by Becky Wade
“I cook a little. I’m not very good at it.” One side of his lips curved with self-deprecation. “I didn’t say I wanted to cook a delicious dinner for you. Just a dinner.”
“I don’t think dinner at your house is a good idea.”
“My dad will be there as a chaperon, if you’re worried about needing to protect yourself from me.”
Yes, she needed protection from him all right. Heart protection. She climbed from the car.
He exited the car, too, and waited for her near the front fender. “Come have dinner with me.”
“Thanks for the offer, but no.” She clicked her key fob to lock her car. Placing her purse strap over her shoulder, she took two steps in the direction of the inn.
“Please?” he said.
“No. We’re helping Charlotte find Josephine, Corbin. That’s it. Nothing more.”
He didn’t reply. He only studied her with an implacable gleam in his dark eyes. She recognized that look. It was the same look he’d once leveled on opposing football teams before mounting a fourth-quarter comeback.
Willow experienced a sudden and overwhelming urge to shop for housewares. To shop and shop and shop until she regained her steadiness and sense.
Caption beneath photo published on www.CelebrityGossipOnline.com the day of Corbin and Willow’s breakup:
Just when things were starting to look promising for super couple Corbin Stewart and Willow Bradford, Corbin was spotted at one of Dallas’s hottest nightclubs with this mystery woman. It seems that even the stunning Willow Bradford has failed to retain the affection of the NFL’s most eligible bachelor.
Caption beneath photo published on www.PopNews.com two days after Corbin and Willow’s breakup:
It’s no surprise to see a beautiful woman on the arm of actor Derek Oliver. In this case, however, the identity of the beautiful woman is somewhat of a surprise. Model Willow Bradford, dazzling in a yellow chiffon Versace gown, has been linked in recent months with Mustangs quarterback Corbin Stewart.
Derek and Willow hit the red carpet for the premiere of Derek’s new movie, Until Sunset. Does this appearance mean an end to Willow’s romance with Corbin and an exciting new beginning with Derek?
Text message from Britt to Willow and Nora:
Britt
Willow, your ex-boyfriend just invited me, Tristan, and Zander over to his house for dinner Monday night.
Nora
He invited John and me, too! I wasn’t going to mention it. My plan was to send John on Monday and stay home out of loyalty to you, Willow. But since he’s invited Britt and her men, you must be coming, too, right? Are you and Corbin friends now?
Britt
Or is he still a snake? Should we tell Corbin to take his invitation and shove it?
Nora
I want to do whatever will cause Willow to keep me on her Christmas list.
Britt
I want to go. He said he’ll have Monday Night Football playing on his big screen and T-bone steaks on the grill. Also, he’s eye candy. And a famous football legend and all. He told me he’s invited Charlotte’s whole family, too.
Willow
He’s a snake! He told me he wanted to cook dinner for me and I said no, so he went behind my back and invited everyone I’m close to except me.
Britt
Um . . . So can I say yes? I want a T-bone steak.
Text message from Willow to Corbin:
Willow
I hear you’re planning a dinner party.
Corbin
Hello to you, too, boss lady.
Willow
Is this a ploy to get me to come to your place for dinner even though I already said I wouldn’t?
Corbin
Not a ploy so much as a way for me to sweeten my offer.
Willow
I’ll pass.
Corbin
Take pity on me, Willow. I invited your sisters and the Dixons and everyone else just so I could get one person to come. You.
Willow
What if everyone in my posse turns your invitation down?
Corbin
Why would they? Didn’t you hear? I have T-bone steaks.
Willow
I heard.
Corbin
Do you not like T-bone steaks?
Willow
I’m not a fan of any meat that’s still holding on to the bones of the animal it came from.
Corbin
What would you like to eat? Whatever it is, I’ll buy it for you.
Willow
You really are hard to say no to, you know that?
Corbin
Filet mignon? Chicken? Pork? Cornish game hens? What?
Willow
Filet mignon will do very nicely.
Corbin
Perfect. See you Monday night.
Chapter
Thirteen
The Dixon family arrived first for dinner on Monday.
Instead of making small talk like a normal person, Charlotte pulled straight the hem of her long-sleeved T-shirt and displayed the writing on it for Corbin to see.
“‘Eat. Sleep. K-pop. Repeat,’” he read. “Where can I order one of those for myself?”
She giggled, then said firmly to her younger brothers, “Quit shoving each other.”
Lucky Charlotte. Corbin would have liked two younger brothers to order around. “C’mere, boys.” Corbin pulled the nearest one in.
Corbin’s dad hurried forward, eager for his own round of hugs.
As soon as Mark and Jill entered into a conversation with his dad and the boys headed in the direction of the backyard to play with Max and Duke, Charlotte positioned herself before Corbin.
“Can we hold a quick Operation Find Josephine meeting when Willow gets here?” she asked. “You guys went to Redmond without me, which is, like, really rude since Josephine is my great-aunt, and you wouldn’t even be looking for her if it weren’t for me.”
“Hold your horses a second. We wanted you to come to Redmond, but your mom wouldn’t let you miss school.”
“Then you should have rescheduled!”
