The Liar's Wife

by Kiersten Modglin

  She wrinkled her nose. “A food blogger? Is that a real job?”

  I smiled sadly. “Apparently.”

  “Are you okay?” She shook her head as she asked. “Of course you aren’t.” She paused. “And Crestview, really? She’s small town? Ben always seemed so sophisticated and…you know, worldly, I guess,” she said, shoving a shoulder forward. “He loved the city too much. I can’t believe he’d be interested in anyone from Crestview.”

  She was trying to make me feel better, but it didn’t work. What she was really saying was that Ben went against his type to cheat on me with her…that’s how unhappy I made him. Just like Nate.

  “So, have you checked with her? I mean, could he be with her? Do you have a way to contact her? I’ll do it for you, if you want. Actually, scratch that, you are a strong, beautiful, confident woman. You should do it. You deserve the chance to confront her.” She rambled more and more the angrier she got, and I loved her for it. Confrontation was not what I wanted. Truth be told, I didn’t care about Kat. I just wanted Gray home and safe. It was as if someone had launched me forward, then suspended me in midair without warning. I was waiting, my breath caught, my arms and legs ready to move with no direction or inclination when they would again. I wanted to take action, but there was no action to take. I had no idea where my family was, and I couldn’t imagine any worse feeling than that.

  “I don’t want to confront her,” I said, shaking my head solemnly. “I just want to get them both home. I don’t even care what he’s done now, I just want to know they’re okay. I need to see my son. I need to.”

  “I know, sweetie,” she whispered, brushing a strand of hair from my eyes again and tucking it behind my ear. “I know. I do. I get it. And we will find them. We’re going to figure out what’s going on, okay? Do you think it’s a possibility he’s with her? That’d be the first place I’d look.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head. “I followed him to her house yesterday, but he left. I went back there later when I couldn’t find him, and her husband was home.”

  “She has a husband?” She clicked her tongue. “Wow. Okay. Well…have you called the police yet? I know it seems like a big step—”

  “I did,” I confirmed. “They’re working on it, but I don’t know when I’ll hear. Or if.”

  “Okay, so what can we do? What can I do?” She clasped her hands together in front of her.

  “I don’t know if there’s anything any of us can do. The police say we should just wait to hear back.”

  She pursed her lips, giving me a look that clearly said no way in hell. “Mmkay, we’re going to call that a friendly suggestion, and then we’re going to get our asses out there and find your baby. We know Ben better than anyone. We know how he thinks, what he likes. We have to go, Palmer. Where should we start?”

  My heart filled with hope, though I desperately didn’t want it to be. The last thing I needed right then was hope. It made things so much more difficult. I needed anger and determination and fear. I needed to keep moving, to keep searching, to not give up. Hope was a fruitless emotion with no action behind it. Hope was waiting for something good to happen, making a birthday wish; action required so much more. I couldn’t allow myself to be filled with anything that wasn’t propelling me forward, finding me solutions.

  “I want to talk to her, but if she’s not behind this, it seems pointless.”

  “Well, let’s go over there and just see what she has to say. Maybe, even if she doesn’t know where he is, maybe she can give us a few places to look. I know it’ll be hard, but we need to turn over every stone.”

  An hour later, we’d pulled into Crestview. Dannika drove, and I directed, my eyes too filled with tears to be of much use behind the wheel.

  “It’s just on this street up ahead,” I told her, pointing to the street sign and making a mental note of the name. Blakemore.

  She turned on her blinker and pulled onto the street, slowing down as she waited for me to tell her which one we were looking for.

  I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t say anything, do anything, but stare at the house with my heartbeat thudding in my ears, my face growing hot. She glanced over at me, noticing my expression. “Is it that one?”

  I nodded, barely, unable to breathe. No. No. This isn’t happening. It isn’t possible.

  The lone cottage was empty, cleaned out. The windows were bare, revealing the empty rooms inside. The lawn held a red and blue FOR SALE sign.

