Page 46 of Elusion

An attempted smile in Jess’s direction almost injures her and ends up as more of a sneer.

I wait for her to disappear down the hallway before sliding onto the couch with Jess. “She’s going to snoop.”

Jess laughs and relaxes, the air returning to the room.

Shortly after my mother returns from a twenty-minute search for evidence of my unsatisfactory living conditions, Felicia arrives. I stand to walk Jess out, and Carol clears her throat. I give her a wink on my way by and go anyway.

Felicia hangs out her window. “Hey, how did last night go?”

Jess and I exchange glances, unsure of which of us she’s referring to, so she points to Jess. “Not you. Gross. Johnny?” Then she points at me. “You. I missed Callie before she left this morning.”

“She left last night. But we’re good. I did you proud.”

She grins. “I always knew you would.”

“Can I come by later?” I ask.

“I’ll be around,” she says, ducking back in the car.

I wave as they back out of the drive and head inside where my mother is waiting with a concerned half-smile.

“We need to talk, honey.”

Oh, great, a heart-to-heart between the displeased mother and her disappointing son. How much better can my morning possibly get?

She pulls her leg up between us on the couch and angles herself toward me. For someone who wants to talk, she stares for a long time. With the silence growing uncomfortably awkward, I chance a guess at our topic of conversation. “You don’t like my girlfriend, Jess?”

She sighs. “I was afraid of this. I had hoped, with as eager as you were for these four years, you wouldn’t squander them on a girl.”

It’s almost too easy, and I have to focus on keeping a straight face. “Don’t you want me to be happy and in love?”

On the last word, an unbridled expression of disgust pinches her face. “We’ll find you someone more suitable.” She pats my leg. “After law school.”

“Oh, Mother.” I shake my head. “No, you won’t. I’m going to marry that girl. In fact, I plan to ask Nana for the ring she promised me. A June wedding maybe? Unless you think fall is more fitting.”

Her eyes close, her skin turning white. In the mood for a celebratory cigar over my impending fake engagement, I leave her on the couch to needlessly panic.

Point for the disappointing son.

After three glasses of scotch, my body believes it is time for bed, but it’s only one o’clock in the afternoon. I stretch out on the floor in Felicia and Jess’s room and check my phone. Still no word from Callie. On my way in, I noticed her car in the parking lot, so someone must plan on bringing her back tomorrow.

Felicia joins me with her laptop. “So, you think if we search Callista instead of Callie?”

“Did you know her full name?”

“No. I looked all over social media for her the first couple of weeks of school but gave up when I couldn’t find her. That must be why.” She runs a search for Callista Henders and shakes her head. “Nothing. I found her brother’s profile though.”

I recognize Connor as she pulls it up and starts scrolling. Intermingled with snapshots of basketball games and his friends, pictures reveal glimpses of the closeness between Callie and her siblings. Even through the computer screen, the bond is evident. I keep an eye out for anyone who could be her father, mostly to debunk my Mafia theory once and for all. But except for a basketball coach, everyone is younger.

The account only goes back a few years, so I think we’re ready to move on until Felicia says, “It says he lives in Waymore, but a lot of these were taken somewhere else.” She stops on one where a sign in the background readsSutterville.

What I consider an insignificant observation sends her into a clicking frenzy. Detective Felicia does not come to play. She maneuvers back and forth from one account to the next until she ninjas her way to a profile belonging to someone named Shayna.

“That’s why we can’t find her,” she says. “Callie disabled her account. See?” She points to a post on the screen. “It’s her name but in a regular font, so you can’t click it. This must be a friend who tagged her in pictures before, so her name still shows up.”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, but images of Callie fill the screen in front of us. We see her at prom, graduation, and camping. Felicia even stumbles upon some of her with blonde hair and laughs.

“Hold on.” I scroll to the top and click on the first picture to make it larger.

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