Disappeared

by Lucienne Diver

  He told her to meet him a few blocks away. He didn’t want to stay too near Gran’s place and chance that she’d send someone to bring him back or call Dad to send someone, maybe even the police. He couldn’t risk them coming for him or for Emily’s phone. Not yet.

  That meant he had to loiter at the corner where he said he’d meet Aaliyah, afraid the whole time that someone would call the cops like they had at his mother’s place. He was beyond relieved when Aaliyah drove up. He got in as quickly as he could. She drove off the same way. Not burning rubber, but certainly not sticking around.

  “Where do you want to go?” she asked, risking a look away from the road to take him in.

  “Somewhere we can talk.” Between his mother’s death and Emily’s near-death, he thought his heart was too broken to beat even for Aaliyah. Their relationship was way to the back of his mind. Or should be. But the very sight of her made his pulse rate jump. Just because he shouldn’t want her didn’t mean he didn’t.

  Maybe this was a mistake.

  “Coffee shop?” she asked.

  “Aren’t you afraid someone will see us? Report back to your parents?”

  Her mouth twisted. “I don’t care about that anymore. I spent a lot of time hating myself for giving up on you, especially after I heard about your mother. I didn’t know if you’d even want to hear from me, but I had to try. I told my parents my future didn’t mean all that much if I went into it as someone I couldn’t respect, who’d desert her friends in their hour of need.”

  He looked at her, but it hurt too much. He had to look away again, because hope was rising, and all hope had been to him lately was a lying bitch.

  “They understood that?” he asked, gazing out the window.

  “Not exactly. Dad gave me a speech about there being different rules for you and me—girls and boys, black and white. About how I was never going to get the benefit of the doubt, so I couldn’t give people any cause for doubt in the first place. About having to get into the system to change it. Basically, anything he thought would change my mind.”

  “And your mom?”

  “She gave me back my phone. I think she understood that you can’t let other people, even your parents, define who you are. If all you ever do is what’s expected, what you’re told, you never change the world. You never expand anyone’s mind.”

  Like the police seeing Emily as a cutter and stopping there. Only Aaliyah was saying so much more and he felt like he was only getting the tip of the iceberg.

  “I’m glad you texted,” he said.

  “Me too. I’m so sorry to hear about your mother. What’s happening with Emily?”

  He told her. Everything. They’d reached the parking lot at the coffee shop now but didn’t get out. Aaliyah just pulled into a spot, turned off the car, and swiveled in her seat to give Jared her full attention. It was so good to have her back in his corner. He’d always had friends, but they were hang-around friends, the kind you had fun with, did specific things with like go to the movies or the mall or indoor skydiving. Not the kind you really talked to. Not until Aaliyah. When he lost her, he lost more than his heart.

  And now he’d be moving away. He told her that too. He didn’t know what this conversation meant in terms of them, but he couldn’t keep that from her. Especially if he was going to ask for her help. She had to know everything.

  When he finished, she said, “Wow,” and left it there for a minute, absorbing everything. Then, “Do you really want coffee?”

  “No.”

  “Then what do you want to do?”

  “Really? I want to find out the truth. I need to confront Carla and clear Emily’s name.”

  Aaliyah pulled back in shock. “She’s already hurt your sister,” she said. “What makes you think it’s safe for you? Because there’ll be two of us? Even if she doesn’t do anything crazy, why would she confess?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, scraping his fingers through his hair and raking his scalp, as though the sensation might stimulate his brain. “I have Emily’s phone. Maybe I can bluff her out, make her think there’s something incriminating on here. Maybe she’ll come after me for it.”

  “Jared!”

  “That’s where you come in. I don’t want you inside with me. I’m never going to put you in danger again—of getting arrested or anything else. I’ll have Emily’s phone on speaker, so you’ll be able to hear everything. Plus, I’ve looked it up, and there’s an App that lets you record phone calls, in case we get anything useful for evidence. The law says it’s okay if you have the consent of one of the parties. Well, I’m consenting. You’ll be on the other end of the line, so you’ll be consenting too. No matter how you look at it, we should be covered. Anything else the phone picks up while on speaker is just happenstance, right?”