  How had the house been emptied so quickly? And why? Why was she selling it? Where had she gone? Where had her husband gone? What was happening?

  She slowed to a stop in front of the house. “She was here yesterday?” Her tone said she didn’t believe me, but I hoped that wasn’t true. I needed her to believe me. I needed someone to.

  “Yes, she was. With Ben and Gray both. The house was still full then. There were blinds and curtains. In the back, there’s a tree house, and I climbed into it to watch them.”

  She sucked in a breath, studying the house. “Okay. Well, what did you see? Just them hanging out? Was anyone else there?”

  “No, it was just the three of them. Ben and Gray left after about an hour.”

  “And now she’s gone…” she mused. “Hm.”

  “Why did she leave, Dannika? What do you think it means?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head while keeping her eyes locked on the house. “But I’ll tell you one thing, I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that she and Ben disappeared on the same day.”

  “I agree. It’s too much of a coincidence, but what does it mean? Where could they have gone? Do you think they’re together somehow? Or maybe she’s hurt them?” My skin grew cold. “She wouldn’t have hurt them, would she?”

  She was silent, seemingly lost in thought. “I don’t know, but I think you should tell the police about this.”

  “They already know where she lives. They may know she’s gone, too.”

  “Either way, you should tell them. They should be looking into this…” She didn’t finish her sentence, but she didn’t need to. I could hear the end of the statement in her silence. Before it’s too late. I wouldn’t admit it to Dannika, but I’d spent much of my night researching missing persons statistics. We had seventy-two hours before our chances of ever finding them went drastically low. Less than that now. We were in the countdown and, with no evidence to help us, my husband and child had disappeared into the wind, and there was a very good chance I’d never see them again.

  I sniffled, refusing to let any new tears fall as I pulled out my phone and dialed the non-emergency line again. I asked to speak to Officer Kessler once I’d been patched through, and I was placed on hold.

  “Kessler.”

  “Hi, this is Palmer Lewis. Ben Lewis’ wife.”

  “Yes, yes, Palmer. Hi. I was just getting ready to call you, funnily enough. Is everything all right?”

  “I wanted to tell you I came back to Kat’s house in Crestview, and she’s moved out. It…it looks like she’s selling it. It’s completely empty. I know you said I shouldn’t come, but I did, and I wanted you to know.”

  She was silent. “I see. Palmer, listen, I can send someone out to the house to check it out, maybe look up the deed to see the name of the owner. Do you have the address now?”

  I recited it to her now that I knew it. “Great, thank you. Hey, while I have you… Do you know anything about several one-thousand-dollar transfers from your accounts to a separate account?”

  My blood ran cold. “What?”

  “It looks like there’s been a transfer for one thousand dollars a month for the last six months from your account to one at a different bank.”

  “Six months?”

  “That’s what it looks like. Since you married Ben. Do you know what they were for?”

  “I…I have no idea. I haven’t looked at the account in a while.” Ben does that. I didn’t want to say it. When Ben took over the bi
lls, it seemed like the most natural thing. I was pregnant. I was dealing with a lot. I was going to be the one working, so why shouldn’t he be the one doing the finances? Had I really been so naïve? Had I really made this mistake again?

  “Well, you should look at it and get back with me, okay? We’re working on tracing where the payments ended up, but I just wanted you to be aware. You may want to contact your bank about closing the account…” She trailed off. “Also, when we were looking through your account, I noticed a charge yesterday at around two to the Stovesand Marina. Have any idea what that was about?”

  I closed my eyes. The marina? We hadn’t been there since we found out we were expecting Gray. I pictured the early days of our relationship, Ben taking me out in the little red rowboat from his childhood. My earliest memories of falling in love with him are filled with salty air, tanned skin, and cool water. “No. I have…no idea. He did rent a slip there for a while, for his boat. But we haven’t been there since before Gray was born. Does that mean he was there?”

