Whoever Raina was calling wasn’t picking up.
“Do you want me to go to Tara’s room and see what’s happening?” Cindy asked bluntly.
Raina didn’t especially like having Cindy at her side. “That’s the last thing I want,” she grumbled. “I simply want Tara down here immediately.”
“I’ll go and get her,” said Cindy quietly.
Lynch put his hand on Cindy’s arm to stop her. “Tara won’t take well to that,” he said. “She doesn’t like being checked up on.”
“Tara doesn’t like this, she doesn’t like that,” Raina grew more irate. “This is your rehearsal dinner, however. Friends have come from far to attend it -. Right now it doesn’t matter what she likes.”
“It’s okay, mom,” Lynch tried to calm Raina, though she would have none of it.
“There’s nothing okay about it, Lynch,” Raina grew more edgy.
“I’m going this minute to check on Tara,” said Cindy definitively. “Tara asked me to be here, to stand by her side.”
“Why would she ask you that?” asked Lynch astonished.
Cindy was amazed at the way Lynch seemed to block out the upset that had gone on between them the past few days. “Tara was feeling wobbly after she heard about your son,” Cindy put it plainly.
“That again? Raina’s face flushed bright red. “You bring that up now? In the midst of our happiness?”
Mattheus interrupted strongly. “Cindy’s just answering Lynch’s question.”
“There’s no good answer to Lynch’s question,” Raina flung her head back. “And we are going on with the rehearsal dinner as if everything is just fine. If people ask where Tara is, I’ll simply tell them, she’s not feeling well. A stomach virus.”
“But is that true?” Cindy confronted Raina directly.
“Who the hell cares?” said Raina.
“I care,” said Cindy, “and I’m sure Lynch cares as well.”
“Of course, I care,” said Lynch, growing nervous. “Go, please go and check her room.”
*
Mattheus stayed with Lynch and Raina and Cindy got the number and key to Tara’s room. She went to the elevators and waited for one, at first feeling calm. But on the way up to Tara’s room, Cindy’s stomach fell. What if Tara wasn’t there?
Cindy got off on the fourteenth floor, rushed down the hall, put the lock in the key, opened the door. The room was totally empty. As she looked around quickly, the pit in Cindy’s stomach grew. Everything was in perfect order. The bed was made, the clothing was in the closets, even Tara’s hand bag was laying right there. But there was no evidence in the room that a young woman had spent time in it getting ready for her rehearsal dinner. There was also no evidence of a struggle or that anything untoward had taken place. In fact, there was no evidence of anything at all.
Cindy took a deep breath and went out on the balcony and looked out at the huge vista from it. Again, everything was in perfect order. The gardens below were trimmed and manicured, the moon was rising in the sky. Some guests were walking in the courtyard below. A perfect silence before the storm, thought Cindy. Perhaps Tara had just quietly decided to walk away on her own? Somehow it didn’t seem likely to Cindy, though. If she did, why would she leave her bag behind?
A sense of doom encircling her, Cindy called Mattheus immediately.
“What’s going on up there?” he asked. “Everyone down here is waiting.”
“Gone,” said Cindy in a hoarse tone.
“Repeat that,” Mattheus sounded stunned.
“Tara’s room is empty. She’s nowhere to be found.”
“Oh God,” said Mattheus, “I don’t believe it.”
“Put a call into the police this second,” Cindy said.
“I’m on it,” Mattheus replied.
CHAPTER 10
In less than ten minutes Cindy watched three police cars converge onto the hotel, as stunned reporters flashed their cameras. The police got out of their cars, rushed into the hotel and flocked into the private dining room, en masse. The room which had become quiet, filled with panic.
“What’s wrong? What happened? Is someone hurt?” Voices rose above one another.
“Who called the police?” Raina she rushed over to Mattheus, incensed.
“Routine procedure,” said Mattheus quietly.
“There is nothing routine about it. Police do not flood a private dinner party unless they’re called,” Raina insisted.
“I called them,” Mattheus stood eye to eye with her. “There was no choice about it. Tara’s not in her room, but her belongings still are.”
“Idiotic and ridiculous,” Raina breathed. “What’s the big deal? Tara obviously had cold feet, ran away and is hiding somewhere under our noses. We could have easily found her on our own. She’ll come to her senses - everyone does. You’ve gone and destroyed our celebration.”
“I hope it’s that simple,” said Mattheus. “Really, I do.”