Thicker Than Water

by Natasha Deen

  He shoves me toward the car. “Your fight is with your dad.”

  I try to step away, but he grabs me and marches me down the sidewalk.

  “Fine,” I say. “You want me to deal with him. I’m good with that. She said he was at the gym. I know which one he uses. Let’s go. I can talk to him about Ella and his new little friend.”

  Ayo shakes his head. “You’re in a bad way. Let’s go home.”

  “I want answers.”

  “I do too, but now isn’t a good time.”

  “Good old Ayo. Always the smart one. Always so calm.”

  “Not always, but in this case, one of us needs to be.”

  “In this case, there only needs to be one of us,” I say. “I’m going to the gym.”

  “It’s not a good idea.”

  “The whole reason we came here is to find out what my dad knows about Ella. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re not making any sense. First, you’re mad at this woman, then you want to talk to your dad, then you want to—”

  “I didn’t ask for your opinion. In fact, I don’t want you near me.”

  “Zack—”

  “Go back home,” I tell him. “Go back to your perfect family.”

  “My family’s not—”

  I shove him aside and head down the sidewalk. I don’t care what he says, and I don’t care what he thinks. I’m going to keep my cool and talk to my dad. My priority is Ella. I’ll figure out the rest of it later.

  Chapter Ten

  When I get to the gym, there’s no one at the reception desk. Which is fine, but to get into the members’ section and the workout area, you need a card. Luckily, it’s lunchtime, and everyone’s coming and going.

  A lady uses her card, and I catch the door as she walks in. She looks back at me.

  I smile. “Looking for my dad, Patrick Bernard.”

  She smiles back. “Oh, yes. I know him.”

  I bet every woman at the gym knows him. It takes some walking around, but I find him at the free weights. He’s covered in sweat. “Zack?” He sets down the set of dumbbells. “What are you doing here?”

  “I want answers.”

  “What?” He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. Then he glances around and sees the other gym goers watching.

  “I want to talk about Ella—”

  “Oh, for God’s sake.” He’s annoyed. “There’s nothing wrong with Ella.”

  “I saw you with her,” I say. “I saw you with her the day she disappeared.”

  No one’s moving. They’re staring at Dad.

  “I don’t know what you think you saw, but—”

  “Stop it! Stop lying to me. I know what I saw, just like I know about your girlfriend.”

  Dad freezes. “You know about Jenny?”

  “Mom gave me her address.”

  “Your mom knows?” He looks like he’s going to throw up. “Listen, Zack, I know what you’re thinking, but let me explain—”

  “I don’t care about any of it,” I say. It’s a lie, but who cares? If he can be a liar, why can’t I? “I want to know about Ella.”

  He goes to put his hand on my shoulder, but I swing aside. His hand is frozen in midair. “Let’s go to the change-room, okay? We can talk there.”

  I follow him in silence. There’s a couple of guys in the room, so Dad takes us to a deserted corner. “About that day,” he starts.

  “No more lies.”

  He holds up his hands. “No more lies.” Dad takes a breath. “I did see Ella.”

  The rush of validation whooshes through me. It’s quickly burned up by the anger that follows. “I knew it! This whole time I kept asking, and you kept lying!”

  “You can scream at me,” he says quietly, “or you can listen.”

  “You lied to me. You made me question my own eyes.”

  Dad says, “I know you’re angry, and I deserve it. But let me talk, okay?”

  I swallow the words and the rage. “Fine.”

  He sits next to me. His Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “I met Jenny at a conference a few months ago.”

  I’m tempted to interrupt, but I keep my mouth shut.

  “Your mom and I—” He licks his lips. “It hasn’t been good for a while.”

  “But it hadn’t been bad,” I say dully. “I lived with you, remember?”

  For a second I think he’s going to cry. “Marriage shouldn’t be about surviving because things aren’t too bad. There’s stuff you didn’t see, things you don’t know.”

  “Like what?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t want to get into it.”

  “But cheating with Jenny? That was your solution?”

  He winces. “No—I—let me finish.” He takes a breath. “Jenny and I…it just sort of happened. We’ve been seeing each other for a while now. I thought your mom suspected. I wasn’t sure, but—”

  “She’s not stupid.”

  He goes back to looking like he’s going to cry. “No, she’s not.”

  “What does any of this have to do with Ella?”

  “Ella saw us, Jenny and me. She was angry, said that I had betrayed everyone.” Before I can respond, he says, “Ella demanded that I come clean. She wanted me to tell you and your mom about Jenny.”

  My skin goes cold.

  “The day at the mall, Ella and I met. She said I had until the end of the day or she was going to tell you.” He glances at me. “She was devastated. Ella’s not my kid, but she has spent a lot of time at our house over the years. All I could think was that if she was this devastated, what would the news do to you?” He shakes his head. “I told her I was going to tell you, but I lied. I just couldn’t.” He slumps and passes his hand over his eyes. “I lied about everything. I’m sorry, Zack—”

  “Get back to Ella.”

  “There’s nothing else. The next day, when you didn’t come flying at me, I figured she hadn’t told you.”

  “But then she disappeared and cut off contact with everyone.”

