“Because they need proof to hold us and they don’t have any.”
“They don’t have any because we didn’t do anything,” Caroline said, growing dizzy from going around in so many circles. Was Hunter right? Could the police really believe they’d murdered Samantha? Instead of searching for their little girl, were the police busy gathering evidence to implicate her and Hunter? If so, maybe he was right—nothing more would be accomplished here. They were jeopardizing not only their freedom but their lives. Maybe they should get the hell out of Mexico before it was too late. “What about that waiter from room service who nobody has seen since that night?”
“The police claim they’re looking for him.”
“You don’t think they are?”
“Let’s just say I don’t think they’re looking very hard.”
“Why not, for God’s sake?”
“Because they’ve already decided we’re guilty,” he said again. “This happens all the time, Caroline, and not just in Mexico. I see it every day. The police think they know who’s responsible, so they get tunnel vision. They ignore other suspects and discount any evidence that doesn’t support their position.”
“What about the housekeeper?” Caroline persisted. “She had a master keycard. She could easily have gotten inside. Or the babysitter who was with the kids every night. You saw how she loved Samantha. Maybe she couldn’t have children of her own. Maybe…”
“The housekeeper was at home with her family. The babysitter was on another assignment.”
“They could have had accomplices…”
“Yes, they could have,” Hunter agreed, sinking back down on the sofa. “But the police aren’t looking for accomplices. They’re looking at us. They’re saying we’re the ones who canceled the babysitter…”
“Which we didn’t.”
“…that you were the one who phoned the front desk and told them not to put any more calls through to the room…”
“Because my mother had phoned and I didn’t want anyone else to call and disturb the girls.”
“It doesn’t matter why. It just matters that it looks suspicious.”
“How is that suspicious? Oh, God. It’s hopeless. We’ll never find her. We’ll never get her back.”
“It’s not hopeless,” Hunter said, his posture saying otherwise. “I’ve already talked to the senior partners at my firm. They think we should hire a private investigator, which I’ll do as soon as we get home…”
“I can’t do it. I can’t go anywhere until I find my baby.”
The phone rang. Hunter picked it up. “Yes,” he said instead of “hello.” Then, extending his hand toward her: “It’s Peggy.”
Caroline took the phone from his outstretched hand.
“How are you?” Peggy asked.
“Not good.”
“Do you want me to come back?”
Yes, Caroline thought. “No,” she said. Peggy hadn’t wanted to leave Rosarito, but she had two children of her own to get back to. She had a job, responsibilities, a life.
Rain and Jerrod had been the first to go, leaving as soon as the police gave their okay, off to spend Thanksgiving in New York. Caroline didn’t begrudge them their plans. They weren’t close friends, and there was nothing they could do here. Besides, Rain’s concern had verged on the spectacular, her sympathy so overwhelming that it left little room for Caroline to feel anything but numb. In truth, she’d been glad to see them go.
She was equally relieved when her brother and Becky followed suit the next day, the tension between the two having become unbearable after Mary’s arrival. Peggy and Fletcher were the last to leave. “We’re just a phone call away,” Peggy had said then.
“What’s happening?” she asked now.
“Apparently the police think we did it.”
“That’s ridiculous. What are you going to do?”
“Hunter wants us to go home.”
“Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.”
“I don’t know. He’s called a press conference for this afternoon,” Caroline said, feeling sick to her stomach. The world press had jumped on the story of Samantha’s disappearance, and Hunter had decided they should sidestep the seeming incompetence of the Mexican police by appealing to the international community for help. At first Caroline had resisted taking her grief public, but Hunter was insistent that a mother’s tears would go a long way toward getting Samantha back, so how could she refuse? The police were against them talking to the press, and had been successful so far in keeping the reporters at bay, claiming that such publicity would only hinder their investigation. But Hunter was convinced that they were only concerned about looking bad. Besides, he argued, the police thought that he and Caroline were guilty of murdering their own child. So, screw them.
“Let me know how it goes,” Peggy said before hanging up.
“I guess we should start getting ready,” Hunter said.