by Jody Morse
“Interesting. I’ll make a note of that controlling behavior, as you call it,” Detective Scotts said, scribbling in his notebook. “Can you recall what time they came in?”
“It was just after the dinner rush hour,” Edda replied slowly. “I’d say it was about seven o’clock, maybe eight.”
The detective jotted something else down in his notebook. “Do you remember what her boyfriend looked like? Hair color? Height? Weight? Tattoos? Any details about his physical appearance would be useful in identifying him.”
“He had an athletic build. He was probably about six feet tall, maybe a little shorter. His hair was dark and slicked back. Oh, and he was wearing a cross necklace,” Edda replied hastily. “Detective, do you think that maybe we could do this some other time? I’ve got customers leavin’ my store because of you.”
Samara turned around, just in time to see a lady and her son sneaking out the back door of the general store. From the window, she could see two other people climbing into their cars, disgusted looks on their faces. Normally, Samara would have followed them, but she was really curious. It wasn’t every day that someone in Grandview went missing – especially someone she knew.
Her mind went back to the description that Edda had just given the detective. It definitely sounded like Josh, but she had a hard time believing that Lilly was with him in the general store. She had never seen him act controlling or even aggressive to anyone else, let alone Lilly. Maybe they were having a fight, or maybe they had broken up and Edda was describing someone else. It wouldn’t be too unusual for Lilly to date someone who fit the same exact description of Josh if he was her type.
“I understand. My apologies,” Detective Scotts replied, droning out Samara’s thoughts. “Here’s my card. Please give me a call if you remember any details that you feel would be useful in our investigation.”
As the detective walked past Samara, she felt a gust of wind. She watched as he slipped out the side door of the general store. Moments later, she saw his black car pull out of the driveway as he pulled out of the parking lot.
Edda scoffed. “I’m real sorry about that, Samara. You can have whatever you want on the house. You’ve gotta be my most loyal customer. Lord knows I wouldn’t have waited there so patiently.”
Samara smiled, pushing a dark chocolate brown lock of hair behind her ear. “I don’t mind. It’s not like I have somewhere else that I need to be. I’ll have –”
“Your usual,” Edda interrupted. “A large iced mocha coffee and a cinnamon bagel with cream cheese.”
Samara nodded and watched as Edda smothered a thick layer of cream cheese on her bagel and tossed it into a little brown bag for her.
“How’s your mom doing?”
“Good,” Samara replied. “I’ll tell her you said hi.” Edda and her mom had known each other for years because Mrs. McKinley had worked at the general store while she was putting herself through college to become a legal secretary.
Over the sound of the noisy blender, Edda said, “Kids these days. Those teens probably just ran away from home. My own son did that, you know, and he never came back. I feel real sorry for those parents, though. It’s hard not knowin’ what happened to your child.”
When Edda handed her the bagel and coffee, Samara mumbled, “Thanks.” She bolted out of the door to the general store, determined to somehow find out what had happened to Lilly.
*
“Samara Alyce, where have you been?” Mrs. McKinley barked when Samara walked through the front door. “I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday afternoon!”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Samara replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I told you there isn’t very good reception at Emma’s house, so you shouldn’t expect me to answer while I’m there. Besides, if you really wanted to get in contact with me, why didn’t you just drive over there?”
Her mom sat down on the love seat and crossed one thin leg over the other. “Well, I would have if your father hadn’t been in the hospital last night.”
“What? Dad was in the hospital? Is he okay?” Samara asked, feeling panicked.
Mrs. McKinley nodded, her cheeks a shade of rosy red. “They discharged him this morning. He’s doing alright, just shaken up, mostly. Your brother and he got into another argument last night. We’re lucky that his nose was the only thing that was broken.”
“Oh, no,” Samara whispered. Her brother, Seth, had become a totally different person this year. One day, he was her normally goofy brother, cracking brotherly jokes and teasing her like usual. The next day, something seemed to snap. Her brother suddenly seemed so hateful towards everyone. Samara wasn’t really sure what had changed in him, but she hoped that whatever it was would change back soon because his recent outbursts were beginning to tear their family apart. Samara was starting to hate being home because she didn’t want to be around it.
