“Ask her husband,” the voice said. “He was in those woods last weekend.”
“How do you know that?”
“Some guy with a tow truck told me. He said he fixed a flat for Gavin Webster up in those woods. That’s a big coincidence, don’t you think? Him being up there in the middle of nowhere right before his wife goes missing? If you ask me, he was scouting where to hide her body.”
24
“Do you really think someone killed Nikki Candis?” Cat asked Serena, as they drove through the deserted streets of downtown Duluth. “It wasn’t suicide?”
Serena stared out the car window. In her head, she was going over Cat’s description of her conversation with Zach Larsen. That was easier than thinking about the things she had to tell Stride.
“I don’t know. I could be wrong, but there are a lot of things that don’t add up.”
“Like what?” Cat asked.
“Delaney keeping secrets. Nikki using a gun, when she hated guns. The breakup with Zach. And that package Nikki ordered. The angel figurine and the deer whistles. Something about those deer whistles bothers me. Put it all together, and I don’t get the picture of a woman who killed herself.”
“You don’t think Delaney killed her mother, do you?”
Serena shook her head. “No, Nikki’s parents told me they drove Delaney back from Mora that Sunday. The three of them were together when they found the body. And according to Paul Vavra, Nikki was alive on Friday when he picked up Delaney from the house. Of course, it’s possible that the Vavras are covering for Delaney, but that’s not how it feels. No, this is something else. I’m missing a piece of the puzzle, and when I find it, I think the whole thing will make sense.”
“What are you going to do next?”
“I’ll talk to Zach’s parents in the morning,” Serena said. “Usually, if the kids are close, the parents are, too. They may know something.”
Cat was quiet for a while, and Serena didn’t mind the silence. The girl crossed the lift bridge onto the Point and drove the Mustang toward the cottage, using the late hour as permission to blow past the speed limit. Serena rolled down the passenger window, and the cold air through the car helped clear her head of the aftereffects of the Absolut. She felt no need to throw up tonight, which was another small victory. First saying no to her hunger for Jagger. Then saying no to more vodka. She wanted to stack little successes on top of each other like blocks.
“You, me, and Delaney,” Cat murmured as they got closer to home.
“What about us?”
“Well, we’re like a little club, aren’t we? We all had our mothers taken away from us in one way or another.”
“True.”
Cat grabbed Serena’s hand and shot her a smile. “Except I was lucky. I got a second chance.”
Serena felt her emotions bubble up like a fountain. Rather than let the girl see her start to cry, she turned her face away to the open window. They reached the cottage driveway a few seconds later, and Cat turned in and parked the Mustang next to Stride’s Expedition.
“Do you want to go back to campus?” Serena asked. “I’m sure Jonny would drive you to the dorm.”
“No, I’ll just sleep here.”
“I can drop you off at school in the morning,” Serena said.
“Thanks.”
“And I appreciate you coming to get me.”
The girl kept a deadpan face. “I’m just glad you’ve never had to get me out of any trouble.”
Serena laughed at the sarcasm. Cat laughed, too. They hugged and then got out of the car and went into the cottage through the rear door. The kitchen was dark, but in the shadows, she could make out a figure sitting at the dining-room table. It was Jonny, waiting for them. Cat saw him, too, and she went over and kissed his cheek and murmured something that Serena couldn’t hear. Then the girl crossed the living room to her old bedroom and closed the door, leaving the two of them alone.
“Hi,” Serena said, sitting down in the nearest chair. The heat of guilt and embarrassment burned on her face.
“I’m glad you’re home,” Stride said.
“Yeah. Here I am.”
She had no idea what to say next. She had no idea where to start. The two of them simply stared at each other like wary boxers. The shadows deepened the furrows in his face, and his wavy hair covered most of his forehead. She could sense his frustration, his helplessness, because he didn’t know how to reach her. She felt the same way about him.
“I have to leave before daylight,” he said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, we have a lead in the Webster case.”
“What is it?”
He explained about the anonymous call.
“It may be a dead end,” he went on, “but Maggie wants to find the tow-truck driver and get him out there early so we can search the area.”
“Good idea.”
“But if you want me to stay here, I’ll stay,” he added, nudging onto that thin ice between them.
“No, you should go,” Serena said.
His stiff reaction told her that she’d said the wrong thing. He thought she wanted him to leave, but that wasn’t true. She wanted him back on the case, back doing what he loved, because she was certain that was what he needed. The man who’d spent fourteen months wrestling with his future, going around in circles, wasn’t the man she’d married. Jonathan Stride was a cop. He would never be anything else, and the sooner he realized that, the sooner he could start living his life again.
She could have said all of that, but instead, she let the silence linger between them the way it had for months. Until she couldn’t take it anymore.
“You and me,” Serena went on finally. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because I really want to find our way back. I need that.”
“So do I. The truth is, I can’t live like this anymore, Serena.”
“Neither can I.”
“You cut me out tonight. Why?”
“Because I’m a different person when I drink, and I don’t like it when you see me that way.”
“Why not?”
Serena shook her head. Was he really going to make her say it? “Because I’m ashamed, Jonny. Because this is not who I am.”
“It is who you are, though. It’s part of you.”
“I hate being vulnerable.”
“I understand that. Believe me. Do you know how hard it was for me to rely on you after I was shot? To let you take care of me when I was physically crippled? I could barely get out of bed or do anything for myself. I wanted to send you away until I was past all that.”
“Why? I’m your wife. I love you. I loved caring for you.”
“I love you, too, but that’s not the point. I hated being vulnerable, just like you.”
“You didn’t ask to be shot. This is different.”
“It’s not different at all. You didn’t ask to be an alcoholic. You didn’t ask for a mother who abused you.”
Serena fell back on what she always did. She tried to drive him away.
“I almost had sex with another man tonight,” she interjected bluntly. She wanted to shock him. She wanted to make him realize how pathetic she was.
He didn’t look surprised. “The bartender?”
“Yes.”
“Well, did you?”
“No, but I thought about it. I wanted it. I wanted to do something stupid, something meaningless, something to make you hate me.” Serena shook her head. “I wouldn’t blame you if you walked away. My father left my mother. He was right to do it. He was smart.”
“You’re not Samantha.”
“Are you sure? Because I’m acting like her. It’s like she died, and this is what she left me.”
The chair scraped on the floor as Stride drew closer to her. He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. It was dark in the cottage, and his face was dark, too. His voice was a whisper.