  Aaliyah’s eyes were wide, frightened. “It’s a good plan, except for one thing—the part where you head into danger.”

  “My mother …” his voice gave out on him for a second. He swallowed down the pain before he choked on it and started again. “My mother’s been killed. My sister nearly so. I can’t sit on the sidelines. I have to do this for them.”

  “Your mother wouldn’t want you to put yourself in danger.”

  “Like you said, at some point, you have to make your own decisions. Well, I’ve decided.”

  She leaned in and took both of his hands in hers. “You really are an amazing person. I can’t believe you wondered why I’d pick you. I can’t imagine picking anyone else.”

  He stared at her, shocked to silence. She didn’t know about his anger, how he sometimes wanted to lash out at his father or the world. He’d have to tell her that too. Everything. Let her decide, if he survived this. He wasn’t going to let the anger rule him, but he wondered whether that was just something he told himself. Maybe it all started with denial. Maybe what he had to do was face it. Work on it every single day. Like Emily would have to face her issues. Maybe they could work on them together.

  He leaned forward and kissed Aaliyah. He suddenly couldn’t help himself. She met him halfway. But it felt strange to be kissing her right then with everything else going on, and he didn’t let it last.

  Aaliyah looked sad as he drew back, and he said, “It’s not you. It’s the timing.”

  “Sure,” she said. “Let’s get this done. What’s the App?”

  He told her, and she downloaded it as they sat there in the parking lot. Then they were off toward the Meyers’ house, hopefully to find his mother’s killer.

  Twenty-Seven

  Aaliyah parked across the street from the Meyers’ house. “You sure you want to do this?” she asked.

  “I’m sure. Are you still okay with the plan?”

  “My part’s easy,” she answered.

  “Okay then.” Jared took out Emily’s phone. “I’m calling you now.”

  Aaliyah’s phone rang, and she played with the buttons before answering it. “Got it.”

  Then she set the phone down in her cupholder, grabbed him by the face, and kissed him one more time. “For good luck,” she said, “and in case—”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me,” he said.

  “It better not.”

  He tried to give her a reassuring smile before getting out of the car, but he knew it wasn’t a very good one.

  As soon as he was out, he minimized the call window and blacked out the screen, hoping it would take more than a wrong move to accidentally end the call. Then he headed toward the Meyers’ front door and rang the bell.

  For a minute, he didn’t think anyone would answer. He shifted from foot to foot, rang again, and finally heard footsteps headed his way.

  His heart pounded, then seemed to stumble when Andrew peered through the window at him rather than Ms. Carla. Well, crap, he hadn’t planned on company. Or maybe Andrew was alone and he’d have to come back later.

  The door opened, and Andrew stared down at him, brows lowered, like he was confused to see him there.

&nbs
p; “Jared?” he said. “What’s going on? I saw there was an ambulance at your house earlier. I figured everyone would be at the hospital.”

  So he’d been home then? What about Ms. Carla? Should he abort the plan? Come tonight he’d be at Aunt Aggie’s, almost an hour away. Getting back here would be tough. He had to at least try. Now, before the police arrested Emily or anything else could happen.

  “Is your mother home?” he asked.

  “Mom? Why do you want her?”

  “I just do. Can I come in?”

  Andrew stepped aside, and Jared took that as an invitation. He moved past him into a house laid out much like their own, except the wall between their kitchen and living area hadn’t been blown out, so the place had a more closed-off feel to it. And something in the kitchen smelled amazing. All tomato-garlicky.

  “You cooking?” Jared asked, surprised.

  “Not me. Mom’s got ziti in the oven. She just ran out to the bakery to grab garlic bread to go with it.”

  “So she won’t be long?” Jared asked.