“Your father’s upstairs resting right now. Seth left last night, and he hasn’t come back since.”
“That’s just like Seth,” Samara muttered, remembering that her brother had taken off the last three times that he had gotten into a fight with one of their parents. It seemed like it was becoming a monthly occurrence. He had disappeared for a few days each time before finally coming back and apologizing. Her parents had forgiven him, but despite their best efforts to talk things out, things were never fully resolved. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
“Oh, honey, don’t apologize,” Mrs. McKinley said, waving a hand in the air. “There’s nothing that you could have done to stop it even if you had been here.”
While Samara knew that her mom was right, she still felt a pang of guilt. She had spent the night before playing karaoke and beer pong at Emma’s house. She had told her mom that Emma’s mom and step dad were going to be home, even though she knew that they were spending the weekend visiting Emma’s grandma in Rhode Island. Emma had played hooky so that they would let her stay home instead of going to her grandma’s 80th birthday party.
“So, how was your night at Emma’s anyway?” Mrs. McKinley asked, as though she had read Samara’s mind.
Samara shrugged. “It was alright.”
“What did you girls do?”
“We just hung out. Ate pizza and had a Reese Witherspoon movie marathon,” Samara lied. Even though she felt bad about lying to her mom again, she didn’t want her to know that she had been dishonest in the first place – and she wasn’t about to tell her mom what they had really done the night before. Mrs. McKinley would probably have a heart attack if she found out that there were boys over, that they had all been drinking, and that Samara had gotten her first kiss. She would have been even angrier if she knew that Samara’s best guy friend, Declan, had slept over. Mrs. McKinley was probably even more against coed sleepovers than she was against Samara dating – which didn’t say much because she didn’t want that to happen until Samara turned eighteen. Sadly, she wouldn’t be eighteen for a couple of years, so she was just going to have to sneak around until then.
“Well, that sounds like fun,” Mrs. McKinley chirped. “Do you have any plans for tomorrow? It’s Sunday, so I thought that maybe we could spend the day together.”
“I’m going over to Emma’s again,” Samara chirped apologetically. Technically, she was telling her mom the truth this time. What she didn’t mention was that the only reason she was going there was so that Emma could do Samara’s hair and makeup for her date with Luke Davenport, the guy who she had gotten her first kiss from the night before.
“Oh, alright,” Mrs. McKinley replied, a saddened look crossing her face. Samara noticed tiny wrinkle lines that she hadn’t seen yesterday underneath her mom’s eyes. Although her mom’s hair was dyed jet black, there appeared to be more gray highlights peeking out where her roots were growing in than there had been before. All of the constant fighting in their household must really be taking a toll on her mom.
“Maybe we can do something next weekend,” Samara suggested, trying to make up for it.
“It’s a
plan,” Mrs. McKinley replied, but the tone in her voice told Samara that she wasn’t really expecting it to happen.
*
That night, Samara lay in her twin-sized bed flicking through the television channels when she came across the evening news. It only caught her attention because the yearbook picture of the missing girl that the detective had shown Edda earlier that day was staring back at her. Samara left the station on to watch the news feature.
“Lilly Phillips was last seen by her parents at their home in Grandview around four o’clock Thursday afternoon,” the newscaster said, a solemn tone in her voice. “Edda Williams, the owner of Williams General, saw the girl in her store on Thursday evening. Lilly’s boyfriend, Josh Masterson, is allegedly the last person who saw her before she went missing. He claims that he drove her home Thursday night around nine o’clock and that he has not seen or heard from her since.”
Samara felt a weird feeling grow in the pit of her stomach. The pieces didn’t seem to fit together. Josh really had been the one who was with Lilly the day she went missing… or was he the only one? The newscaster had said that he was the last one to see her, but she also hadn’t said for sure that he was the one with her in the general store.
