“Who are you getting a ride from?” I persisted.
Leah shot me a serious look that sent a shudder through my spine. Her eyes whispered a subte cry of both hate and fear. She had never looked at me like that before. “I’ll say this one more time, Dani. Leave. Me. Alone. It’s over. I’m not your girlfriend anymore, so it’s not your business who takes me home.” Her lips hardened into a white line.
“Fine,” I said, slowly backing away. Leaving her behind, I stormed into the backyard.
• • •
During the hours following my final conversation with Leah, a lot happened, much of which I do not remember. Voices and faces mingled together in a drunken blur. Rounds of shots were poured around eleven o’clock. Fraternity brothers from Phi Sig offered them insistently all night. Apparently, the news about my break up with Leah had spread across the party like a plague. As a result, it became a unanimous decision amongst my friends that in order to let go and be free, I needed to be as drunk as possible. With each drink I devoured, the world slowed down. Voices became muffled. Reality became distorted.
At some point in the night, I found myself laying on the couch, right where Leah had been sitting several hours before. In a foggy haze, I looked around the well-furnished living room. The crowd had thinned considerably, leaving no more than five people. However, it was hard to decipher how many guests remained because my vision was spinning. The swell of nausea and lack of balance made me unsure if I was seeing double.
The couch cushion sank beside me, startling me out of my drunken stupor. Jenna Miller, the sorority vice president, took a seat beside me. The weight of her body was warm and welcoming. I leaned into her warmth and rested my head on her shoulder. “What time is it?” I mumbled.
“Dani…” Jenna whispered. Her voice was serious, dark with concern.
“Mm?”
“Dani, look!”
I moaned groggily. “What?”
“Why is Leah talking to Rob Seagrave?”
My eyes instantly shot open. “She’s still here? I thought Leah would have left by now.”
“Apparently not.” Jenna’s eyes slanted toward the door leading to the back deck. Leah was standing by the door, whispering in Rob’s ear. I grimaced. I had known Rob throughout college. From past experience, I knew he was not only a creep, but an ego maniac and a misogynist. Dressed in a button-up shirt with his hair combed neatly to the side, he grinned smugly at whatever Leah was whispering to him. I tried to get up from my seat, but dizziness overtook me. The weight of sleepiness continued to press me down, no matter how badly I wanted to push Rob away from Leah.
Rob took her by the hand and led her out the back door. When the door clicked shut behind them, I felt as if my whole world was consumed by an overwhelmingly painful wave of silence.
Chapter Three
“Dani, wake up!” a female voice said. By instinct, I reached for Leah across the mattress, but I froze when my hand grazed across the tips of freshly cut grass. I cracked my eyes open to reveal a clear, blue sky above me. I sat up, wincing as a painful ache thudded like a steady drum at my temples. I licked my dry, parched lips and looked around. I was laying on a thin quilt in the middle of the backyard. The wooden fence of the yard was wide open, revealing the beach and the vast ocean beyond. The sun reflected blindingly over the crashing waves in the distance, making me squint harshly. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. It was one o’clock in the afternoon. What the hell happened last night?
“Dani!” the female voice shouted again, louder this time. I blinked a few times and looked to my left, where Rosie was standing with her hands on her hips, watching me incredulously. “I’ve been looking all over for you. Jesus. How’d you end up passing out back here?”
Keeping myself steady, I slowly rose from the ground and peered at the house, which was quiet at last. Loud music was no longer blasting through the walls. “I have no idea. Is everyone gone?”
“Pretty sure,” she replied. “I just made a full sweep to make sure no stragglers were left behind.”
“What about Leah?” I asked.
Rosie glanced at her feet and rubbed the back of her neck with her hand.
“Rosie?” I asked.
“I guess you don’t remember…” she said gently, as if I was a child that wasn’t mature enough to handle the truth. “Look. Um…I don’t think you should worry about Leah’s whereabouts right now. It’s probably best to just…leave it be.”