“Just so you know, puppy, if I’m given a chance to see Willow, I won’t reschedule.”
The irritation vanished from Charlotte’s face. “Oh. Wait! Are you guys . . . getting back together?”
“Not yet.”
“But you’d like to?”
“I would.”
“I knew it!” She brightened at the juicy bit of gossip. “You two are perfect for each other. It’s kinda gross that you’re so old, but it’s also kinda nice—”
“Gross? Old?”
“I asked Willow if she thought you two would ever date again, and she said no.”
“Yeah, Willow’s lack of interest in me is confusing. Ninety-nine out of a hundred women find me irresistible.”
“Let me know what I can do. You know, to help things along.”
“Will do.” The day he’d need a twelve-year-old’s help with women was the day he’d have no more reasons to live.
“So can we? Have a meeting when Willow gets here?”
“I guess.”
The doorbell rang again.
It was Melinda and her husband, Walter, who was as quiet and patient as he was bald.
Corbin had been studying Josephine’s case since he’d last seen Melinda. So when he looked at Melinda now, he recognized hints of Josephine’s features—features that had looked back at him from yellowed newspaper articles and grainy Internet images—in Melinda’s face. Which was sort of unsettling.
The doorbell.
It was Willow’s sister Britt and her boyfriend, Tristan, who looked like he’d come straight off of a hiking trail.
Several minutes later, Zander arrived alone.
Where was Willow? Nothing against these people, but he hadn’t held this party so he could spend time hanging out with Tristan and Melinda.
When he finally opened the door and saw Willow standing on the threshold, he stilled. Sh
e stood next to her sister Nora and Corbin’s friend John. He barely registered Nora or John.
Willow’s blond hair hung loose. She wore a soft gray knit sweater dress, small sparkly earrings, and the usual collection of bracelets around one slender wrist.
“Your sling is gone,” Willow said.
“Yeah, I graduated out of it.” He was having a hard time locating his train of thought. “Come on in. Hi, John.” They shook hands. “Nora. Nice to see you again.”
“Nice to see you, too.” Nora hung her coat on the coatrack near the door. “I love your house.”
“Thanks. My dad and I have been working on it. It’s still not finished, but I hope it will be soon.” He led them into the great room, where everyone had gathered in front of the huge flat screen showing the last of the Monday Night Football pre-game commentary. John and Nora made their way toward Britt.
“This space was empty the last time I was here,” Willow said. “Now the walls are painted. There’s furniture. Rugs. A TV.”
“After I invited people over I decided I better have furniture.”
“You bought all of this for this dinner party?”
“I was going to have to buy it eventually. This dinner party inspired me to buy it sooner rather than later.”
Willow lifted one delicate eyebrow and motioned with her chin to the trays of appetizers spread on both the coffee table and the tall thin table that stood against the sofa’s back. “Something tells me you didn’t cook these appetizers.”
“I know my limitations.”
“You know your limitations?” She made a scoffing sound. “Since when?”
He laughed. It was like sun after days of clouds to have her in his house again. He took his first deep breath in what felt like a week. While she was here, his dad’s condition couldn’t drag him under, his shoulder wouldn’t hurt, and he’d be okay with his status as an NFL has-been.
“When you invited me over, you said that you wanted to cook for me,” she said.
“Right, but then you said you wouldn’t come and forced me to invite all these people just to get you here. I can’t cook for fifteen people.”
“You said you were going to grill filet mignon for me.” Her eyes shone with amusement.
“I said I was going to buy filet mignon for you. Subtle difference.”
“You hired someone to cook all this.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes. Easiest phone call I ever made—”
“Hi, Willow.” Charlotte edged between them, and Corbin was forced to take a few steps back to make room for the girl.
Willow greeted Charlotte with a hug.
“Corbin said we could meet really quickly about Josephine,” Charlotte said. She was carrying her notebook and a pen.
“Oh?”
Corbin shrugged. “She guilted me into it.”
Jill leaned in their direction and asked, “Can Grandma and I join you?”
“No, Mom. Gosh!” Charlotte shot Willow and Corbin a long-suffering expression that said parents are such a trial.
Jill’s laughter trailed them as Corbin led Willow and Charlotte to the downstairs room he’d made into his office. So far it held a desk, a chair, and several cardboard boxes he hadn’t gotten around to unpacking. He offered the chair to Willow. He and Charlotte sat on top of boxes.
Charlotte turned pitiful gray eyes on Willow. “Can you fill me in on everything that’s happened since I saw you last?”
Personally, Corbin thought she was laying the you-left-me-out-and-hurt-my-feelings thing on a little too thick. But, of course, Willow was compassionate, and Charlotte’s shtick worked on her. Willow explained everything the senator had said during their meeting.
As she spoke, Corbin watched how she used her hands. How she gave Charlotte her full attention. He listened to the rise and fall of her voice. And he determined that he was going to have to convince her to talk to him about their breakup. He’d given it a lot of thought over the past few days. The only way forward for them was straight through their past. Not around.
Willow wasn’t going to like it. She’d rather use her anger toward him to keep him at arm’s length right up until she left Washington. For that reason, biding his time and trying to win her over gradually was never going to work.
