“Since when?”
My eyes meet hers, and I see the same person who always stood by my side. Take away the lies they told to protect me, and this is my best friend. “Since right before he disappeared.”
“Who disappeared?”
“Alexander . . . and then Cruise.”
“What?” She gasps, covering her mouth with her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t think you’d want to hear from me.”
Her arms fly around my neck again. “I’m so sorry.”
“I think they’ve been taken.”
“Have you called the police?”
“I can’t.”
She’s not a dumb girl. Her expression settles into resolve. “Yeah, that’s opening up a can of worms better left closed.”
“This is why I need your help, Shelly.”
“I’m here. What can I do?”
“Can you do what Chad did? I need a background check on Garvey Penner. Let’s start there.”
*
April’s name has become synonymous with hate to me. I avoid calling her by her name or any name at all because every time I do, Bitch comes out instead. But I realize she plays a bigger role in this mystery we’re trying to unfold. She’s a key player who has gone undetected, until now. And as for her nephew, the jury is still out on him. I don’t trust him, but I’m not positive he’s all bad either, so while Shelly begins research on my laptop, I flip through the rest of the papers, trying to find something else to back the certificate.
April’s security grows each day. She feels she deserves to be here. Are the years of drug abuse talking or is it a misplaced narcissism? She was discarded by the Kingwoods. Is she deluded to think the rejection has been reversed? The woman confuses me, but I hate that her malevolence is present in the air of the manor.
Now I need her.
My stomach acid inches higher up my throat until it burns my tongue. I knock once and step back from April’s bedroom door. When she doesn’t answer, I knock again.
There’s no response. I don’t hear any movement from the other side. I wonder where she went.
Just as I start back for my room the door swings open, and she spits, “What do you want?”
“I didn’t know you were home.”
“Then why would you knock?”
Trying to turn this around into a positive exchange, I smile. “I was hoping you were here. Maybe we can have tea or a cocktail together on the terrace?”
A flicker of an emotion I haven’t seen since the night Alexander III killed himself flashes by—kindness. It flickers back, and I’m left with the hate I’ve grown accustomed to. “I’ll take a glass of wine. White with two ice cubes.”
“I can make that,” I say cheerfully. I lose a part of my soul in the process, but I must make my enemy my friend to get what I need: more information. “I’ll bring it out for us.”
“Fine.”
The wine is easy enough to find in the fridge. I’m not much of a drinker, but if it relaxes her, I’ll have a drink. With two goblets in one hand and the bottle in the other, I make my way to the table on the terrace. She looks as uncomfortable as I feel. We take several sips each before I lean forward and say, “We’ve taken a turn in the wrong direction. I’d like to correct that and tell you we are on the same side.”
“There are sides?” Playing dumb, her smile doesn’t even reach her eyes.
“There don’t have to be. Alexander is missing. He’s your son. Aren’t you worried?”
“Boys will be boys. I may be his mother, but he’s a full-grown man. If he needs time alone to find himself, I’ll respect that decision.”
“I don’t think he and Cruise are gallivanting around the country on their motorcycles—”
A bored sigh overtakes my words and the bottom of her glass lands on the table so hard I’m surprised the crystal doesn’t shatter. “Sara Jane, I have been nice, but your overbearing worries are what drove the poor man away. I have no doubt I’ll see my son again. As for you seeing him, that’s your problem, and one you’ll soon discover is not a problem for him, since he left without a word. Shoo, fly. Go away.”
Fly?
Firefly . . .
The image of Madeline’s stationery pops into my head.
“ . . . Since he left you . . .”
“Have you talked to him?”
Her chin darts into the air in strong opposition of my question. “No.”
“So you don’t know where he is?”
“I didn’t say that.”
April’s cloudy blue eyes leer in my direction when I cover my mouth. Grabbing the cut crystal goblet, I gulp down the shock that my suspicions were wrong. I swallow again, taking Cruise’s concerns with the crisp wine. I’m not good at these games people play—the ones that destroy another human without regard. You’d think with what I’ve been through, I’d know how to, but it seems the ante is always upped when I’m not looking.
“I . . . I’m not sure what to say to that.” I seek the gentler side of her I once saw, and the bond that we as women should have. Hell, I search her eyes for the motherly side of her personality, but it’s not empathy I find. It’s a hollow, inexplicable hate that she easily replicates at someone else’s expense.
“There’s not much to say.” Then she reveals that softer side. I hear it in her tone and see it in her tapping fingers. “It’s time for you to stop playing make-believe games. He’s gone. He left you.”
The breeze is slight, and her hair blows away from her face, exposing a long neck with more than wrinkles co-mingling. Pinprick scars litter the side, reminding me of the life she once had and the one that was taken from her. But I know who I’m dealing with. She’s shown her true colors. Somehow, despite years of drug abuse, she’s capable of cruel behavior toward someone who has never harmed her. Maybe that’s her natural instinct. A life of desperation can easily drag someone down a path of hatred.
I still want answers. “You must have been very beautiful to catch the eye of a married tycoon.”
Invisible lightning strikes; her fury awakens. “Beauty only lasts so long.” Her eyes fixate into a distant memory. “I had it all. I was beautiful.” She closes her eyes. “Everyone told me so.”
“Even Alexander Kingwood the second?”
Her laughter echoes through the large terrace. Whispering conspiratorially, she says, “Darling, Alexander Kingwood the second was a sucker for a blonde who gave good blowjobs. The target was always the third, but he was blind to what was right in front of him.”
“Madeline was right in front him.”