept cursing myself for not having ended things well with Christine, for fighting with her in the first place. Why did I say those things to her?

  It's too late now. You've played the blame and guilt game all your life and look where it got you. Nowhere. It's time to stop.

  "Christine!" I called and turned to look up toward the dunes and then back down to the water. I looked all around me, scanning the area, but it didn't help much in this darkness.

  "CHRISTINE!"

  Nothing but the howling wind answered. A dog barked in the distance, probably from one of the beach houses or a balcony belonging to one of the condos north of me.

  "Where are you, baby girl?" I asked into the darkness.

  Frustrated, I sank to my knees, then sat down in the heavy sand, head slumped between my shoulder blades. I felt so tired, so exhausted.

  "Where are you?" I mumbled as tears rolled down my cheeks. As my eyes got used to the darkness, I spotted a big grey heron that was staggering along on its long skinny legs in the shallow parts of the water, looking for fish to eat.

  Like he had heard my cries, Matt suddenly called. I sniffled and picked up.

  "Matt?"

  "I’ve been thinking," he said. "You might be right; it could be an inside man. I hate to say this, but while sitting here by Elijah's bedside, I keep thinking about Cooper. He had a huge crush on you back in high school and always resented me for being with you back when we dated because I knew about his crush. What if he wanted to hurt me all along? His parents are divorced; they split just last year, and he surfed with Sophie Williams down by the pier. He also helped build the senator's pool house, he told me. To earn extra money."

  I exhaled, wiping tears from my eyes. "Matt…I…Christine is missing." As I said the words, I broke down, sobbing. "I think he might have her, Matt. I’m scared."