That’s a tattoo on his arm. Leman. I bet Tommy has one, too.
Jared must really love Tommy to have him living here after what he did. To get him a job where he works. Either he doesn’t believe his brother could do the things he was convicted of, or he knows he did it, and will stick by him no matter what.
I would for Madigan.
Madigan.
She grabbed her phone from her pocket, remembering the vibration as she entered the room, dreading the warning that the brothers were on their way back home. She pressed Madigan’s name and read the new message as goosebumps spread across her arms and a lump formed in her throat. She put the picture of Amanda back on the desk and darted out of the room.
Madigan stood in the ladies’ room stall, gripping her cell phone in her hand and rereading the message she sent Grace, squinting against the fluorescent lighting. She willed it to vibrate with a reply that might calm her nerves.
Tommy has me in his sights. I’ve tried to distract him and give you more time, but I don’t know how much longer I can do this.
Her hands shook as she stepped out of the stall and tucked her phone back in her bag.
I can’t hide out in here forever. He’ll get suspicious. He might even come in to find me, and then we’d be alone in here.
Grace will come as soon as she can.
She stared at herself in the mirror.
I can do this. I told Grace I could, and now I have to prove it to her. Prove it to myself. I’m not a victim. I know that.
I shouldn’t have sent that text.
She left the bathroom and walked back to the bar where Tommy sat, waiting on the stool beside hers.
“There she is,” he said, grinning as she approached.
That smile. That was probably the last thing his victim, Brianna, ever saw. And now he’s trying to use it on me.
I’m going to wipe it right off his face.
She sat down beside him and took out her notebook and pen, turning to him. “So, about Angela Cole—would you mind if I asked you a few questions for the book? When she was first reported missing, it was all over the news, but I bet word travels even faster in a small town like yours. Do you remember when and how you heard she was missing? What did you think happened to her at the time?”
She stared at him as his brow creased up and down, and he opened his mouth to speak but closed it again.
I know you weren’t here, Tommy. Tell me where you were. Go ahead.
“I wasn’t here for that.” He took a sip from his water bottle.
“Oh. Well, when you got back, what did you think of everything that happened?”
“Just got back this week.” He clenched his jaw, glancing around the room. “Can’t help ya with your story, but I’m great at pool. You play?”
She shook her head no, although her foster father, Eli, had not only taught her how to play, but to hustle her opponent and take them for all they had. He also taught her to find a person’s weakness as soon as she could after they met, and to remember it so she could exploit them at her convenience—or, really, his.
I think I might know yours, Tommy.
He grinned and leaned in closer. “Let me teach you how to play.”
“I’m not big on games.” She tapped her pen against the paper in her notebook as he stared at her. “But if you have any thoughts on what happened to Angela Cole?”
He cocked his head to the side as Lola approached. “Anyone need a drink?”
He turned to her and leaned in over the bar, sneering, “When I need you, I’ll call.”
She turned around, serving the patron on the other end of the bar, and with each step she took, Madigan felt her hope of a safe escape disappear.
“How long are ya here for?” Tommy asked.
Until Grace comes and saves me.
“Leaving shortly.” She folded her notepad closed and tucked it into her bag.
“Now that’s too bad.” Tommy stood and walked back toward the pool table, stopping and swiveling toward her again. “Hey, I like this song. You wanna dance?”
“I don’t dance.”
“You don’t like games. You don’t dance. What do you do, Madison?”
Hunt predators like you.
She shrugged with a forced smile.
“I bet you don’t have much fun, waiting on your engaged boyfriend.” He took a step closer. “I’m single now. You don’t owe him anything. Pfft, I bet he doesn’t even know where you are right now. Ah, I’m right, aren’t I? I’ll take it a step further and bet you know exactly where he is and what he’s doing with her.”
Jack is with Aleesia; he’s right, and I’ve never lingered on the thought because I don’t want to torture myself.
But Tommy wants to torture me.
She shook her head, and he reached for her hand. She wanted to pull it away, almost flinching, but she let him hold it.
“You need to loosen up,” he whispered, leaning closer to her ear. “I’ve got a place we can go to have some real fun.”
A place? His brother’s house, where he’s staying, or somewhere else?
“Don’t you need to take your brother home?” She nodded toward Jared, who was stumbling around the pool table, laughing with the two older men.
“Naw. He wouldn’t be there—unless you’re into that kind of thing.”
That doesn’t clarify anything. Does he mean we’d leave him here and go back to their place…or somewhere else? Somewhere he could be keeping Tina?
“Where?” she whispered.
“It’s real pretty.” He grinned, staring into her eyes as if he were speaking about her. “Beautiful. Real quiet.”
Goosebumps spread across her arms, and she tried not to shiver.
“I can’t go somewhere if I don’t know—”
“Shhh,” he whispered. “It’ll just be you, and me, and the stars—”
“Tommy!” Jared shouted from the pool table. “Come on, man, we’re waiting on ya!”
“Leave ‘im be!” one of the men chuckled, clapping a hand against Jared’s back.
