“Hey, can I talk to Lil?” Abby had paused, her nose scrunching up in concern. “So you haven’t talked to her since last period? Okay, if you hear from her, tell her to call us ASAP.” Abby hung up, staring back at the phone as if willing it to ring.
Eve had instructed Abby to phone all her friends. Anyone Lily might have gotten a ride with. Each call only seemed to confirm Eve’s worst fears. Something bad had happened to Lily. She called Dave at the hospital, praying that Lily had dropped by to visit her father.
“Please tell me that Lily is with you.”
“No. I haven’t seen her since breakfast.”
Eve’s dread grew. “Lily. I think… I think she’s missing.”
She’d tried to keep the panic out of her voice, but he heard it anyway.
“I’ll be there in ten. Call the police, Eve. I’m sure she’s okay, but call them now.”
Eve had tried to stay calm, hoping to counteract Abby’s growing hysteria. She kept offering up suggestions. Maybe Lily went to a movie or out to dinner. Or she’d gone into Philly and forgotten to call. But that was ridiculous. Lily wasn’t impulsive like that, and she never went anywhere without her sister by her side.
At some point, their house began to fill with cops. Neighbors showed up, along with a flood of tearful teenagers. The press arrived too, camping out on the front lawn. The FBI was next, and then the interviews began. Eve and Dave were questioned—no, grilled—for hours. Polygraphs. Police interrogations. They asked prying, probing questions. They wanted to know about her marital problems. About Dave’s infidelity and Eve’s subsequent visit to a divorce attorney. They were questions that had nothing to do with Lily being gone.
“She’s my daughter. My goddamn daughter. Why would I hurt her? Why? It doesn’t make sense,” Eve had said over and over again. Dave did his best to console her, but they were at the point where everything about their partner annoyed them. Lily’s disappearance only heightened that.
When it became clear that neither Eve nor Dave had anything to do with Lily being missing, the authorities cast a wider net. They questioned the entire school and faculty, interviewed transients and sex offenders. The police swept rivers and swamps. Hundreds of friends and family members searched the countryside. The story made national news. Usually, there were clues, but sometimes, the pundits on CNN said again and again, people simply vanish.
Eve had wondered if she would ever be whole again, but her devastation was nothing compared to Abby’s. Her girls were a pair. Abby was the leader, six minutes older and bossy as hell. Lily happily accepted Abby’s role as commander in chief. But Eve soon realized that Lily was the glue that held them together. Without Lily, the light in Abby vanished. Lily was Abby’s light.
But now, after all these years, here they were, arm in arm. All Eve wanted to do was shut everyone out and hold on to her girls. She wanted to hold on to her grandbaby and swear that no one would ever hurt them again. But things were moving too fast for that. One second Eve was standing on her porch with Lily; the next she was sitting next to Sheriff Rogers in his police cruiser.
Tommy. That’s how she knew him. They hadn’t been in the same room in over seven years. There were new lines around his eyes, his temples were graying, but other than that he hadn’t aged. How was that possible when she looked years older?
Before everything with Lily happened, Tommy had been a complete stranger. Eve didn’t even know his name. In fact, she was pretty certain she’d voted for his opponent in his first election. But she’d grown close to him in the weeks and months after Lily vanished. He’d been tireless in leading the search, assuring her they were doing everything they could, keeping her calm and listening to her desperate ramblings when Dave simply wouldn’t do it anymore. After three weeks with no sign of Lily, he was the only one who had the courage to tell her the truth.
“I’m sorry, Eve,” he’d said, her house dangerously quiet. “We’re calling off the search. You have to accept the fact that Lily isn’t coming home.” This gruff, tobacco-chewing, deer-hunting man had broken down when he told her. She’d kissed him then, needing someone to hold her and tell her that things were going to be okay, even if she knew they never would.
It had been complete and total stupidity on her part to fall in love with him, but Lily’s disappearance made her reckless in a way that she’d never been before. She’d pursued him with a single-minded determination. For three months, their affair continued. In seedy motel rooms, Eve’s SUV, Tommy’s patrol car—any place they could steal away. It was Dave’s sudden heart attack that ended things for good.
“We can’t do this anymore,” Tommy said after the funeral. Eve knew he had a family, but she didn’t care. She loved him. But Tommy had made up his mind.
“It’s not who we are, Evie. We’re good people.”