  “It could’ve been an online purchase. We’re working on figuring it out. So, is Ben a big water guy? Does he sail? Does he still keep his boat there?”

  “He likes to boat, sure. I mean, he had a rowboat from his childhood. It was…it was tiny. He sold it when we found out about Gray because he couldn’t justify the cost. We’d never have taken Gray on it. Could we have found his trail?”

  “We’re still looking into everything. One more question.”

  “Okay…”

  “We contacted your property manager about getting video surveillance from your apartment building. He mentioned that you guys just had an attempted break-in. When I looked you up, it looks like he was right. Two days before Ben disappeared. Is there a reason you didn’t mention it?”

  I swallowed. “I’d forgotten, to be honest. Things have just been so crazy…it was the last thing on my mind.”

  “Information like this could be very important to your case. We need to make sure you aren’t omitting details like these.”

  “Do you think they’re related? The break-in and their disappearance? Do you really think someone could’ve taken them?”

  She was quick to reply. “I don’t want you to panic. We’ll know more when we get the surveillance footage from your landlord today.”

  “Surveillance footage? But…there won’t be any. Ben said the cameras here don’t work.”

  I could hear her typing something, but she stopped at my last remark. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Ben said after the break-in that he contacted our super and he said the cameras don’t work. That’s why the police couldn’t get the footage after the break-in.”

  “Palmer…” She hesitated. “Ben never contacted your super. I just spoke with him myself. We have the footage from the day of the attempted break-in, and no one entered the building or left during the time Ben said the attempt happened. There was no one suspicious around the building that day at all. The report says our officers called and relayed that information to Ben. He didn’t tell you any of this?”

  I touched my fingers to my chin, my voice breathless. “No…”

  “Hm. Well, we’re getting the footage within the hour, so we should know soon when or if Ben came home yesterday after you saw him last. I just wanted to ask you some questions in case there was an obvious explanation to some of the things that seem to be bugging me. I’ll be in touch as we learn more, okay?”

  I nodded, though she couldn’t see me, and I felt Dannika’s gaze burning into me. She squeezed my arm from the side, giving me gentle encouragement.

  “Of course. Th-thank you.”

  As I ended the call, I looked over at Dannika, who seemed to sense the concern. “What did she say?”

  I blinked rapidly, staring off into the distance as I processed all I’d learned. “They think Ben used our card at the marina yesterday…and…there’s money missing from our accounts. A lot of money. He lied to me about someone trying to break in. He said he checked with our super, said there was no footage… He lied about so much, Dannika.”

  Dannika’s jaw tightened. “So what do they think? Was he planning to disappear all along?”

  She didn’t say and, until that moment, it hadn’t occurred to me. If Ben was planning to disappear, why would he take Gray, too? What was he planning to do?

  Sickness washed over me, and I shoved the door of the car open, spewing vomit onto the pavement. How could I have trusted him?

  Chapter Eighteen

  Back at the house, I scrolled through my online banking from my laptop, looking over the transactions I’d missed over and over again. One thousand dollars, once a month. I’d never noticed. As quickly as money came into the account, Ben had drained it. The savings I’d been so worried about halving with him was running lower than I’d imagined. I thought he’d been putting money into it each month, but from the looks of it, the only money he was moving was going out.

  I’d moved past self-deprecating. No longer was I blaming myself, but instead, I was filled with fury for what he’d done. How he’d tricked me. What he’d let me believe.

  Dannika had hesitantly left to eat dinner with Ty and the kids, trying to convince me to come along, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know how to function when my child was missing. I didn’t know what I was allowed to think, what I was allowed to feel. I couldn’t help being numb to it all. It was the safest option. Happiness was far away, like a distant memory. Anger was predominant.

  I opened up Kat’s Instagram, searching through her recent posts. To my surprise, she hadn’t posted anything new since the day she rated the cheesecake. I searched through her posts. It was rare there weren’t at least two posts a day, but now she’d gone several days without any new content. It was as if she’d fallen off the face of the planet, much like my husband. Much like my son.