Willow fell silent. Corbin waited until Charlotte had finished taking notes, then said, “I found some new information on Stan Markum yesterday.”
“You did?” Charlotte asked.
“A couple of years before he disappeared, he was accused of extortion by a businessman who owned a company that was a competitor of Markum Industries.”
“What does extortion mean?” Charlotte asked.
“It means using threats or force to get what you want,” Corbin answered. “As best as I can figure, Stan and his lawyers settled out of court.”
“Stan sounds like he might have been kind of mean,” Charlotte said.
“The fact that Stan settled out of court suggests that he may have been guilty,” Willow said.
“Maybe. Or maybe he was a rich guy who didn’t want to be bothered, so he made the charge go away fast.”
“Have you guys ever been accused of a crime?” Charlotte asked.
“Never,” Willow answered.
“I plead the fifth,” Corbin said.
“If Stan was guilty, then that means he wasn’t afraid to dabble in illegal things.” Willow’s eyebrows pinched together as she thought it over. “I wonder if he or Josephine could have gotten involved in something illegal or dangerous and that’s what ended up causing their disappearance.”
Quiet fell as they weighed the possibility.
Charlotte wrote in her notebook. “Good thinking, Willow.”
“I’m the one who found new information,” Corbin said. “So what about ‘Good work, Uncle Corbin’?”
“That too,” Charlotte mumbled.
“I also found some new information.” Willow gestured to his computer. “May I?”
“Sure.”
She opened his Internet browser and went to work. “Stan isn’t the only one with a few skeletons in his closet.”
“Josephine had skeletons in her closet?” Charlotte asked.
“None that I’ve been able to find,” Willow answered.
“Who are you talking about, then?”
“Senator Foster Holt.” Willow rolled the desk chair to the side, revealing the computer screen. She’d pulled up a photo of a brunette with long hair and bangs. The woman in the picture was young, curvy, and attractive by early 1980’s standards.
“When I told Britt that we’d met with Senator Holt, she asked if he was the one who’d been involved in a scandal with one of his staffers. I had no idea what she was talking about, so I looked it up. It turns out that Britt was right. This is the staffer.” Willow considered the photo. “In 1982 she told a reporter that she’d had a . . . relationship with Senator Holt off and on for a year. The senator hotly denied it. Her history with men was a little on the shady side. So when Senator Holt said she was trying to discredit him for political reasons, people believed him and the whole thing went away.”
Corbin frowned.
Willow turned back to the computer and started typing.
Corbin had gotten along well with the senator during their visit. He’d pegged Foster Holt as a man who’d become a public servant for the right reasons. That said, Corbin wasn’t in the habit of discounting women who came forward to blow the whistle on famous men. All the biographies he’d read prevented him from allowing himself that knee-jerk reaction. For decades, it had been far too easy for men to say either, “It wasn’t rape, it was consensual,” or, “She’s lying.” Very often, the public would then make the woman the villain.
Willow moved away from the computer again. This time, the screen revealed a picture of a brunette with feathered hair. Attractive. Probably in her mid-twenties.
“I did some digging and discovered that three years after the staffer claimed a relationship with Sen
ator Holt, this woman claimed a relationship with him. The senator and his wife had a full-time nanny, but they’d bring this woman in occasionally to help with their younger kids. She was their relief nanny.”
“Let me guess,” Corbin said. “Senator Holt hotly denied that they’d had a relationship.”
“Hotly.”
“And the whole thing went away.”
“Exactly.”
Charlotte was blinking and attempting to look as though she was used to discussing potential affairs involving married men.
Shortly after he’d signed on to help Charlotte search for Josephine, Corbin had talked with Mark and Jill about how they wanted him and Willow to handle the information in the Josephine box and any other information they might uncover. Charlotte was the one driving this whole thing. She was the one who desperately wanted to solve this mystery. Because she wanted it, Corbin wanted it. He just didn’t like that this mystery meant exposing Charlotte to the heavy subjects of missing women and Jane Does and infidelity.
Mark and Jill had decided they were fine with Corbin and Willow telling Charlotte the truth, so long as they didn’t go into graphic detail and didn’t let her look at images that might give her nightmares. Corbin had also agreed to keep Mark and Jill updated on the things he and Willow discussed with Charlotte so they could follow up with conversations at home.
Still. There were times when he wished Charlotte had stuck to science homework, clarinet practice, and barking orders at him during his therapy appointments.
Willow maneuvered the photos of the two women so they lined up side by side. “Does anything jump out at you?”
A sense of unease sifted through Corbin. “Both women look like Josephine.”
“Oh my gosh,” Charlotte breathed. “They do. Oh my gosh.”
“It seems that the senator may have a type,” Corbin said.
Willow met his eyes. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“So now we have another theory to consider.” Corbin counted them off on his fingers. “One: Josephine and Stan ran away together. Two: Josephine and Stan died because of an accident or murder-suicide. Three: Josephine and Stan were murdered by a third party. Four: Josephine and Stan were involved in something dangerous and went missing because of it. Five: Josephine and Senator Holt were having an affair.”
