by Willow Rose
"SUV?"
"I don't think so, but I could be wrong. It was the middle of the night. It was after three o'clock, and it was very dark."
"But you saw someone here in the middle of the night? After the restaurants and bars had closed?"
I nodded. "It could have been anyone. At least that's what I thought. But now, I kind of think it might have been…whoever did this, whoever placed Sophie Williams here."
Matt nodded. "It might have been."
"Dang it," I said. "I knew I should have checked up on it instead of running away. I just…well, I wasn't armed or anything. I had this dream about…well, it doesn’t really matter, but I couldn't get rid of this feeling. It brought me right back."
Matt nodded. "That's only natural. I'll need to…"
He didn't get to finish the sentence before there was a loud scream coming from the back of the crowd. We both turned to look simultaneously. A woman elbowed her way through. Her screams made the crowd disperse and create a path for her. As I saw her face and heard her shrieks of horror, I recognized her from TV.
Sophie's mother.
"SOPHIE!"
Matt approached her. "Ma'am…"
But she didn't listen. She pushed him aside, then ran to the sleeping bag, wailing.
"Sophie! No! Sophie, no!"
Matt glanced at me, and I knew he needed my assistance, so I followed him toward the woman.
"Mrs. Williams, Jenna…"
But the woman didn't budge. She stood like she was paralyzed and stared at the dead body, her torso shaking.
"Please," she said and fell to her knees. "Please…God…no!"
It was hard to hold my tears back. I took a couple of deep breaths while Matt looked at me for help. I signaled for him to stay back and let the woman grieve.
Jenna Williams did. She cried and sobbed and then, as she had no more tears, she turned to face Matt.
"You knew about this. Why didn't you tell me?" she hissed, tears streaming across her cheeks.
"Jenna, I…I…" Matt said.
"Who?" Jenna said. "Who did this? Why? Why, Matt?"
"I…We don't know," Matt said.
"You don't know? You don't know?" Jenna Williams said, her voice shrill and high-pitched. She looked at Matt for an explanation, but none came. He had no words.
"Yet," I said stepping forward. I could tell Matt was in over his head, so I reached out my hand. "Hello, Mrs. Williams. Eva Rae Thomas, FBI. If you come with me, I'll try and answer your questions to the best of my knowledge."
Chapter 11
"I owe you. Big time."
It was past noon when Matt came up to me. His hair was standing out in all directions, and I swear I could see a couple of grays I hadn't seen earlier. I had been talking to Jenna Williams for about an hour, explaining to her what would happen next, that they would take her body in for an autopsy and then we would know more. I also assured her that Matt and his colleagues would do everything in their power to find whoever had hurt her daughter and make sure that justice was done. Then, after trying to answer her many questions as best I could, I hugged her, then sent her off with a couple of officers who wanted to take her statement.
I smiled at Matt. "You sure do."
He handed me a cup of coffee, and we sat on a bench that leaned up against the oyster bar.
"You're gonna need to do more than just bring me coffee," I said, "but I'll take it. For now."
He chuckled, and we sipped our coffees for a few seconds, not saying anything. The place was crawling with crime scene techs, and Matt had called in all his colleagues to ensure that the scene remained clear of people. The local NEWS13 was doing a live segment a few yards away, the reporter trying to explain what had happened. Matt had given them a statement, and that seemed to satisfy the vultures for a little while at least. There were still so many unanswered questions, and I knew from experience that they would be back.
"So…I heard from Melissa that you were back," he said. "I ran into her outside of Publix two days ago."
Melissa was another of my old friends. I had known her and Dawn since we went to pre-school. I hadn't seen any of them yet. I had planned to but kept postponing it, telling myself I wanted to be unpacked first. But the fact was, I was scared to see them again. Were they still my friends after all these years? I hadn't exactly been good at keeping in contact with them.
"So, what do you make of it?" Matt asked and nodded toward the scene where the techs were still securing evidence.
I shrugged. "Hard to say before we have anything from them."
"I've never seen anything like this," he said.
"You don't say?"
He gave me a look. I shook my head. "Sorry, sarcasm is my thing now. Comes with the job…and growing up with my mother, I guess. So…how long have you been working homicide?" I asked.
"Couple of years."
"And homicide also works kidnappings?" I asked.
He shrugged. "We do everything, I guess. We've never really had any kidnappings around here before…or at least not since…you know…"
I felt a knot in my throat. "Of course."
He sent me a sympathetic look, then stared down at his coffee as he sensed I didn't want to talk about it.
"You know how it is in this town and with the Cocoa Beach Police Department. Everyone pitches in. We do a little of everything. We help tourists who had their phones or wallets stolen, we drive home drunks, remove gators if they get too close to people, take care of traffic issues downtown, and keep an eye on the citizens during Friday-fest. We did have this guy recently who was conning old ladies by selling them stuff for their pools that wasn't actually his. I got him nailed down. But that's about it. Oh, yeah and then there was that bar fight last year where a man was stabbed. I got that guy too."
"Looks like you've got quite the track record here."
"I'm their shining star," he grinned.
