Page 262 of Heart So Hollow

My Glock still rests between my hip and the sofa cushion, but I know Valerie won't actually try anything. This isn't her fight. She didn't come for the Queen. That’s his job, as delusional as it is. When she doesn’t respond, I take the liberty of doing it for her.

“You’ve been sitting here trying to convince yourself that I’m a liar and Bowen isn’t who I say he is. So, tell me, baby girl,” I raise my chin and peer over at her, “did he send you back here or did you come on your own?”

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

Colson

High School

MOM (3:38PM): Meet us in Canaan right now. Evie’s missing.

When I get the text, I’m standing in line at Speedway about to pay for a Mountain Dew. 90 seconds later, I’m rocketing off the on-ramp south toward Evie’s house with a really bad feeling. All the same, I fire off a text to Evie while I weave in and out of traffic, just in case.

ME (3:46PM): where r u? mom said ur missing

But all I get is silence, not even a read. Just like the texts I sent her last night.

I had a feeling. I had a fucking feeling. I had it when I talked to her before she left yesterday, and I had it again last night when I texted her and told her I’d come all the way down to Canaan to pick her up from the skate park.

To make sure she got home…

When I get to her house, Evie’s dad Scott’s green Silverado is parked in front along with two Canaan Police Explorers lining the curve of the cul-de-sac. I bring the Civic to a screeching halt halfway across the driveway.

By the time I walk through the kitchen and into the living room at the back of the house, the room is full. From the doorway, I zero in on Evie’s mom, Lena, sitting on the edge of a leather recliner with her husband, Dan, standing at her shoulder. She has the exact same bright red hair as Evie. I recognize Evie’s aunt standing near Dan, her eyes wide with concern, and Tate Garrison—the chief—sitting on the sofa next to Lena.

There are two other officers standing across the room. One I’ve never seen before, but the other I recognize and it immediately puts me in a foul mood. Wells Rhinehardt, Jay’s older brother, jots down notes as he speaks with Scott. What an asshole. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to recognize me. Then again, I’m not the last person from Dire Ridge he tried to arrest…

When there’s a lull in the conversation, Tate scans his notes, “Alright,” he clears his throat, “I have Evie leaving Scott and Christy’s in Dire Ridge yesterday, late afternoon. You said she was talking to one of you before she left?” Tate shoots a glance across the room at Scott.

Scott nods at me, “My son, Colson, talked to her before she left.”

“Do you remember what time you last saw Evie?” Tate asks.

“Yeah,” I shift my stance against the door, “we left around the same time. I think it was about 5:45.”

Tate starts writing, “Then she arrived at Dan and Lena’s at 6:30…accounting for drive time…Hannah Bailey picked her up at 6:45 and we have them on camera at the Palomino skate park at 7:26. Then she left with Hannah, who let her out at the Circle K on Pinecrest.”

“Why did Hannah leave her there?” Lena cuts in.

Tate pauses, flipping a page in his notebook, “Hannah stated Evie decided she wanted to go back to the skate park and said she’d get a ride from someone there.” He flips back to his original page, “The camera at the Circle K has her walking west, back the way she came, just out of frame at 9:17, but she didn’t go into the store.” Tate glances between Evie’s parents, “Could she have been meeting someone else?”

Lena rubs her temples and looks at Scott, who’s looking more and more desperate. In return, he shakes his head and tosses his hand in the air.

“Is there any reason she might’ve left on her own?” Tate asks.

At this, Scott perks up and narrows his eyes, “What are you implying?”

Tate arches his brow and takes a breath, but before he can get a word out, Scott raises his finger and shoots Tate a sideways glance.

“She’s not a runaway,” he states with conviction, “the girl just got into her dream school, she’s going to play ball, she just went with her mom to buy a prom dress, and she was completely normal and happy the last time I saw her. She did not run away!” His voice gets louder with each breath.

“Her car is still here,” Lena pipes up, trying to quell her ex-husband’s temper, “even if she wanted to run off, why didn’t she take her car?”

“What about her phone?” Evie’s aunt chimes in, “If she took her phone, shouldn’t you be able to track it?”

Tate slowly nods, trying to pacify the tension quickly compounding, “We’ll contact the phone company, see if we can get a location and whether she’s been communicating with anyone. Otherwise, we need to figure out who else saw her after 9:17 last night.”

With that, he flips his notebook shut and moves to stand. All the while, I’m still leaning on the doorframe, watching in silence while these idiots try to insinuate that Evie hitched a ride out of town on a train car.

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