Samara gulped. What if Lilly had been cheating on Josh? Though she’d never known Josh to be a bad person, everyone had their moments of rage. If he had caught her with someone else…
No, Samara thought, shaking the idea away. Josh wouldn’t do that to anyone. Besides, she was just jumping to conclusions. He probably was the one who was with her in the store.
“If you have any details about Lilly Phillip’s whereabouts, please contact local authorities immediately,” the newscaster read before going on to talk about high school basketball.
Samara wondered where Lilly was. Even though Edda thought that she had probably run away, Samara had a gut feeling that it wasn’t that simple.
Something wasn’t right. Samara wasn’t sure what it was, but she could feel it.
Chapter 3
****
“So, has he told you where you guys are going yet?” Emma asked as she applied Samara’s eyeliner. Emma was an expert at doing makeup and, even though she normally recommended Samara to wear an earthy brown eyeliner to bring out the gold flecks in her eyes, she was applying a sultry shade of black for her date with Luke.
“No, he says it’s a surprise,” Samara groaned. “Hopefully it’s a good one, at least.”
“Yeah, hopefully it’s not just some restaurant or something,” Emma replied, dabbing on some bronzer with a makeup brush. “That would be a really lame surprise.”
“Yeah,” Samara agreed. “Especially if there’s not even a vegetarian menu. I don’t want to look like a ‘picky eater’ on the very first date.”
“Don’t worry, you won’t. Plenty of other girls are vegetarians. I’m sure he’s even dated one before. So, I think you should wear the red sweater. The pink one’s cute and the white one’s okay, but all of the research shows that men go crazy over red,” Emma said, turning to the three short-sleeved sweaters, which all happened to be Valentine’s Day colors even though it was the middle of October, that they had laid out as possible options for Samara to wear tonight. “It has an effect on their testosterone or something.”
“Okay, Doctor Love,” Samara joked. “Red it is.”
“You laugh now, but you’ll totally thank me for it later when Luke is all over you. Then again, what do I know? It sure didn’t work for me.”
Samara looked down at the floor. Emma had been complaining for the past two days that it wasn’t fair that Luke had asked Samara to go out on a date with him. Emma had been trying to get him to ask her out all summer, but it just hadn’t happened. Samara felt bad; even though she’d liked Luke first, Emma didn’t believe it. She thought that Samara just wanted her leftovers, as she’d called it, even though Luke had never showed any interest in Emma. Samara didn’t understand why; all of the other guys at school wanted to date Emma.
Samara glanced at the two of them in the mirror. They were polar opposites in terms of looks. Emma had pale blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, and her cheeks had freckles scattered on them - a huge contrast to Samara’s own dark chocolate brown hair, amber eyes, and skin that tanned nicely when she spent most of her time laying out by the lake behind her house during the summer.
Maybe Emma just wasn’t Luke’s type and Samara was. Still, she couldn’t help but feel like going on a date with him was like rubbing salt in Emma’s wounds.
Just as Emma finished brushing the mascara on Samara’s eyelashes, the doorbell rang. “I’ll go get it and tell him that you’re not ready yet,” Emma said, darting out of her bedroom and leaving Samara to stare at the olive green walls as the butterflies began fluttering around in her stomach.
She quickly pulled the red sweater over her lacy black camisole and examined herself in the mirror. Emma had done her hair in waves of curls that fell over her shoulders. Even though Samara was feeling all sorts of nervous about her date with Luke, she admitted that she looked good . . . really good. If he didn’t like her after tonight, at least she knew it wouldn’t be because she looked like a Plain Jane. Emma had done an awesome job with her hair and makeup.
Once Samara was sure that she was going to puke if she didn’t go into the living room and see Luke soon, she strolled out of the bedroom and down the stairs that led to the entryway.