I bobbed my head, realizing that nothing had truly changed in twenty years around here. A few new restaurants had popped up while others were gone, but that was about it.
"So…" he said. "What brings you back here? The Hoover building not big enough for you anymore?"
I chuckled and sipped my coffee. "Something like that."
"Where's Chad?" he asked, saying his name like he was annoyed by just the mere sound of it. "That's his name, right? The guy you ran off with?"
"I didn't run off with him," I said. "I met him in college, and we got married."
He sipped his coffee. "So, where is he now?"
"Greece," I said. "Last I heard."
He widened his eyes. "Oh."
"Yeah, you can say that again," I said. "With some girl named Kimmie."
Matt nodded. "I see. And the kids?"
"They're here with me." I gave him a look. "Hey, you already knew all this, didn't you? Nothing gets past you in this town."
He chuckled and nodded. "Just wanted to hear it from your own lips."
Chapter 12
It was early afternoon before I finally made it back home, holding a package of coffee from Wahoo Coffee in my hand and a gallon of milk from Publix in the other. I could hear their loud voices as soon as I opened the door to the car. I rushed to the front door and walked inside.
"What is going on here?"
Christine looked at me, and so did Alex. She had her arm wrapped around him in a tight grip.
"Mo-om," she said and let go of him. He pushed himself free, then turned around and kicked her shin.
"Ouch, you little…" she said and ran after him.
"STOP!" I yelled. They both froze in place.
I slammed the door shut behind me. I stared at Christine. "Why are you hurting your brother?"
She made an annoyed sound, making sure I understood how unfair this was. "He…he started it."
"That's not what I asked," I said.
Christine gave me a look. I could tell she was looking for the right words to say.
"I can't believe you," I said.
"When I’m not home, I expect you and your sister to look after your brother, and this is what I come home to?"
"But…but he…"
"You're the big sister, Christine. This was an emergency situation today, and I had to be somewhere else. I need to know that I can count on you in emergency situations. Now, where's your sister?"
"Upstairs," Christine said. "Doing her homework."
"Okay, then when she's not available, you need to be the responsible one, okay?"
Christine stared at me, her nostrils flaring. "But…"
"I can't do this right now," I said, exhausted. "Just for once, say, okay, Mom, will you?"
Christine bobbed her head. "Okay."
"Thank you." I looked at Alex and held up the milk. "Now, who wants cereal?"
He beamed with happiness. "Me, me! I’m starving."
I chuckled and looked at Christine. "How about you? You want a little late breakfast?"
Christine shook her head, turned around, and stormed up the stairs. I looked after her for a few seconds, then reminded myself that she was a pre-teen and it would pass. I returned to the kitchen and poured Alex some Cheerios with milk. He ate greedily and told me all the games he was planning on playing for the rest of the day, and I got exhausted just listening to it.
I glanced at the living room. It looked like a bomb had gone off in there. Toys were everywhere. The house was a mess. I looked at the clock, then sighed. I had hoped I would be able to work a little today, but I also had to unpack more boxes.
Gosh, I loathed moving.
Chapter 13
I was doing great. I really was. Two more boxes had been emptied, and their contents had found their place in my new small house. It was beginning to look like a real home.
Then I found the box with our photo albums. That's when everything broke down.
I knelt next to it and pulled them out. Most people didn't do albums anymore. I hadn't been one of them. As the kids grew up, I had made sure to have books made with all our photos, and now I was staring at myself sitting on a beach in Italy on our honeymoon. The sight of my happy and tanned self next to Chad brought tears to my eyes, and I put the album aside. But only to pull out the one from our vacation in New Orleans with our two girls, before Alex was even a thought. I couldn't help myself; I had to look through them. I couldn't believe how happy we all seemed back then…how much I was smiling. The girls were only three and five years old and the cutest things ever. In each and every picture, I beamed with pride and glanced lovingly at Chad by my side.
Had life ever been that happy? I could hardly remember feeling that way.
It wasn't just albums in the box; it was also all the photos that we had hanging on the wall by the staircase in our old house back in D.C., the children's childhood home. All those wonderful photos I had looked at every day when coming home late at night or sneaking out early in the morning to go off to work. Or at least I ought to have stopped and looked at them, but I never recalled doing so. I was so busy rushing on with my career that I had hardly noticed them in the end; the photos and those in them.
I sunk to the carpet in the living room. Leaning my back against the wall, I stared at this weird room I was in now, not knowing what I was even doing there.
"STRANGER DANGER!"
My heart literally skipped a beat. Alex jumped out in front of me, holding a lightsaber, screaming the words he had learned in school recently and that he couldn't stop yelling at me every chance he got to scare me. I had explained to him that Stranger Danger was something you yelled if a stranger came up to you and tried to grab you, not something you yelled at people to scare them and give them a heart attack. It was a silly saying, I had always thought. It only told the kids to fear strangers, that all people they knew were safe, when, in fact, most abductions were made by people the child knew.
"Alex!" I said. "You can't do this to me. It has to stop."
The boy gave me a confused look, then swung the lightsaber at me like he was killing me. I pretended to die and made gurgling sounds. The boy laughed victoriously, turned around and left. A few seconds later, I heard him yell the words once again, and one of his sisters screamed at me from upstairs.