“Rosie, what the hell are you talking about?” I demanded.
She met my gaze cautiously, like she was afraid I was a landmine that might blow up if she didn’t choose her words carefully.
“Please don’t hate me. I tried to tell Rob to stop, but—”
“Spit it out!”
“I think something happened with Leah and Rob,” Rosie said.
I felt the blood instantly drain from my face. Last night was a long, drawn-out blur, but as I searched my memory, I could recall the image of the two of them talking. Rob was leaning close to her, whispering in her ear over the loud music. Leah’s expression was blank, unreadable. Or maybe I had been too intoxicated to process what I was seeing clearly.
“What do you mean something happened?” I asked.
“You were passed out on the couch, but Jenna said she saw Leah and Rob leave the party to go for a walk on the beach. They were gone for a while.”
“How long?”
“We were all so drunk…it’s hard to tell. I think like twenty minutes…maybe. Rob came back to the party afterward. Leah didn’t.”
“She probably just wanted a ride home,” I decided after a brief pause. “She was looking at her phone all night. I think she was having trouble finding someone available. Maybe Rob offered.”
“But why would they go for a walk on the beach?”
“For better cell phone service?” I said.
Rosie shrugged. “I dunno. It seemed like they were flirting.”
The recollection of the two of them sent blood pulsating in my ears. I knew that Leah and I were broken up, but she wouldn’t have let a man touch her. Especially not Rob Seagrave. If anything had happened between the two of them, it was because Rob refused to leave her alone. That was the only option that made logical sense. That was it. Nothing more.
I lifted my phone to my ear and called Leah. It rang five times before going to voicemail. I waited impatiently for the voicemail beep, but my spirits plummeted when the automated voice said, “I’m sorry, but the person you are trying to reach has a full message box. Please try again later.”
With a sigh of frustration, I resorted to sending a text: Where are you????
As I sent the message, I watched the blue bubble appear on our message thread. Both of us had iPhones, so I was able to see that the message was delivered. Leah’s read receipts were turned off, so I wouldn’t know if or when she received my message. It wasn’t like her to ignore me, but based on our last conversation last night, she probably lacked the desire to talk to me.
I slid my phone back into my pocket and rubbed my eyes. The backyard was littered with red cups and beer cans, which would take all day to clean.
“You alright?” Rosie asked, her green eyes sweeping over my disheveled appearance.
“I just have a headache,” I lied. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason that any hint of joy was drained from me, but all I could think about at the moment was the cleaning I would have to do. My mom would throw a fit if she saw how filthy the mansion looked.
Rosie took a step toward me and placed both hands on my shoulders. “I’ll stick around and help you clean.”
“You don’t have to,” I said.
“But I will.” She smiled ruefully. “I have some Tylenol in my bag. Let’s get the place cleaned up while you wait to hear back from Leah.”
“Thanks.” I mustered a half grin toward my best friend. I was grateful for Rosie, who always knew how to comfort me in times of distress.
• •
•
I hadn’t heard back from Leah all day. I checked my phone frequently, almost obsessively, waiting for her name to pop up on the bright screen. I even sent a few texts to friends who had been at the party. Only Jenna, Rosie, and a couple of the guys from Phi Sig had seen Leah leave the party with Rob. The story remained consistent: Rob came back to the party after walking on the beach with Leah for about twenty minutes. He sauntered casually into the backyard, apparently denying that anything had happened between the two of them, and poured himself another drink. He remained at the party for another hour or so before leaving right as the sun was coming up.
Leah never came back.
“This isn’t normal,” I told Rosie. It was now five o’clock in the evening. The two of us were sitting on the back deck, staring out at the ocean in the distance. The evening sun hung low in the sky, casting orange light on the water’s surface.
Rosie leaned back on one of the lawn chairs, her eyes closed and relaxed as she bathed in the sun. “Isn’t it, though? I forget the two of you are even a couple sometimes. You barely talk.”