Luke was standing in the doorway. He hovered high over Emma’s short body, but Samara thought that Luke was the perfect height for her. He wasn’t so tall that they would have a hard time kissing each other unless Samara was standing on a sidewalk, and he also wasn’t shorter than her or so close in height that she was going to have to swear off heels if they ended up having a long-term relationship.
“Hey, Samara,” Luke said, smiling at her, his light green eyes sparkling in the dim light.
“Hi,” Samara replied, unsure of what else to say. She was afraid of looking awkward in front of him, but it probably didn’t help that Emma was gawking at them. Emma’s mom was also just a room away in the kitchen, and Samara always felt weird talking to boys in front of parents – which was probably because her own parents were so against her dating.
“Well, should we get going?” Luke asked, opening the front door.
“Yes, we should,” Samara replied, grabbing her fleece jacket and hurrying out the door in front of him. She gave Emma a small wave over her shoulder. Emma held up crossed fingers to let Samara know that she was hoping that their date was going to be a success.
After they had both climbed into Luke’s smoky blue Honda Civic, Samara turned and looked at him. “So, what’s the surprise? Where are we going?”
It was nighttime, but she could see his smile through the darkness. “You’ll find out soon.”
“Okay,” Samara replied, trying not to think about the worst possible options. If he was planning to take her to Chuck E. Cheese’s or something really lame, she wasn’t sure how she was going to react. Fishing for something to talk about to lessen the tension between them, she asked, “So, how was your day?”
“It was kind of frustrating actually,” Luke replied, keeping his eyes on the road. “I went over to the Phillips’ house. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Lilly Phillips is missing.”
“Yeah, it was hard to miss. It’s been all over the news,” Samara replied, thinking about the photo of Lilly that kept popping up everywhere she looked since that day at the general store. It had been on the front page of the newspaper this morning and on the news again. Samara shivered. Something about Lilly being missing really gave her the chills. “How do you know Lilly?”
“The Phillip’s are close friends of my parents. Lilly and I have known each other since we were in diapers.”
“I wonder where she is,” Samara said.
“Me too. That’s why my day was frustrating. We spent the whole day going through her stuff, checking her email, looking for any signs that might help us
figure out where she is,” Luke replied.
“So, they have no ideas at all?” Samara asked.
Luke shrugged his shoulders as he pulled onto Old Mill Road. “If she was planning to run away, she probably would have left behind a trail of evidence. There was nothing on her computer that let us know she was looking up bus station times or plane ticket prices. She didn’t mention anything that looked out of place. The police are looking at Josh Masterson as their primary suspect. Even though they haven’t found a body yet, they’re pretty sure that he, well . . . you know.”
“What? Josh is the sweetest guy ever. Why would they think he did it?” Samara asked.
“He was the last person who was seen with her and the last person who admits to seeing her,” Luke replied. “That casts a lot of suspicion on him, considering he also doesn’t have a good alibi. Usually, when these types of things happen, it’s also someone who the missing person was really close to, like a jealous boyfriend or husband. I think that the police are looking at the case from that aspect.”
Samara remembered what Edda had said about Josh the day before. She claimed that Josh had acted really controlling in the general store, but that wasn’t the same Josh who Samara knew. He had always been really sweet and outgoing. Maybe they had gotten into a fight that day, so he was angrier than she had ever seen him. Or maybe Edda, in her old age, was just used to the days when boys opened doors for girls and stuff like that. How could someone who was born in the 1930’s really be the best judge of a relationship in the twentieth century?
“They haven’t even found a body yet,” Samara began. “I know Josh totally didn’t do it. I’ve known him for years. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone a person. Maybe she had another boyfriend or something that no one even knows about and he’s the one that did it.”
Luke reached over and grabbed her hand. His touch gave Samara goose bumps. “Hey, I didn’t say that I thought that Josh did anything. There’s no reason to get so defensive,” he said, his voice softening. “Let’s not talk about this, anyway. I really just want to enjoy the night with you and not worry about anything else. I’m sure that Lilly will come back when she’s ready.”
