Olivia lays her hands flat on the table. Her thumbs tap the plastic surface. “I don’t know where she was last seen.”
“Who was the last person to see her?”
“Josh. I think.”
“Where did you last see your mom?” Tanya asks Josh.
He frowns, looking at his hands. “The road.”
Tanya’s gaze slides to Olivia and back. “What road?”
“The one . . . the one . . . we . . . I . . . walked . . . and I . . . then she . . .” His frown deepens and he lightly bangs his clasped hands on the table.
Olivia feels his frustration as her own. The details that can help them find Lily are trapped inside his head or hanging on the tip of his tongue. She rests her hand over his.
“Josh had an accident a while back that makes talking a challenge. I’ve noticed nouns and verbs give him the most trouble.”
“What happened?” Tanya asks.
“He hit his head.”
Tanya looks at Josh for confirmation or a reaction, Olivia can’t tell.
“Josh?” the officer prompts.
“I fell.”
Olivia watches Tanya process this information, fearing how this might play out. Falling is the most common excuse in the book to explain away bruises and breaks when someone is abused. Was he? Could he have been running from someone and was separated from his mom?
“Is that true, Josh?” Tanya’s voice takes on an authoritative tone.
Josh is quiet. He tugs his bottom lip.
“Josh.” Olivia gently touches his shoulder. “Answer the officer.” She wants answers, too. If there’s someone out there who might harm him, she needs to know about it. She promised him he’s safe with her.
He shakes his head.
“You didn’t fall, or you don’t want to answer me?” Tanya moves aside the tablet and folds her hands on the table.
“Not . . . fall.”
“What happened then?” she asks when Josh shakes his head again.
Josh shoves his hands in front of him.
“What’s he doing?” Tanya looks at Olivia.
“I don’t know,” she murmurs with mounting alarm.
Josh repeats the gesture and Olivia softly gasps. “Did someone push you?” she asks as a sickening feeling balloons in her stomach. Josh nods. “Who?”
“My . . . my . . . your . . .” He looks at Olivia, silently begging for her to understand.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me. I’m sorry.”
Josh presses his chin into his chest and her heart breaks for him. “We’ll talk about this later. Let’s focus on your mom, okay?” she suggests as her mind races with possibilities. Did he get into a fight? Was he attacked? If so, is that person still a threat?
Tanya repositions the tablet, her fingers hovering over the keys. “When you find out what happened, you let me know if this is something that should be reported.”
“Oh, I will,” Olivia agrees. She lays her hand on Josh’s midback, a protective gesture that doesn’t feel as foreign as she’d expect.
Tanya nods, satisfied, and taps the keyboard. “What’s your sister’s name?”
“Lily Carson.”
“No,” Josh says firmly.
The hand on Josh’s back tenses. Olivia looks at him. “No? That’s not her name?”
“Not . . . Lily.”
She stares at her nephew. No wonder he gave her funny looks whenever she spoke Lily’s name. “She changed her name?” Of course Lily would. She didn’t want her family to find her. That also explains why Lily is a ghost on the internet. Olivia feels a lightness in her chest as her pulse races. They’re getting closer. They’ll find her now.
“Not Lily. Her name is.” He stops all of a sudden and inhales roughly through his nose. “Can’t . . . can’t . . . don’t say.” He pounds his forehead with his fist.
“It’s okay. It’ll come to you.” Her words are rushed. Olivia’s teeth dig into her bottom lip. She’s sitting at the edge of her seat.
Josh nods, but his mouth takes on a doubtful twist, and she tries not to let his disappointment douse her hopes. Lily is out there. They only need her name. He cracks his knuckles.
“What’s Lily’s date of birth?” Tanya asks, steering them back to the report.
Olivia tells the officer and Tanya’s frown deepens as she reads what’s on her screen. “Is your sister Lily Carson of 398 Sundial Court in Seaside Cove?”
Their parents’ address. “Well, she was. Have you got something?” Olivia leans forward to see what’s on Tanya’s screen.
“Says here she was reported as a runaway fourteen years ago.”
“I know. My mom filed a missing persons report. They never found her.”
“But he found you.” Tanya points at Josh.
“I don’t know how.”
Tanya’s gaze mines Josh’s. Olivia sees the questions flicker across the officer’s face, but something on the screen grabs her attention. Her brows lift into her hairline.
“Is your brother Lucas Carson?”
Olivia briefly closes her eyes and silently curses. She found Lucas’s record. “Yes.”
“And your father—”
“Is Dwight Carson. Yes, yes, I know.” They both have records.
“He was a suspect in the St. John murder, which is still unsolved,” Tanya adds, and Olivia detects a hint of accusation, as if Olivia is wasting the officer’s time.
She peeks at Josh, worried how he’s taking this news. He gapes at the officer. “Everyone on that street was questioned. It wasn’t just my dad. It wasn’t just him,” she says to Josh.
“But the St. John case wasn’t the only one for him.”
Olivia wants to disappear under the table. Her family is an embarrassment. “I know,” she mutters. The night Lily ran away Wes Jensen, a boy in Lily’s algebra class, drowned just off their property. Olivia was away at college and Charlotte was a wreck after Lily ran. All she knows is Wes was last seen walking up the Carsons’ driveway. Dwight was brought in for questioning, but there wasn’t enough evidence of foul play. Wes’s case was ruled an accident. Old news that Josh doesn’t need to hear about his mom.
“Your family has had a few run-ins with the authorities.”
Tell her something she doesn’t know. “Can we focus on Josh’s mom?” She tips her head in her nephew’s direction. He doesn’t need to hear their family’s dirt, and frighten him more than he already is.
“Here’s the deal, Ms. Carson.” Tanya closes her tablet. “Your sister is an adult and has every right to go missing.”
“She left her son,” Olivia argues.
“She wouldn’t be the first.”
“What if she’s hurt or dead? We think something happened to her.”
“Gone,” Josh adds.
“Do you have evidence of that?”
Olivia leans back in her chair. “No, but—”
Tanya lifts a hand, stopping her. “Unless there’s evidence of foul play, Lily, or whatever name your sister is going by, is a grown adult. There isn’t much we can do. Without a last-known location or home address so we can target the right community for potential witnesses, the report is useless. Over half a million people go missing every—”