Page 9 of Long Gone

“How long were you married?”

A soft smile loosened the determination on her face. “A few months shy of twenty years when he disappeared. We were planning a party to celebrate.”

“How did you meet?”

“In college, at a fraternity party. My sorority partnered with his fraternity at Ole Miss. We met our freshman year and fell in love. We married the June after we graduated.”

“Were you both from Lone County?”

“Oh, no,” she said with a short laugh. “Neither of us were, but Hugo had a friend in college who presented him with a business opportunity, so we moved here to check it out.”

“Right after college?”

“Yes, we were in the process of moving and planning the wedding. It was pretty chaotic.”

“I’m sure,” I said with a smile. “So where are your families?”

“Hugo’s parents died in a car accident when our son Anton was five, and my father died of a heart attack shortly after Hugo disappeared. My mother still lives in Mississippi.”

“Do you have any other children?”

“We also have a daughter, Mary Ann.”

“How old are your kids and where do they live?”

Her face beamed with pride. “Anton just graduated from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock last May with a nursing degree. He works at the surgery center in Wolford.”

“And Mary Ann?”

“She’s currently a sophomore at Ole Miss.”

“How old were the kids when your husband disappeared?”

“Anton was seventeen and Mary Ann was fourteen.”

I held her gaze with a sympathetic look. “I’m sure that was difficult for all of you. How did they handle his disappearance?”

She frowned. “Honestly, not well. They were very, very close to Hugo and refused to believe he’d left them.”

“Would either of them be willing to talk to me?”

Her eyes widened. “Is that necessary?”

“They might have a fresh take that you don’t.” When she hesitated, I added, “You can have a roomful of people watch the same event, and every one of them will have a slightly different version. We all see things through the lens of what we’ve experienced, and sometimes it makes us see things differently. That doesn’t mean their versions are wrong. They’re just different.”

She studied me for a moment, then nodded. “I’m not sure speaking to them is necessary.”

“You don’t want me to speak to your children?”

“I don’t want to worry them about this.”

At some point, they’d figure out that she was working on declaring him legally dead, but it wasn’t my job to question her decisions. I’d let it go for now but circle back around to it later. For the present, I decided to switch gears. “From what little I know, most people think your husband ran off. Why do you think he’s no longer living?”

Her fingers toyed with the fringe on a throw pillow next to her as she trained her gaze out the window. “Hugo turned out to have been somewhat of a fraud.” She swallowed hard, then turned to face me. “But one thing I’m sure of is that he loved me deeply and he loved our kids. He would do anything for them. Anything. He never would have left us—and especially them—with this mess.”

“And when you say mess, what exactly do you mean?”

Sighing, she sat back, took a sip of her water, and then set the glass on the table next to her. “Hugo had multiple business deals in the works when he disappeared. He was into land development and often worked with corporations to set up new locations for their franchises.”

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