I resented Rosie for her brutal honesty, but I found it reassuring at the same time. “You really think she’s just ignoring me? That’s why I haven’t heard from her?”
Rosie simply shrugged in response. “It would make sense. She told you she didn’t want to talk to you.”
I looked down at my phone in my palm. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Leah had been staring at her phone so much throughout the night. As far as I knew, I was the only person in Leah’s life that she kept daily contact with. She used to be close with her mother, but their relationship weakened over the last year or two. As far as I knew, Leah hadn’t spoken to her mother in ages. Yet, I couldn’t think of anyone else she would have been texting other than maybe her mom. She might have also been trying to contact co-workers or neighbors, but I didn’t have the phone numbers of any of those people.
After scrolling through my contacts and finding Leah’s mother’s information, I took a deep, steadying breath and hit the CALL button. Leah’s mother barely knew me. I didn’t know how I’d begin speaking, or if I’d even know what to say at all. Bracing myself, I waited through several rings.
The woman’s raspy voice drifted through the phone speaker. “Heh?” she said.
I cleared my throat. “Um. Hi, Mrs. Herrington. It’s Dani.”
“Dani who?” she asked. Distant cheers resounded through the phone line, followed by a chorus of laughter. I assumed Mrs. Herrington was watching television.
“It’s Danielle Kent,” I said.
“Huh?”
“…Leah’s girlfriend?” I said after a pause.
“Oh…” Mrs. Herrington said in a dull and disinterested voice.
“Um. I was just wondering if you’d heard from Leah recently.” I went on. “I haven’t seen or heard from her since last night. Did she try to contact you?”
Mrs. Herrington chuckled. “Me? You think she was contacting me? Keep dreaming.”
“When was the last time you spoke?”
“Let me tell you something, Danielle Kent.” Her voice suddenly grew hostile. “Ever since you and my daughter got together, Leah has been giving me the damn cold shoulder. If you wanna know about her whereabouts, don’t bother asking me. You’re the one who apparently knows her better than anyone.”
I shifted restlessly in my seat, clutching the phone against my ear. “Mrs. Herrington. Please.”
Before I could say more, the distant noise through the speaker abruptly ended. Leah’s mother hung up.
I turned to look at Rosie, who was watching me curiously, her arms outstretched as she lay relaxed on the lawn chair.
“I think I should call the police,” I said.
“Shit,” Rosie muttered. “I hate talking to cops. They always make you feel guilty even when you haven’t done anything.”
“You don’t have to stay,” I said. “I’ll talk to the police by myself. I can have them take a look around.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with that?” Rosie asked. “I mean, a bunch of people were drinking underage last night. What if you get in trouble?”
“I just have a bad feeling about last night. I know you think I’m overreacting, but something about Rob Seagrave doesn’t sit well with me,” I said. “He has a reputation for being aggressive with girls. I don’t trust him alone with Leah. Plus, Leah was acting weird last night.” I remembered the way Leah sat with her head down, her dark hair hanging in front of her face, which was plastered with a harsh frown. Not only was she angry with me, but she was deeply troubled, making me wonder if there was something else bothering her. If only I had been awake when she walked on the beach with Rob. I could have chased after them, feet pounding into the sand, and stopped whatever happened between them.
“Well, I think I’ll head back to the apartment,” Rosie said as she lifted herself off of the lawn chair and stretched. “Midterms start tomorrow. After you’re done talking with the police, are you gonna head back to campus?”
“It depends on how long it takes,” I replied as I glanced up at my parent’s tall mansion. My family used to take vacations here a couple times a year, but as I got older and my parents became deeply invested in their careers, the home remained empty and silent for long stretches of time. Vacations became a rarity in my family. Everything was about work and only work.