  “Shouldn’t be. What’s this about?” He didn’t offer Jared a drink or a seat. In fact, he stayed between Jared and the kitchen as if guarding the way. Maybe that was okay, because it meant he wasn’t between Jared and the door. Which was an odd thought, but something about the intensity of Andrew’s stare was starting to make Jared nervous.

  And he realized something else. “You never asked who the ambulance was for,” he said. “Or what happened.”

  Andrew’s brows lowered like storm clouds. “I didn’t want to be nosy.” Nothing about his tone was convincing.

  “It was Emily,” Jared said, studying Andrew’s reaction.

  Something was seriously wrong here. A normal person—a concerned person—would have asked if she was okay. Andrew just waited for more.

  “The police think she cut herself,” he continued, though he really didn’t know what the police thought.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Andrew asked. Finally, a normal question, but the way he asked it didn’t put Jared at ease. He’d never shown a speck of concern for Jared or Emily, but suddenly seemed very invested in the answer.

  “We don’t know.”

  Andrew relaxed at that, and it was the weirdest reaction. Jared wished he could talk to Aaliyah and get her take on things as she heard them on the other end of the phone.

  “So then why are you here rather than at the hospital?”

  “They won’t let me in to see Emily yet, and …” Did he tell Andrew? Something was definitely going on here. He couldn’t leave until he figured out what it was. Maybe Andrew hadn’t asked about Emily because he already knew. Maybe his mother had told him. Yet she was making ziti and running errands like it was all nothing.

  Screw it, he’d come this far. He was all in. “I think your mother may have been the last person to see Emily. I need to know if she has any idea what happened.”

  “I don’t think so,” Andrew said, his tone spooky as hell.

  “What don’t you think?” Jared ventured, mind going again to the door right behind him. “That your mother was with my sister or that she can help me?”

  “Both. You’re not dragging us into your troubles.” He stepped forward, one arm outstretched as though to grab Jared’s shoulder and show him to the door.

  Jared stood his ground, despite all the hairs on his body now standing on end and his fight or flight response screaming for retreat.

  “I’m not leaving here without—”

  He never even saw the fist flying for his face. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, looking up blearily at Andrew looming over him with his fist clenched and his face twisted with rage.

  “You may be right. Maybe you’re not leaving here at all,” he snarled. He glared down at Jared with such hatred his heart started to pound. Murderous hatred. “Dammit, your family can’t do anything right. Your bitch mother wouldn’t file assault charges to get your damned father out of our lives. Your dad can’t even get arrested in this town, no matter what evidence the police have on him, and your sister—”

  Jared lay stunned for a second before rearing up. All the rage, all the pain and fear and frustration he’d been feeling concentrated in his fists. He could be angry at his mother for leaving. He could hate what Emily did to herself, but Andrew? Andrew had no right.

  Jared flew at him, fists flying. Andrew blocked the one headed for his face. A big, obvious swing. But he missed the second, aimed straight at his solar plexus. Andrew’s breath burst out of him, and he doubled over in pain. Jared brought up a knee, ready to connect with his nose, but never got there. Andrew grabbed him around the middle, sent him crashing again to the floor, coming down hard on his tailbone and stunned into immobility long enough for Andrew to get another blow in. Jared flinched to the side just in time to catch it on his cheekbone rather than his already damaged nose. Already his vision was clouding as everything swelled, closing off his sight. He had to end this quickly.

  He rolled, hard, but Andrew pushed back, scrambling to disengage before he could get rolled under. He got to one knee, but Jared kicked hard and heard something pop. Andrew bellowed in pain and fell back to the floor, clutching for his leg. Jared got on top of him, sitting on his chest, glaring down. His fists were still clenched. He wanted to send them flying for Andrew’s face. Or to lift and slam his head into the floor. Or a million other things. He wanted Andrew to hurt.

  There was a sound, someone calling his name in terror, and he realized it was coming from his phone. From Aaliyah on the other end of it. She couldn’t know what was going on, but she was there listening. Recording. He could beat Andrew to a bloody pulp, but it wouldn’t get him the answers he needed. And it wouldn’t bring his mother back.

