Page 29 of After All The Wreckage
“I’m not really charging you,” she said as if reading my mind. “That’s just so I can legally do things on your behalf.”
My stomach rolled. Charity. Had she and her mom discussed it and decided to do this for her old friend Holland’s kids? Was her mom going to help? Or was she doing this on her own?
Muloney’s words from last night hit me.Girl thinks her little PI license makes her a cop or some modern-day Nancy Drew.Both her parents were in the business. She’d picked up the mantle by working with her mom. If anyone could find Monte, I had to believe it was Rory and her family.
“You’ll find him, right?” My voice was thick and scratchy.
“I already did,” she said, and joy flew through me for half a second before she squashed it again, “and then I lost him. Let me show you. Sign the contract first.”
I signed where she’d told me, handed it back to her, and she brought up a video. It was a view outside Cherry Bay’s middle school. She hit Play and said, “Watch.”
A black sedan showed up with a CarShare app sticker in the front window. Monte appeared from the gates of the school. He had on a green baseball hat, a gray windbreaker with the name of the bar written on the back, and faded jeans. His favorite kicks were on his feet. White and lime-green neon. His black backpack hung from one shoulder until he threw it into the backseat and followed it inside.
My heart sped up. He’d hired a car. That should be easy enough for anyone to trace.
“He booked it using your credit card,” she said.
I started to ask how she knew and cut myself off. This was her job, and I could only imagine that despite Muloney’s derision, she was good at it because Rory had wanted to do this her entire life.
“I had him put the app on his phone a while ago. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t stuck without a ride if there was an emergency with Ivy or just… I should have checked my card. I didn’t even think about it.”
Frustration brewed in me again. I’d wasted so much time yesterday. I could have found out exactly where he’d gone and traced his steps from there to the location his phone had last pinged.
“It’s hard to think clearly when someone you love is missing.” She minimized one computer tab and brought up another. “I followed the sedan through as many traffic and bridge cams as I could. But based on what you’d said about Congressman Dunn and the time he left Cherry Bay, I was able to pick him up at the Capitol on Friday.”
This time, the video showed the same car dropping Monte off on a corner near the domed building. God, it was good to seehis face. But then I realized this was Friday, when he’d still been texting me. Grief washed over me so strongly I had to grasp the back of the barstool to steady myself. I would have taken him. If he’d insisted, I would have gone with him.
My stomach sank as the truth hit me for the first time. He hadn’t wanted me to be involved. The last time we’d made a fuss, the FBI had shown up at our door and put me in cuffs while they searched the house. Thankfully, Ivy had no recollection of it, but Monte’s eyes had been terrified. He hadn’t relaxed until the FBI had let me go. Then he’d hugged me so tight I thought he’d break a rib.
He’d blamed himself.
Damn it, Demi. How could you leave him to deal with this on his own? I don’t know how to help him through it. And yet, would I really want her back even if she showed up? Could I ever forgive her? I didn’t want her screwing up our lives and taking our money. Not again. We couldn’t handle any more cracks to the barely put together bones of our family.
“I’d hack the cameras inside the Capitol, but even as good as I am, someone will eventually notice, and the last thing we need is for me to get arrested. Instead, we’ll use a friend I have who works there. We might be able to see who Monte talked to and trace his steps from there. Even if he lost his phone or it went dead, he might go back today if he’s determined to talk to Dunn. We’ll head into D.C. as soon as you’re ready.”
I should have thought of that too. If he hadn’t seen the congressman this weekend, he’d definitely try to get to him today. Everything I’d been doing had been all screwed up. Rory was right. I’d been lost in panic. Lost in kicking myself over my failures instead of really putting my head on straight. But her ideas gave me hope in a way I hadn’t had a few minutes ago. Hope I tried to tame in case we didn’t find him.
Ivy’s little voice, singing in the bathroom, drew our eyes in that direction. I wanted to rush out the door and head to D.C., but I needed to get her to preschool first. River and Audrey would take her, but they were going to search for Monte in the coves and beaches along the Potomac where the college kids held their weekend parties. Plus, taking Ivy to preschool meant keeping her schedule as normal as possible. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do with little kids? Keep their worlds normal?
“I need to drop her off at day care and make sure I’m back to get her.”
Ivy came running down the hall, her hair flying all over the place. She had on a pink dress and sparkly pink tennis shoes, and she’d put a pink cape on her otter.
I’d never understood until I was chartered with looking after her just how drawn some little girls were to pink. It certainly wasn’t because I’d forced the color on her, but if she chose anything for herself, it was in some shade of pink, including ice cream, milkshakes, and cookies. If we bought frosted animal cookies, she only ate the pink ones.
She handed me a brush, comb, hairbands, and two enormous pink and white polka-dot bows. Inwardly, I groaned but took the items and plopped her on the stool at the counter. I felt Rory watching me as I tried to divide Ivy’s hair neatly down the middle and pull it back into two high ponytails.
Reaching over the counter, I flicked the sink on, wetted the comb, and did what I did every day?my best with a mess of curls. Just as I went to put a band around the first one, Ivy turned her head to ask Rory a question and the movement caused her hair to slip from my grip. I bit my cheek, trying not to swear.
When I risked looking at Rory, her lips were twitching. The last twenty-four hours had been hell. The worst hours of myentire godforsaken existence. And now, in less than an hour, Rory had added a light to it. Hope and light. It did something funny to my chest. It did something that made me wonder for the first time since Dad had died what it would look like if I didn’t have to do any of this alone. What if I had a partner… What if I had Rory? Ridiculous thoughts that weren’t going to happen, but that snuck in and wouldn’t let go.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Rory
BABY LAY YOUR HEAD DOWN
Performed by Aly & AJ
