“Come on, baby, let’s get some champagne. I’m gonna need the alcohol to survive this.” He kissed my temple and put his arm around my waist. Yeah, Lewis’s family could get a little…extravagant when they were all together. I still had flashbacks from the Irish dancing incident at his mum’s birthday party.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re far too young to be this grumpy, you know.” He also didn’t like how his gran had a million stories about him when he was a baby. Personally, I loved it.
“Oh, now I’m young? You’re always teasing the crap out of me for being old, so which one is it?” He raised his eyebrows and waited for an answer.
I shrugged. “That all depends on my mood.” He chuckled quietly and pulled me into a kiss.
27
LEWIS
Thursday, February 24th (Present)
I lay awake in Summer’s bed. It was two thirty in the morning, and I had only slept for about an hour. I had a shitty feeling in the pit of my stomach. All I could think was, There’s something really wrong. Even more wrong than her being missing. Today marked the seventh month she had been gone. Was that too long to find her alive? I couldn’t think there was no chance. Statistically the chances sucked, but I had to believe she was still alive.
She had to come back soon. I couldn’t think straight. I hated every second she was out there wondering if we were still looking for her. Whenever thoughts of what she was going through slipped into my mind, I felt sick, angry, and just wanted to punch someone or something. Someone knew what happened, but no one was coming forward. I hated them. I hated everyone—most of all myself.
I shouldn’t have let her go to that fucking gig. Not that I could have ever stopped her doing anything she wanted, but I should have. I should have been the arsehole boyfriend and made her stay with me. She would have hated me, but she would be here.
Sitting up in bed, I rubbed my temples, feeling another headache coming on from the lack of sleep. I hated waking up every morning knowing I faced another day desperately searching, knowing at the end of the day I would be going to bed alone in Summer’s house while she was out there living God knows what hell.
“Lewis,” Henry said and pushed the bedroom door open. “I was thinking about going to Hart’s.” Finally! I had wanted to go and see Greg Hart ever since the police released him after questioning. He should never have been let out, especially after finding eight bodies in the canal. They believed the murders spanned over four years. The search wasn’t even over; the cops thought there could still be more bodies.
“Pretty sure I already know the answer, but are you coming?” he asked.
I cocked my head to the side. It had been my idea in the first place, but Henry had refused and spouted off a million reasons why it was a bad idea. I had no doubt that it was a bad idea, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I couldn’t relax or eat or sleep until she was found. Time was standing still, and I was stuck until we knew.
“You know I am.” If I could just talk to him, maybe I could get him to tell me where Summer was.
“Henry, the guy that helped with the search, Colin Brown, do you think there’s something weird about him?” Theo said I was being stupid and looking for answers wherever I thought I could find them, but the guy was creepy. I couldn’t get his face out of my head.
“Not really. What do you mean ‘something weird’ anyway?”
“I don’t know,” I replied and sighed deeply. Maybe I was just looking for anything and looking in the wrong places. “He just seemed so…closed off. Everyone else that’s helped with the search did it because they want Summer found. It seemed like he was doing it because he thought he should.”
Henry frowned. “How did you get all that from talking to him once?”
“I dunno. He was…” I shook my head. I didn’t even know what I meant. “Never mind.”
“Maybe he just didn’t know how to react. Forget it, Lewis; we need to concentrate on getting Hart talking. He’s under police surveillance so it won’t be easy. We’ll think of a plan in the morning. Sleep,” he ordered and left the room.
Sighing, I laid back down and stared at the ceiling. Maybe Henry’s right about Colin. I needed to concentrate on Hart, the one real suspect—or person of interest, whatever he was now—the police had.
Sleep was impossible. I couldn’t relax, even though I was exhausted from walking around searching all day. I glanced over to the bedside table where Summer kept a framed picture of us. We looked so happy—we were happy. She drove me crazy but I love her and would do anything for her. Looking at it was torture but I couldn’t put it down; my eyes were fixed on her perfect face. “Tell me where you are, baby,” I whispered, swallowing the lump in my throat.