  “What about my sister?” he asked, glaring down at Andrew.

  He stopped fighting long enough to glare back, fire in his eyes saying the fight wasn’t over. “Your sister is weak,” he spat. “Like your mother. Like my bitch mother—cheating, lying, trying to shield your lousy father. As if her loyalty was to him. Not to me or my Dad. Oh, she said she was covering for me, but we all know that’s a lie. If she cared about me or my father, she’d never have been slutting around.”

  Jared’s blood went cold. “Covering for what?”

  He had to swallow down the blood coating his throat from the broken nose in order to ask. Between that and the swelling, he hoped he could still be understood for the recording.

  Andrew brought his head up suddenly, right into Jared’s face, hitting his damaged nose and sending the pain supernova. His vision blacked out, the world twisted, and the next thing he knew, he was pinned under Andrew, his vision clearing just enough to meet the gaze of a madman. There was no sanity left behind Andrew’s eyes. Just empty gaping holes that only violence would fill.

  “Don’t play any dumber than you have to,” Andrew said, his face far too close, his weight making it hard for Jared’s chest to expand. His head was already swimming. “You don’t care what I think of your sister. Ask me what you’re really here for. You want to know about your mother’s murder.”

  “My mother?” he gasped, struggling for enough air. “But why would you—”

  “Because!” Andrew shouted, his spittle flying in Jared’s face. “Because your father hit her that night. Bounced her head off of something the way my fist bounced off your face. And not for the first time. Remember when you came running to our house? Your mother wouldn’t press charges then either. She could have stopped everything that night. Your father. My mother’s affair. But she didn’t.”

  “I don’t get—”

  Andrew lifted his head, slammed it into the floor as Jared had wanted to do to him. His vision blacked again, and terror spiked like lightning through his brain. He’d walked right up to his mother’s killer. Put himself in Andrew’s hands. And now he was possibly going to die the same way.

  But the worst was the realization of how close he’d come to being Andrew. He shared the s
ame angers. The same impulse control issues. He didn’t want to believe he could be one bad decision away from murder. Maybe it would be best if he let Andrew take him out. If he could leave some of his DNA behind, something that would get Andrew caught, the world would be a better place.

  Andrew didn’t know or care about the crisis raging through Jared. Malice gleamed in his eyes as he stared him down. “I saw her that night, sitting in her car, bleeding,” he said, reveling in the pain he was causing Jared, devouring it. “I offered to call the police. To sit with her. But she refused. She was bleeding and he was to blame and she wouldn’t do a damn thing about it.”

  “So you blamed the victim?” He struggled to get the words out.

  Andrew leaned more of his weight onto Jared’s stomach, forcing out the very last of his air. “So I gave her something to complain about until she was never going to complain again. If she wouldn’t accuse your father, I’d make sure the police found her body. And enough evidence to arrest him.”

  There was another sound from Jared’s pocket. Aaliyah telling him help was on the way. He could only hope it wouldn’t come too late. But it drew Andrew’s attention, and he shifted, just enough for Jared to suck in air. It hurt like hell.

  Andrew grabbed roughly for Jared’s pocket, digging for the phone.

  “If you wanted Mom found, why leave her car at the train station?” Jared asked, hoping to distract him.

  It was no use. Andrew came up with the phone. He resettled his weight on top of Jared and raised it to his ear, the look on his face absolutely chilling.

  “The girlfriend, I presume?” he said. “Or are you the bitch sister?”

  Jared willed Aaliyah to stay silent. He didn’t want Andrew going after her next. Especially if he didn’t live through this. If he wasn’t there to throw himself between them.

  No, not even an option. He had to take Andrew down. He couldn’t let him hurt anyone else.

  “You don’t have to tell me,” he said. “I have the number now. I have one little thing to take care of here, and then you’re next.”