Jared opened his mouth to argue, but the other man turned his back to Madigan and Tommy, saying something to Jared: “… you don’t have to…. He already has a parole officer… Give him the chance to prove he’s changed…”
Madigan struggled to make out the words, and Jared nodded once the man finished, glancing over at her and Tommy before turning his attention back to their pool game.
He’s trying to make sure Tommy doesn’t get into trouble. Too bad they talked him out of helping me.
Tommy squeezed her hand, and she smiled before pulling away.
“I have to go home tonight,” she said, clearing her throat to sound more confident in her decision. “Have a good one.”
She stood, wishing there was a clock somewhere to tell her how far off her timing was with Grace.
If I walk out those doors right now, and he follows me into the dark parking lot, I’ll be alone, and it’ll be just like the night he killed Brianna in the alley beside the bar.
He stepped in front of her, using his body to block her way to the door.
He’s cocky, that’s for sure, but his weakness…
He wouldn’t tell me he’d been to prison. He’s ashamed.
I don’t want to make him angry, but maybe, if a lot of eyes are on him, he won’t follow me out. He’ll be too concerned about what it would look like to everyone in town now that he’s back. I hope.
I’ll get loud if he doesn’t move. Attract attention. Maybe Lola would step in. I would if something went down at Roy’s.
“Hey, have another drink with me,” Tommy said. “One more, and I’ll tell you where we’re going tonight.”
She took a step closer. “Tell me now, or I have to go.”
If he tells me, and Tina’s there, he’ll have to take me too. He can’t have people knowing where he’s keeping her.
He squinted at her, his eyes sparkling as he seemed to consider her offer, weighing out th
e options.
If she’s not there, why is he hesitating to tell me?
He pursed his lips and shook his head, stepping out of her way.
“Take care, Madison.” He said her name with a rough edge and strode toward the pool table without giving her another look.
She straightened her posture, gave Lola behind the bar a nod, and strode out the front door.
Maybe he knew I wouldn’t be going anywhere with him of my own volition. Maybe that’s why he gave up on me…or maybe he decided to keep Tina to himself. That it was too risky.
Gravel crunched beneath her boots, and she scanned the vehicles in the lot for Grace’s car.
Just keep walking. I’ll walk down the road if I have to.
As she approached the end of the lot, Grace pulled in just off the road, and Madigan took a deep breath before getting in.
“Are you okay?” Grace asked.
She closed the door behind her and grabbed her seat belt. “It was getting a bit dicey in there, but…I think I had it under control.”
“Your text sounded urgent…”
“I’m sorry.” Madigan licked her lips and stared ahead. “I guess you didn’t get to search everywhere you wanted to.”
“Not everywhere, but I got to rule out any place on the property. There’s no sign of Tina there, but I did find a photo of Amanda. We can come back and search around it tomorrow night, or the next—”
Why does it feel like he could have followed me out of there? That he’s watching right now?
“Thanks,” Madigan said, turning to her. “Thanks for coming right away. We should go.”
Grace nodded and pulled out of the lot onto the road, back toward Tall Pines.
“So you didn’t find any sign of Tina?” Madigan asked.
“Nothing. Maybe they knew the police were coming and took her somewhere else. Maybe she’s close to the property, but not on it.”
“They might have another place. Tommy wanted to take me somewhere.”
“What?”
“He was trying to pick me up. He said he knew of somewhere beautiful and quiet where it would be just us and the stars.” Shivers rushed over her again, and she shook them off. “For all I know, he was talking about the back lot, or some ditch somewhere—”
“Or a cabin,” Grace said. “I saw a picture of the Leman brothers in front of a cabin. We need to look into it. Find it.”
“Good call.”
“What else did he say?”
“He was just trying to talk with me. I pretended I was in there looking for people to talk to about a story I was writing about Angie and what happened here this past winter. He was locked up when it happened, so he got really put off when I asked him for his thoughts on it. I think he was ashamed because he told me he was away at the time and just got back.”
“He sure did.”
“He also said he had a girlfriend, but he broke up with her yesterday because she was too clingy, and then he said it was because she was a liar. She betrayed him.”
“Okay, we need to look into her too. If she’s not at her place or theirs, maybe she’s at the cabin?”
“Well, we know she was here in South Bend. We have the video proof.”
“After that, who knows?”
“But before,” Madigan said. “We can try to see where she’s been since Tommy got out. Her neighbour said she hadn’t been there for days. Maybe she went right to South Bend when he got out to see him.”
“She said she’d be waiting for him on the back of the photo. Makes sense.” Grace nodded. “Okay, so the cabin and Amanda. I’ll figure out the cabin if you look into Amanda. If her car hasn’t been running, how did she get to South Bend? There’s no bus.”
“Hitchhiked, maybe.”
“Or maybe the Leman brothers picked her up.”
“I’ll go on social media and see what I can find out there,” Madigan said. “Maybe message a couple of her friends and see what they say.”
“Great.”
As they drove past the South Bend sign, the creepy feeling of being watched or followed began to fade, and she focused on the search for Amanda Post—Tina look-alike, owner of a broken-down car, and visitor of convicted rapist and murderer.
What were you supposed to do for Tommy, and why did you lie about it?
