Josie said, “Someone killed Eden by beating her and then leaving her in the river to drown. At the dam. The water release chute, specifically. We believe that she had been held captive for some time before her death.”
Hugo swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. His voice was barely audible when he said, “What about Amber?”
Noah said, “Amber has been missing for approximately four days now.”
Hugo’s head dropped to his hands, forehead resting on his laced fingers. “I don’t understand what’s happening,” he said, voice muffled. “None of this makes any sense.”
“When is the last time you were in contact with Eden?” asked Noah.
Hugo smiled and then, as if remembering that Eden was gone, tears spilled from his eyes and his smile turned to a wince. His voice cracked when he spoke. “Eden was my sweet girl. She was the only one who forgave and forgot. The kids, they always had this idea that their childhood was so terrible.”
“Why would they think it was terrible?” asked Josie.
He shook his head. “I have no idea. Because we got divorced? Moved around a lot? Who knows? The point is that all of them had this warped idea that things were so awful for them. Amber wanted nothing to do with me or Lydia once she turned eighteen. Gabriel stopped speaking to me altogether after he joined that crazy church, but Eden… she had such a great heart. We weren’t close but we talked on the phone at least once a month. I tried to see her once or twice a year if she would allow it.”
“Did she allow it?” asked Noah.
Josie pushed a box of tissues toward Hugo and he took one, dabbing at his face. “Yes. She did. We would usually meet somewhere between Philadelphia and Williamsport. Have lunch and try to do something for the day. I last saw her in July. The fourth of July.”
“What about the last time you spoke?” Josie said.
“Thanksgiving. I called her on Thanksgiving. We talked for a few minutes. If you’re going to ask about Amber next, the answer is that I haven’t seen or spoken to her in just about ten years.”
That meant that Amber had been telling the truth about her relationship with her family.
“How about your ex-wife?”
He shook his head. “I haven’t spoken with Lydia in almost twelve years. She left us. Abandoned us. We’ve had nothing to say to one another since.”
Noah said, “Mrs. Norris said that the two of you got divorced and that the kids were angry with her and chose to stay with you.”
Hugo laughed bitterly. “We got divorced because she left! The kids had no choice but to stay with me. Their mother disappeared! No warning. She left everything behind, even her own children.”
Josie asked, “Is that why Amber told people that she wanted nothing to do with your family?”
He hung his head. “I don’t know why. My girls, they were always prone to being overdramatic. I tried my best with them, but it was never enough.”
But Amber had never struck Josie as particularly dramatic. She could get stressed out sometimes with the demands of the job, but that was to be expected. Amber was always professional, even-tempered, and very capable. “Could it have had something to do with your sister?” Josie asked.
He looked up, scowling. “This again. It’s a pity you spoke with Lydia first. There is only one thing you can always count on Lydia to do, you know?”
“What’s that?” said Josie.
“Lie.”
Twenty-Eight
Unmoving, Josie studied Hugo Watts for a long moment. So long that she could hear the ticking of the wall clock. Noah didn’t fill the silence. The two of them waited for Hugo to do it. Noah used his index finger to roll a pen back and forth along the table as if bored. To his credit, Hugo went a very long time without fidgeting. Josie started counting the beats of the clock. When she got to one hundred sixty-seven, Hugo unlaced his fingers, rubbed his hands together as though he was cold, and then laced his fingers together once more. At one hundred ninety-three, he cleared his throat. At two hundred five seconds, he said, “What did Lydia tell you about my sister?”
Josie shifted in her chair. “It doesn’t really matter, does it? Especially since, as you say, she lied.”
Noah let his pen roll away from him and used a palm to slap it in place. Hugo’s shoulders jerked in surprise. Noah gave him a genial smile. “Why don’t you tell us what really happened?”
Hugo swallowed. “What really happened with what?”
Josie said, “Let’s start with what happened to make Amber decide she never wanted to see any of you again.”
He brought his folded hands to his forehead and rubbed the knuckle of his thumb across his eyebrow ridge. Lowering them, he said, “I don’t know why, okay? Like I said, both my girls were handfuls. There was no making them happy. When Amber turned eighteen, she said she was finished being a part of the family. She had gotten into college. She said she was leaving and didn’t want contact with us any longer. She didn’t even want me or Lydia to pay for school. She just wanted a clean break. At first, I thought if we all gave her some space, she’d come back, but year after year passed and she never called or tried to make contact.”
“There was no precipitating event for this ‘clean break?’” Josie asked.
“No, no. She had been unhappy for a long time, since the divorce, really, and I guess going away to college seemed like a natural time to distance herself.”
Something about his explanation didn’t sit right with Josie. If Amber’s break with her family had been gradual and the result of discord after her parents’ divorce, why wouldn’t she just tell people that? Why refuse to speak about your family at all, even to your best friend and the man you were moving in with?
“You’re saying there were no issues with your sister, Nadine,” said Josie.
“My ex-wife left me broke with three kids. I was a young attorney, not yet established. My sister took us in until I got on my feet and found us a place of our own. Unlike their mother, Nadine gave them structure, rules, routine. None of them liked that. They preferred the free-for-all that Lydia always allowed.”
Two diametrically opposed stories. Josie wondered if there was any truth to be found in the things either of them said. “Amber sustained a burn on her back when she was a child. What can you tell us about that?”
Hugo laughed but when he realized they were waiting for an answer, annoyance flashed across his face. “How is that relevant to anything we’re discussing today? Do you think knowing how Amber got a burn on her back when she was a kid is going to help you locate her? Or figure out who killed Eden?”
Josie said, “Sometimes looking at family dynamics gives us better insight into victims and helps us figure out why certain things happened to them.”
“You think that finding out how Amber got a burn on her back as a child is going to help you figure out why she disappeared?”
Instead of answering his question, Josie said, “Let’s just talk about your family, then. We’ve heard Lydia’s side of the story. How about yours?”
Hugo heaved a sigh. “What do you want to know?”