  Where are you, Ben?

  I clicked to view her website, where she’d posted a few of her favorite restaurants and a handful of her reviews. It wasn’t as active as her Instagram, but each post contained several comments from happy fans. She’d done well building a brand for herself. I was incredibly tempted to comment on something—to demand that she come forward and tell me what she knew, but I stopped. I couldn’t lash out. I wanted things to be amicable. I wanted my child to come home. I had to play their game, no matter the cost.

  My phone began buzzing from across the room where it was charging, and I leapt up. The storm was brewing outside, the sky dark and thunder rumbling. Normally, I loved storms. Since the day of their disappearance, the weather made me feel more isolated than ever.

  When I saw the number on the screen, my stomach went tense.

  “Hello?”

  “Palmer? It’s Officer Kessler.” She paused. “Listen, I have some news, and I wanted to be sure you heard it before the news stations start picking it up.”

  My throat was suddenly dry, chest tight. I couldn’t quite catch my breath. “Okay…”

  “Can you meet me at the marina?”

  “Please tell me what it is,” I begged, my heart thudding in my chest. “Please. I can’t make the drive down without knowing.” I placed my fingers over my lips, their trembling enough to make me mad.

  “I…they found a boat, Palmer. A boat washed ashore a few hours ago. We think it was Ben’s.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The air was salty and humid, the sand dark and wet as I walked across the shore of our beach, heading to the police tent that had been set up in front of a mid-sized white boat. Police swarmed the boat, some with cameras, some with notepads, some with bags containing who knew what.

  I spied Kessler right away, with Dannika just feet behind me, and headed toward her. She was talking to another officer, a short male, but when she caught my eye, they broke apart, her patting his arm before walking to meet me in the middle.

  “Mrs. Lewis, thank you for meeting me.” As she said my name, I noticed something different about her. A coldness. A separati
on. She was all business now, and that terrified me. I knew what bad news looked like before it was delivered. Between work and Nate, I’d been on the receiving end of it too many times to count.

  “What’s happening?” I asked, my hands shaking as I glanced over at the boat again. It wasn’t damaged or broken, from what I could tell. It looked to be in fine shape.

  She followed my gaze, then brought me back to her. “The boat was found by our department this morning. Some tourists called the police and claimed that it had washed ashore, but there was no one aboard. The marina owner reported that he’d had a boat stolen last night, one that had been rented by Ben but was never returned. We’ve just confirmed this is that boat.”

  A cold chill ran over me as I heard her words in slow motion. “And…and you’re sure it’s my Ben?”

  “We’re sure. The money came from your joint account. They have a copy of his ID and CCTV footage from the time that he came to pick it up. It was just before the storm. The marina owner claims he told Ben that he should hold off on going out until the storm passed, but has no way of knowing if he did.”

  I sucked in a slow, steady breath. “Okay…okay. So, what does that mean? I mean, the boat’s not damaged. Maybe they didn’t end up taking it out after all. Maybe it broke loose.”

  Her eyes were sorrowful as they danced between mine. “There’s quite a bit of water on the inside. It could be from the rain, but we’re…we think it’s likely there may have been a wave that knocked them overboard. An inexperienced sailor in a storm like that… The odds of them surviving aren’t good. We can’t be sure just yet, but I want you to be prepared. We’ve got a team headed out to search for the bodies.”

  The tears I’d barely been keeping at bay pushed through at that moment, and my knees collapsed underneath me, slamming me onto the wet sand. I felt the water seeping through my pants, but I couldn’t care. I couldn’t breathe. I sucked in a breath, pushing it out with force, but it was as if the air contained no oxygen. I clutched a hand to my chest. In, out. In, out. Whatever pain I’d experienced in my life, it was nothing compared to this. My stomach tightened the longer I thought about it, and I couldn’t prevent myself from thinking about it.