Page 13 of Vineyard Winds

Claire had thought this was fascinating—that those you loved and knew the most were the most difficult to find. Perhaps it was because they knew how to hide from you the most.

Claire packed Abby’s bags, locked the dorm room, and met Abby and Russel at Ralph’s. They’d ordered her a BLT and french fries, but Claire wasn’t hungry at all. She felt weight drifting off her middle, her thighs. They boxed up the food, paid the bill, and headed out to the family van, which would feel lopsided without Gail.

“Abby, honey?” Claire began from the front seat, rubbing lotion into her chapped hands. “Did you ask any of your friends where she might have gone? Is there anyone else we should call?”

“Nobody’s heard from her,” Abby said.

Claire turned to look her daughter in the eye. After the counselor said Abby probably knew more than she was letting on, Claire wanted to hunt for clues in her face. But there was nothing. Only grief.

“She packed a bag,” Claire said. “She took her laptop and her clothes. It feels like she had a plan.”

Abby raised her shoulders as tears shimmered down her cheeks. She didn’t know.

Claire turned back around and watched the road for a while. It was early January, which meant the gold-plated beauty of the Christmas season had given way to grim grays and dead grass. Wind crashed against the minivan, making it shiver on the road. Russel had always been an excellent driver, focused and sure of himself. Even now, he had his hands at ten and two.

Think, Claire. Come on. Imagine you’re Rina. Imagine you’re tracking someone down.

All at once, Claire remembered the expired debit card in Gail’s things. Didn’t that mean that Gail had her other debit card on her? The one Claire had given her? Because all of the girls’ food had already been paid for via the campus service, the girls’ cards were technically only for emergencies and the occasional fun night out. Claire and Russel had first given them out when the girls were sixteen. They’d been very responsible about money, sticking to Claire’s stipulations.

But if Gail was out there somewhere, she’d had to have used her card. Maybe that would help Claire track her down.

Claire pulled up the family bank account, her heart pounding. Gail and Abby each had a separate account that was linked to Claire and Russel’s, which meant she could see everything.

But when Claire pulled up the account, all the blood drained from her cheeks.

Two days ago, Gail had emptied the account— all three hundred dollars. She’d done it at an ATM right on campus. It was a dead end.

“What’s up?” Russel had noticed Claire’s fresh panic.

Claire shoved her phone back in her purse and returned her gaze to the foggy horizon.

“Claire? What’s going on?” Russel demanded.

“She emptied her bank account.” Claire’s voice was quiet.

“There couldn’t have been that much in it.”

“Three hundred.”

“That won’t get her very far,” Russel went on. “She’ll come running back.”

Claire’s heart pounded. A part of her considered putting more money into the account, just so Gail had cash wherever she was. Just so she could eat. Just so she could find a warm place to sleep. But maybe Russel was right. Maybe it was best to hold out and wait for her to figure out how weak she was when faced with a cruel and cold world.

ChapterSix

Rina couldn’t sleep. As dawn crept across the West Coast, casting them in golds and pinks, Rina donned running shorts, a sports bra, and her tennis shoes and walked outside. As she ran, she stretched her legs out as long as she could, and her bob flashed across her ears. Not long after she’d begun, more joggers descended upon the boardwalk. Some of them conducted business meetings on their earpieces, barking orders at someone on the East Coast. Annoyance made Rina stagger to a halt. She wandered away from the runners and onto the sand, where she removed her shoes and gazed out across the frothing waves.

Not long after she sat, she realized this wasn’t any old beach. She’d almost been arrested here nearly thirty years ago. She hadn’t thought about it in years.

She’d been seventeen at the time. Penny had been gone for a little more than a year. The abyss that had opened up with Penny’s disappearance had nearly swallowed Rina whole. She clung to whatever she could of the real world as a way to remind herself she remained alive. That summer, she’d clung hardest to her boyfriend Cody, who never pushed her to talk of Penny. They drank beers and wine coolers; they drove too fast down the highway; their kisses were filled with yearning. Rina could almost pretend she was a normal teenager.

On that night when Rina was seventeen, her mother and father had just left again. Ellen had written a note that said they’d be back next week without any mention of where they were off to. This was typical behavior by then. After Penny’s disappearance, it was as though being at home with Rina reminded them too much of what they’d lost. They hardly spoke to her; they didn’t go to any of her high school theater productions or her tennis matches. It was as though, with the loss of their younger daughter, they’d decided to throw the first one away, too.

That night, there was a party at Carmella’s place. Carmella’s parents were visiting her aunt in Malibu, and Carmella wanted to have a few people over to swim in the pool and drink beers. As things did in Santa Monica, it quickly got out of control. By the time Cody and Rina arrived, they had a healthy buzz from drinking on the beach, and Carmella was more than tipsy, diving into the pool and rising up to do Jell-O shots in greens, purples and reds. Music pumped from the stereo.

Rina changed into her swimsuit and swam alongside Carmella. Her long brunette hair spiraled through the chlorinated water. Cody jumped into the pool, splashing water across the teenagers who tanned across the beach chairs. They screeched, and Rina went under the water to giggle to herself. She and Cody reached out for one another and kissed underwater, pretending they were in a movie scene. Being teenagers in such a ridiculously beautiful location, where parents made more money than they often knew what to do with only blocks away from horrendous homelessness, meant being forever cynical about the way the world worked.

Rina and Cody climbed out of the pool to eat burgers and chips and grab another round of beers. As they passed the grill, Rina froze at the sound of Penny’s name. Immediately, the crowd quieted. Rina glared at them, considering throwing her fresh beer over one of their heads. She knew how much Santa Monica liked to gossip about Penny and what had happened to her. It was fodder for them. Just another thing to talk about at pool parties. She hated it.

---