Page 99 of The Vanishing Place
Lewis stood with his hands in his pockets, the salt breeze flapping his jacket.
“Tia is out there!” she shouted.
“Effie—”
“You don’t really believe what they’re saying, do you?” Her eyes pleaded with him.“Suicide?”
He took a step toward her.
“Murder?” The word burned her throat. “She’s eight, Lewis.Eight!There’s no way.” Effie pressed her palms against her temples. “They’ve missed something. I know they have. I know.”
“Effie.”
“No.” She held a hand out, stopping him. “Don’t. Don’t tell me that—”
“That what?” There was a hardness to his voice.
“That I’m mad. That I’m overreacting. That I should let them do their job.”
“They searched the hut from top to bottom, Effie. A whole team.”
“You heard Morrow. They knew what they wanted to find. They went in there—”
Lewis reached out and took her hand, their bodies just a foot apart. Breathing the same air.
“There was no evidence of your sister living there,” he said. “Or your dad.”
“I saw him,” she insisted.
“You think you saw someone.” His tone was firm. “But CIB had the dogs out, and the drones.”
Effie threw her arm out, pointing in the direction of the bush. “Drones and dogs aren’t going to find shit out there in two days. It’s the bush, Lewis. It’s the same world that hid me for fifteen years.Fifteen years.The bush swallows you up. It holds tight and doesn’t let go.”
“That was different. No one was…”
Effie stilled, her body heavy, and she stared at him. “Are you saying you didn’t look for me?”
“Effie, that was—”
“Did you look for me?”
Lewis was close enough that she could feel the shake in him.
“Effie—”
“Did you look for me?” she shouted.
“Yes!” His voice tore through the air. “Yes,” he said again, softer. “Of course I looked for you. I searched for you every school break for two years.”
He leaned in and placed his hands on either side of her face. His thumb grazed her cheek, the sensation pulsing in every inch of Effie’s body. It was like slipping into a memory, into the broken heart of a fifteen-year-old girl.
“That day,” he said, “when you turned up on June’s doorstep after two years…it was the best and worst day of my life.”
His eyes burrowed into her, and Effie could almost taste him, he was that close.
“I found you and lost you all at once,” he said.
He moved his thumb along her jaw, stopping at the corner of her mouth.
