“The last time we talked he said this week. But he keeps changing the date on me.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s sleeping around.”
“But we didn’t have sex the last time he was home, and it’s not like I’m unattractive. I work hard and pay good money to look this nice at my age.”
Money they don’t have, Olivia notes.
Charlotte takes a breath. “Your father should appreciate what I do for us. I have a perfectly healthy libido, too. My vagina isn’t dry like Nancy’s. Did you know she has a subscription through Amazon for vaginal lube? It comes every two months, like clockwork. I wonder what she needs it for. It’s not like she’s hosting Tupperware parties for Magic Mike. Anyway.” She waves dismissively. “I have needs and your father’s been neglecting them.”
“God, Mom. Stop!” Olivia smashes her face in the pillow. That was way too much information. An image of Nancy and Bruce Merriweather getting it on in every room of their house shines overly bright in her mind.
Charlotte glances at her watch again. She gasps. “I have to go. Talk later?”
“Mom, Josh . . .” She follows Charlotte out of the room.
Charlotte opens the front door and stops. She turns around and her eyes hold on to Olivia’s. Fear ripples through them before she blinks away the emotion. She grasps Olivia’s wrist and lowers her voice. “I’m worried about Lily, too. But don’t tell your father about Josh. He can’t know he’s here.”
Goose bumps speckle her arms. “Why not?”
“Please, Olivia. Don’t press me. Trust this is for the best.” Charlotte’s phone chimes. She checks the screen. “It’s Nancy. I have to take this. Hello, darling,” she says, walking to the car. “I chose the St. John. Yes, it’s stunning, perfect for brunch. You’ll love it.”
CHAPTER 13
“I need to report someone missing,” Olivia tells the clerk at the police station an hour after Charlotte rushed off to brunch. After Charlotte’s announcement, she debated following her mom outside. Olivia and Dwight are close. He calls her at least a couple times a week. He takes her to lunch on Thursdays when he’s not traveling. How’s she supposed to keep him from finding out about Josh? More so, why?
With any luck, she won’t have to worry about it. Josh will be back with Lily before Dwight returns. Olivia doesn’t know if Lily is missing or dead, but she can’t spare the time and wait for her sister to make an appearance.
“Adult or child?” the man with the short-sleeve dress shirt buttoned to the collar asks. He barely looks up from the paperwork fanned across his desk.
“Adult. A woman. My sister.”
“How long has she been missing?”
“At least thirty-six hours.”
“Name?”
“Lily Carson. She’s thirty. No.” Olivia calculates on her fingers. “Twenty-nine years old.”
The clerk looks up. He impatiently taps his pencil. “Your name.”
“Oh, sorry. Olivia Carson.”
“Have a seat, Ms. Carson.” He points the pencil tip at the waiting area where she had Josh sit upon their arrival. “An officer will be with you in a moment.”
“Thank you,” she says, tapping the countertop, jittery. Her gaze sweeps the waiting area. It’s the first time she’s been inside the station. She was young when Benton St. John was murdered and out of town when Lily ran away. The police came to her parents. Except that time they took Dwight to the station after Benton’s body was found. He was a suspect. Her dad’s been inside these walls before. Same with Charlotte when they filed Lily’s first missing persons report.
Since Olivia wasn’t living at home, the only thing she knows about what happened the night Lily ran is what her parents told her, which wasn’t much. Olivia felt removed from the entire situation, her emotions detached. She compartmentalized the pain of Lily’s betrayal just so she could function. But standing here inside the station with Lily’s son, the boy Olivia’s little sister protected by giving up the security of family and home, makes everything much more real.
Josh is alone. Lily is missing. And oddly enough, Olivia blames herself. Lily might not have run if things had been different between them. She wouldn’t have slept with Ethan.
She settles beside Josh on the vinyl couch. She inhales, her lungs expanding east to west, then exhales slowly through rounded lips, willing her nerves to calm. She needs to be strong for Josh. He clasps his hands between his thighs. His knee bounces, making Olivia even more antsy. She rests her hand on his thigh. He stops, but a moment later, starts cracking his knuckles.
“Josh.” Anxiety rolls off him, blending with her own. His elbows land on his thighs, and chin dipped, he plays with the bill of his cap. “The police are going to help us. It’s okay.”
He nods. “Want to clean . . . uh, find her.”
“We will.”
Magazines featuring local businesses litter the table in front of them. The county paper is open to last week’s cop logs, a listing of burglaries and break-ins. A woman’s voice crackles over the speaker system, pricking Olivia’s ears. An Officer Curbelo is requested to report to the front office. The station smells like a Lysol-and-hand-sanitizer bouquet, cleaner than a hospital. Olivia drags a magazine across the table and glosses over the pages, not necessarily reading, just keeping her hands busy. She has the same issue on her living room cocktail table at home.
Josh twists his wrists. One pops and Olivia grinds her teeth at the noise. She tosses the magazine on the table.
“Ms. Carson?”
Olivia looks up at a young female officer, hair pulled back in a tight knot at her nape. She extends a hand with blunt nails. An Ironman watch adorns her wrist. “I’m Officer Tanya Curbelo.”
“Olivia Carson.” She shakes Tanya’s hand.
“If you’d come with me.”
Olivia stands, gesturing for Josh to follow.
Tanya leads them to a small windowless conference room with a circular table and four chairs. She settles into the chair facing the door she closed behind them and invites Olivia and Josh to take the seats opposite her.
Josh drops his backpack on the floor. Olivia sits beside him, her purse on her lap.
“How can I help you today?”
“My sister is missing.”
Still, she thinks. Technically, Lily’s been missing since she was sixteen.
“How long has she been missing?”
Fourteen years.
She clears her throat and drops her purse on the floor. “Thirty-six hours, at least.” Olivia’s gaze swings to Josh. “Sound about right?” Josh nods and Tanya quirks a brow that looks like it was hair sprayed in place. “That’s when my nephew showed up at my house. This is Josh,” she introduces. “Josh, Officer Curbelo. She’s going to help us.”
He lifts a hand in greeting before it flops back on the table.
“Hi, Josh. I’m sorry about your mom. I’ll do my best to help you find her. How old are you?”
“Three . . . tenth . . . no.” He counts his fingers.
“He’s thirteen. He struggles with numbers.”
Tanya’s gaze meets Olivia’s, but she doesn’t say anything. She flips open the cover on her tablet, revealing a keyboard, and props up the device. “Let’s start with her basics. Name, age, and where she was last seen.”