As I sat staring at the home, the myrtle trees in the backyard cast massive black shadows on the siding. The branches swayed in the ocean wind, scraping lightly against the windows. If I were to spend another night here, I wouldn’t enjoy the sounds of branches scraping like sharp fingertips against the glass. When I was a kid, I used to imagine black silhouettes crawling in front of the window, peering at me and laughing as they scraped the glass. The memory of it sent a shiver through me.
Chapter Four
“Let me get this straight one more time,” said the uniformed policeman who introduced himself as Officer Valloreo. He sat across from me at the kitchen table, scribbling details on a palm-sized notepad. He was an older gentleman, no younger than fifty, with a gray buzz cut and a round belly.
It was eight o’clock at night, and if I did the math correctly, that meant it had been sixteen hours since Leah was last seen at the party.
“Do you know the exact time Leah left the house?” Officer Valloreo asked as he studied his notes.
“Not exactly, but I think it was around four in the morning. I saw her leave with Rob Seagrave right before I fell asleep.”
“And when did you discover that she was missing?” he asked.
“When I woke up.”
“Where and when was that?”
“Well, I woke up around one in the afternoon.”
The officer glanced up at me through his reading glasses. “And where was that?”
“Where? Oh. Um.” I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand. “Actually… Well, to be honest, it was in the backyard.”
He squinted at me, making me cower beneath his gaze. I should have listened to Rosie’s warning about cops. She was right. They did always make you feel guilty. “Any idea how you ended up passed out in the backyard?”
The answer to that question was obvious, but the officer wanted to dig the specific details out of me. “I don’t remember.” I rubbed my sweaty thumbs together. “In fact, I don’t remember much about last night at all.”
“Interesting.” Officer Valloreo scribbled something in his notepad. “Too much booze, I suppose.” He spoke in a condescending and disapproving tone.
“I’m twenty-two,” I snapped. “I didn’t do anything illegal.”
“Just for clarification, you said that you fell asleep on the couch but woke up in the backyard at one o’clock the following afternoon.”
I paused, blood pulsating at my neck, then said quickly, “I know it sounds strange, but I swear…that’s all I can remember.” I tightened my sweaty hands into fists under the table.
With a
raised eyebrow, the policeman asked, “You have no memory of any events that occured between falling asleep on the couch and waking up in the yard?”
“I just told you I don’t remember anything.”
His eyes lingered on my face, squinting, then dropped toward his notepad. “Any illegal substances at the party?”
“As far as I know, there was only alcohol.” I shook my head with frustration. “But how is that relevant? I just want to know what happened to my girlfriend.”
“Okay. Okay.” Officer Valloreo leaned back in his chair. “So she left around four o’clock with Mr. Seagrave. They went for a walk on the beach. Mr. Seagrave came back twenty minutes later and Leah didn’t. No one at the party seems to know where she went.”
“No one except Rob, obviously,” I said. “You have to question him. I know something happened. Every girl on Rowan’s campus knows that Rob Seagrave is a creep.”
“We’ll be questioning everyone who was at the party,” the officer said as he clicked his pen in his hand. “But we can’t file a missing person report until it’s been a full forty-eight hours. So far, there’s no evidence to suggest a crime. For all we know, Leah could have wandered off on her own. All we can do for now is question anyone who might have caught sight of her at the party or any time afterward. We can also stop by her apartment to do a search outside. She lives alone, correct?”
“Yes,” I said. “She has an apartment in Collingswood. I wrote down the address for you.”
The officer eyed me curiously. “The two of you don’t live together?”
“I live in an apartment on Rowan University Boulevard. Rosie Chandler is my roommate. She was at the party last night, too. You’ll want to question her.”
Officer Valloreo nodded, snapped his notebook closed, and pushed his chair away from the table. “There’s just one more detail I want to clarify with you. Can you describe your relationship with Leah for me?”
It could have been my imagination, but I sensed an odd flicker in his eyes. He appeared to be looking into me, through me, sensing my discomfort.
Shelter in the Dark Page 2