Chapter Fourteen
Buster jumped up on the dining seat bench beside Madigan as she turned the laptop on and waited for it to boot up.
“I missed you too.” She rubbed his chest and kissed his head as the home screen lit up. “I promise I’ll take you out to stretch your legs in a bit.”
She logged onto Facebook, and a picture of Jack and Aleesia popped up with Jack on one knee at the fire hall and Aleesia covering her mouth with her hands as all of Jack’s fire hall family looked on with big smiles.
Something of a void lingered in Madigan as she scrolled past the picture, noting Aleesia had posted it and tagged Jack in it, with the caption, “Can’t wait to celebrate tomorrow night with all our family and friends.”
If Grace agrees I shouldn’t go, I know I’m making the right decision, so why do I feel guilty?
She typed “Amanda Post” into the search and found the woman resembling Tina in the fourth profile option listed. She clicked on it, arriving at a page that had been last updated at Christmas.
Either she has strong privacy settings, or she’s never on here.
Her last post was a picture of her and an older man and woman in front of a beautiful tree.
Does your family know where you are, Amanda?
She scrolled down her page past a few crude comics, a few selfies of Amanda—one taken outside in the fall, the other at the hair salon in the chair. She stopped at the relationship status updated at the end of last summer: It’s complicated.
It sure is when you’re dating someone in prison. Right after you started visiting Tommy.
She scrolled back up to the picture at the hair salon with the hashtags: freshcut, newdo, and bangs.
Bangs…
She turned to the extra copies of the shoe store’s security tapes she took.
There was a woman who looked like Tina entering the gym… We thought it was Tina, but she had bangs.
She pushed the tape of the night before Tina disappeared into her video camera and let it play on the small screen in front of her. The woman came up on the screen wearing the same top as Amanda in one of the last selfies she posted to her Facebook wall. She paused the tape and studied her further.
What were you doing at the Gym and Go? You live in Tall Pines, but you exercise in Amherst? And you don’t have a car. How did you get there?
She pressed play again and watched as Tina entered the gym a few minutes later. She let the tape continue to play, waiting for who would emerge from the gym first. Almost two minutes later, Amanda walked out, disappearing behind a row of cars on the same side of the building Tina always parked.
What were you doing in there? Did you interact with Tina? Were you watching Tina for Tommy? Was Tommy there too?
She popped the next tape in and stopped it an hour before Tina arrived the night she disappeared. Madigan watched the tape until Tina and her ex-husband Matt emerged. Matt kissed Tina goodbye, and Tina backed away.
Either she didn’t want to be seen kissing in public, or she didn’t want to be kissing him at all, because she’s the one who stepped away…
Matt walked down the center aisle in the direction of the store, and Tina veered to the left toward the side of the building.
No Amanda this time.
Buster nudged her arm with his head and dropped his paw on her lap.
“Okay, buddy,” she muttered, staring at the screen, pausing it after Tina disappeared around the corner. “Okay, let’s go for a stretch.”
She grabbed a tennis ball, and Buster leapt off the bench, following her out of the trailer into the dark, grassy lot surrounding them. The light from Maria’s store down the long lane in the distance barely ca
st a shadow from the trailer, but Madigan opened her lantern, spreading light around them. She tossed Buster’s ball toward the coast as dull echoes of waves crashed against the shore, whooshing in the background.
I have to call Grace and tell her what I found.
Buster grabbed the ball and raced it right back, pushing it against her leg until she took it and threw it again in a slightly different direction toward trees in the distance separating her lot from the road.
It took him a while longer, but he brought it back just as eager to chase it again. With all her might, she threw it toward the coast again, and it rolled down the embankment, disappearing down the small foothill leading to the rocky shore.
“Go get it, Buster!” she shouted, but he had already taken off. “That’s a personal best.”
Buster disappeared down the hill, but his fluffy tail poked up from behind the hill every once in while.
What am I not seeing?
Amanda went into the gym just minutes before Tina entered the night before she disappeared. She left less than two minutes after Tina arrived.
She could have stolen her credit card—that’s probably when it happened. She could have even spoken with Tina, but what would she say? Threaten her on Tommy’s orders? No, not an officer, and not out in public with witnesses.
Buster bounded up the hill with the neon ball in his mouth.
I’ll call Grace when we go in. Maybe she’ll be able to connect it.
He trotted toward her, dropping it at her feet.
“You’re not tired already, are ya?”
He ambled away, off toward the spot he did his business.
“Ah.” She tucked her hands in her pockets and sat on one of two lawn chairs, waiting for him.
Amanda follows Tina in the day before she disappears. Doesn’t stay long.
Matt and Tina meet up at the gym the night she disappears. Share an intimate moment before parting ways. Tina disappears around the corner, and…
What direction does her car leave in? What about Matt’s?
The angle doesn’t show any exits, but they could have passed in front of the camera again.
Madigan stood as Buster trotted over, and he followed her into the trailer again. She slid into the booth, pressed play, and watched as someone in a hoodie emerged from the side of the screen from the front lot, also disappearing behind the corner.
The Lies You Told Page 14