  “I thought it was because of the affair. She couldn’t tell you, but she didn’t know how to keep it from you. So she took off so she had time to think.”

  “And didn’t tell anyone?”

  He shifts and looks away.

  “Is that why you didn’t care when she disappeared?”

  “I do care, but—”

  “But what? You don’t know if Ella’s okay, but you didn’t care because it kept your secret safe,” I say. “All your stupid talk about her needing space and having reasons for doing stuff that we don’t understand. It was never about her—it was about you.”

  “Zack—”

  “What happened after your talk?”

  “I met Jenny at the movie theater. We watched a show, then…” He swallows. “We went to her place.”

  “But Ella, where did you take Ella?”

  He frowns. “What do you mean? I didn’t take Ella anywhere.”

  “I saw the two of you get into our car.”

  “The day she disappeared? That’s impossible. The car was in the shop. It was there all day.”

  “But you said you had to go pick it up.”

  His face goes red. “When I left that day, it wasn’t to get the car. I was at Jenny’s house. I used her car to go meet Ella. I didn’t get our SUV until later that night.”

  “But I saw you in the parking lot.”

  “Me? You actually saw me?”

  I think back. “No, but it was our car and Ella. Same make, same model—”

  “It might have been the same make and model, but we’re not the only family with that vehicle.”

  “It had the zombie decals on it.”

  “Are you positive?” He puts his hand on my shoulder.

  I shrug it off. “I’m positive. It was our decals on the back windshield. I know it.”

  “You have to believe me, Zack. I didn’t do anything other than see Ella at the mall. I didn’t tell the cops because they wou
ld have asked why we were meeting. I didn’t want you to know about Jenny. I wasn’t driving the car—but this could be a clue. I’ll tell the police everything, I promise.”

  I’m barely listening. If Dad’s not lying this time, then someone used our car. I play back all the information I know and try to rearrange it in a way that makes sense. How could it have been our SUV if it was in the shop? And Dad picked it up that night!

  I’ve got it. “Ella’s mom works for the dealership. What if she was the one who picked up Ella?”

  Dad frowns. “Loni? Why would she take our car? She’s got her own vehicle.”

  “Because she didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing.”

  “Son, Loni did not steal our car—”

  But I’m already out the door.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ayo’s standing in front of the gym entrance. “Glad to see you didn’t do anything that would have gotten you arrested.”

  “How do you know they didn’t call the cops?”

  “Because you’re not in handcuffs.”

  “Listen, about what happened—”

  “We’ll talk later. You have enough drama going on right now.”

  “Great, because I have a new theory.”

  “Oh god.”

  “No, listen.” I tell him about Dad and my new suspect.

  Ayo’s eyes bug out. “Are you insane? I mean it. Have you lost what little sense you had?”

  “Think about it. Ella’s always been under her mom’s thumb. Then she gets into university and starts finding freedom. But her mom won’t let up, and Ella’s fighting back.”

  “So Loni steals your car, takes her daughter from the mall and is holding her hostage. At the same time, she’s risking jail time by pulling the cops into a fake missing-person case.”

  “When you say it like that—”

  “Like what? Like a sane person would say it?”

  “At least let’s talk to her,” I say.

  “No. No! The last time we did, she went to pieces, and I felt like a piece of crap for doing it to her.”

  “I’ll talk to her. You can wait in the car.”

  Ayo looks at me hard. “Do you have any idea what a total lunatic you are?”

  “Okay, fine, so it’s not Ella’s mom. But someone used our car.”

  “You were too far away to see the driver. That means you couldn’t have seen the license plate.”

  “But I saw the zombie decals.”

  “Everybody has zombie decals! Do you not realize how insane this is? First, you think your dad is hiding information about Ella—”

  “He was.”

  “No, he was hiding information about his affair,” says Ayo. “But now that he’s come clean with his information, you think it’s her mom? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “This is my last theory,” I beg. “Give me this. If I’m wrong, I’ll leave it alone. I promise.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “No, I swear on our friendship. If Loni doesn’t know about the car, I’ll leave it alone.”

  He gives me another hard stare. “I’m going with you, but not because I believe you. I’m going to make sure your harebrained theory doesn’t hurt Ella’s mom. You’ll treat her with dignity and respect.”

  I hold out my hand. “Deal, but I’m right. In the majority of crimes, it’s a loved one who is responsible.”

  He mutters something I can’t hear, and then we climb into his car. Ayo starts the engine, and we head off to solve the mystery of Ella’s disappearance.

  Chapter Twelve

  But Ayo doesn’t go to Ella’s house.

  “Why are we back at my place?” I ask.

  “Because you’re a lunatic, and I’m not letting you bully that poor woman.”

  “I’m not going to bully her! I want some answers about what really happened between her and Ella.”

  “What happened? Zack, I love you like a brother, but don’t be an idiot! She and Ella had a fight and Loni probably said something she can’t take back. And now her daughter’s missing—either because she took off, or because something terrible happened.”

  “Right, so we need to talk to her—”

  Ayo smacks his fist against the steering wheel. “Stop it!”

  “What is your problem?”