"MO-O-OM!"
I exhaled. I wondered if I had any more wine, then cursed myself for not buying more while I was at Publix. I wasn't very good at planning ahead. I walked to the kitchen and found the empty bottle from the night before, then sighed.
Alex yelled something from upstairs, and I turned around with the intention of going up there and yelling at them when there was a knock at my front door. I walked to open it.
Outside stood Melissa and Dawn. Melissa smiled and held up a bottle in her hand.
"We brought wine."
"And a pie," Dawn said. "To welcome you back."
Chapter 14
"I meant to call; I really did," I said as we sat down in the kitchen. Melissa found three glasses and started to pour the wine.
"We know," Dawn said and found the plastic forks and plates. She cut out a piece of the key lime pie for each of us and handed me a plate.
"I feel terrible," I said.
Dawn grabbed my arm. She looked me in the eyes. "Stop it. It's okay. You've been through hell. You're here now. And so are we. The rest is water under the bridge."
I swallowed, remembering how much I had missed those two. Back in high school, we had been inseparable. We had shared everything. Then I went off to college, and we lost contact, even though we tried to keep it.
Both Melissa and Dawn had attended local colleges and stayed in town like most people did. Meanwhile, I had run away as fast as I could.
Melissa handed me a glass of wine, then smiled.
"Now, you tell us everything. From the beginning."
I took in a deep breath, then sipped my wine. I told them everything. Beginning with the day a month ago when I had come home from work and found the kids home alone.
"At first, I thought he had probably just popped out for pizza or maybe some wine," I said. "So, I walked to my bedroom and got into some more comfortable clothes and, when I opened the walk-in closet, half of it was empty. His side was nothing but empty hangers. That's when panic set in. I ran to the kids’ rooms, and they were just hanging out. They had no idea where their dad was. He had been there a few hours earlier, Christine told me. She thought he had passed out in front of the TV.
"So, he didn't even say goodbye?" Dawn asked, almost dropping the piece of pie on her fork.
I shook my head. "He had just left. I called him, but he didn't pick up. Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all that night. The next morning, he finally picked up. He was at Kimmie's, he said. He lived there now. I didn't even know who Kimmie was. Apparently, he had been seeing her for quite some time now. More than a year. They had met at Olivia's school play, where they were both volunteering, doing the props together. Her son went to Olivia's school. He was done, he said. With me, with our life together, with everything."
"Oh, the bastard," Melissa said and sipped her wine, fuming. "And to think that you supported him all that time. He never worked, did he?"
"I made enough money, so he didn't need to work at all, but he wanted to. So, he started selling health insurance out of the house. But in the beginning, we had a deal. I was to work, and he would stay at home, at least while the kids were young. He was the one who suggested it be that way, and now, that was why he was leaving me. He didn't feel appreciated, he said. Kimmie appreciated him."
"But you got to keep the kids?" Melissa asked, her big brown eyes staring at me.
I shrugged. "Nothing's settled yet. So far, he and Kimmie went on a trip to Greece. I’m guessing we'll deal with it when he comes back. I told him I wanted the kids, that he was the one who left, so he wasn't getting them."
"But…you moved down here?" Dawn asked. "Why?"
"I needed to get away. I couldn't stay at that house; I couldn't stay in the job. I tried for the first few weeks, but it didn't work. I was too much o
f a mess. The kids and I were constantly fighting, and I couldn't handle both them and my job. It was too much. I wanted to come back to be close to my family, to start over, fresh. Chad said it was okay. I get the feeling that he doesn’t really want the kids anymore. I don't know how you can just turn it off like that, but it feels like he has. I fear that he's going to start a new family with that Kimmie character and forget all about us, forget about his children."
"Oh, the bastard," Melissa repeated.
"So, you don't work for the FBI anymore?" Dawn asked, sounding almost disappointed.
"Nope. I quit," I said and sipped more wine. "I needed a break."
"But why? You had this big career and everything? We were so proud of you," Dawn said.
That made me smile. "I don't know if there really is much to be proud of."
"Nothing to be proud of?" Melissa gaped. "What are you talking about? You made a difference in that job. Remember when you solved that case with that guy who had kept children in his house for years and raped them and made those awful videos? I think you made quite a difference to them."
"And to all the other children he will never touch in the future," Dawn added. "Don't think we didn't hear about your accomplishments down here."
I felt mushy. Maybe it was the wine. I stared at them and their pride-filled eyes looking back at me. They seriously saw me as some hero? The case they mentioned was so many years ago. How could I tell them I had screwed up? That I had messed up a case and lost a child in the process?
I decided not to.
"Aw, you guys."
"So, what are you going to do now?" Dawn asked. "You can't just be a full-time mom, can you?"
"Hey," Melissa complained, "I’m a full-time mom."
Dawn pointed at me. "Her. I’m talking about her. It's Eva Rae Thomas. She couldn't sit still if her life depended on it."
"She's right. I am not going to be a full-time mom," I said. "Or, that is, I am, but I am also doing something else. I’m writing another book."