  “What is yours? Think about it. The woman is drowing in guilt. And you want to accuse her of hurting her daughter?”

  “Statistically—”

  “This isn’t statistics. It’s not a weird lamp shadow on your wall or a tree stump in the fog. This is a real live person with real live feelings. Is that what you want to do to Ella’s mom? Tell her you think she’s capable of something like that?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then why are you doing this?”

  “Because someone has to have the answers. Ella couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air. Someone must have taken her.”

  “Why? Why can’t it be that she took off—”

  “How could she not tell me? If that’s true—”

  “Then she’s a jerk. And maybe right now that’s what she is. Sometimes when people are hurting, they say and do hurtful things,” Ayo says.

  “She should’ve trusted me. Because now I don’t know if she’s taken off somewhere, or if she’s cold and scared…” My phone rings, and for a second I think it might be Ella. But it’s Dad.

  “Where are you?” he asks when I pick up.

  “At the house.”

  “Ella’s? I don’t see your car.”

  “No, I’m home. Why are you at Ella’s?”

  “Because you acted like you were going to go to her house and accuse Loni of harming her child. Thank god you changed your mind. I’m heading to the police station to update my statement. Do you want to meet me? Maybe we can talk?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I say. I don’t want to talk to him, but I want to make sure he tells the detective the truth.

  “Great. I’ll meet you there.”

  I end the call and turn to Ayo. “Dad’s going to the cops to change his statement.”

  “I’m taking you there.” He puts the car in gear. “Let the professionals handle you.”

  “Ayo—”

  “Loni didn’t hurt her kid.”

  “But—”

  “Did you ever think that maybe you’re overreacting about Ella because of your mom and dad?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your parents are fighting, and you knew something was wrong between them. Then Ella starts acting weird and takes off.”

  “You think I’ve focused on Ella so I didn’t have to think about my parents?”

  “I think there are a lot of people letting you down right now, and you need to keep yourself together.”

  I look at him. “Not everyone though. You have my back.”

  “Just barely,” he says. “Once this is figured out, we have to have a talk. I’m your friend, Zack. You don’t get to treat me like crap because you’re in a bad place.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say, and I mean it. I don’t want to do to him what Ella might be doing to me.

  “I accept, but only because you’re buying me lunch or dinner. Maybe both,” he says. “At Al’s Diner. You can tell me how it went with your dad.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I’m with Dad when he makes his statement to Detective Tyron.

  Then it’s my turn to tell the cop what I’ve been holding back. “I thought I saw Ella get into the SUV with my dad.”

  “It wasn’t me,” says Dad. “I was using...my girlfriend’s car.”

  The detective takes down all the information, asks some questions. Then he closes his notebook. “Do you two realize what you’ve done? Withholding information is a big deal.”

  “It wasn’t Zack’s fault,” Dad says.

  But the detective’s not having any of it. “You want to be a police officer, Zack? To help people? Then it means you always do the right thing, even when it’s not the easy thin
g.”

  “That’s not fair,” Dad says. “I’m his father.”

  The detective doesn’t say anything. He stares at Dad until my dad looks away.

  “I’m going to see what I can find out about this.” Detective Tyron stands. “I’ll also be following up with the both of you about your actions.”

  I want to ask him if he’ll tell me what he finds out, but it’s obvious he wants nothing more to do with either of us.

  Dad and I leave the station. “Do you want to get something to eat?”

  “Actually, I’d rather go home,” I say. “I’m all talked out.”

  He nods, and we drive home in silence.

  The next afternoon Dad calls me to his office.

  “I got a phone call from the detective,” he says. “You did see our car at the mall. Apparently, one of the mechanics at the shop has been using client cars for a side business in a ride share. He takes the cars for the test drive, picks up a fare. The guy is smart. Short trips. Then he claims some kind of extra trouble with the vehicle.”

  “So he picked up Ella?”

  Dad nods. “So now the detective has a drop-off location for Ella, and he’s going to follow up on it.” Ella, white-faced and shaking, is on my doorstep later that night. When she sees me, she starts crying and flings her arms around me. “Oh my god, Zack. I’m so sorry.”

  I’m angry and happy at the same time. “What happened? Where were you?”

  “Zack, what’s going on?” Mom comes around the corner, sees Ella and screams. She runs and pulls her into a hug.

  “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I was with my dad at the cabin. I had no idea what was going on.”

  I can’t understand the rest because she’s crying so hard. Mom takes her into the kitchen.

  “I’d been talking to my dad on and off lately,” says Ella. “And I didn’t have anyone to talk to about…all the stuff that’s been going on.” Her gaze slides from us, and I know she’s including my dad in stuff.

  “It’s okay,” Mom says. “We know about my husband’s…extracurricular activities.”

  “I called my dad,” she says, “and he said to come over. I used the Rider app to call a cab. The driver picked me up in your car.” She shakes her head. “It was so stupid. As soon as I saw the car, I knew he wasn’t supposed to be using the SUV. I smelled the grease on him. I figured he must be one of the mechanics from the dealership. But I was so mad at your dad, I thought, Screw it. If someone wanted to use his car, what did I care?”