The stark lack of support filled Julia with a painful realization: Fiona must be truly alone in this world. Perhaps her parents were no longer alive, or they had turned their backs on her.
Whatever the circumstances, Julia endured a tremendous pang of sorrow as she pressed her fingers to her temples, which throbbed from layers of worries and wine.Christian. Fiona. The Glass House. Her lake house—or what might be herformerlake house.The business. Their money—or lack thereof. And there was Taylor’s shift into a different orbit, emotionally and soon physically, when she’d make them empty nesters.
Would Julia even be in that nest with Christian, or would she be on her own? Divorce seemed like a distant land, a journey too long and fraught for her to navigate. No wonder she felt displaced. The earth hadn’t just moved under her feet; it had opened like a giant gullet, swallowing her whole.
“What else did Baker say?” she asked.
“Not much,” said Rick. “As far as the police are concerned, it’s still a missing persons case, not a criminal investigation.”
Here she was, wallowing in her misery, when Fiona should have been the top priority.
But what could she do? She wasn’t a search-and-rescue expert. Still, she felt like she should do more to help. Fiona existedsomewhere on this planet, even if only as a corpse, and she deserved more than Julia sitting around having a personal pity party.
They fell into a pensive silence as Rick downed more beer. “What do you think happened to her?” he asked. “The police seem to be going in circles.”
“They’ve searched the lake. Searched the woods. What’s left?”
“Search the house,” said Rick, sliding his gaze over to the glass house and arching his eyebrows.
“You don’t think…?” Julia couldn’t finish the thought. The fire popped and crackled as if the flames wanted to chime in.
“We don’t know what went on between those two,” Rick said. “And theywerefighting… drinking a lot… and, well, you saw her that night.”
“What are you suggesting?” asked Julia, losing patience. If he wouldn’t say it, then she would. “You think David did something awful to Fiona—that he’s hiding his crime, maybe hiding her body, is that it?”
Rick returned an apathetic shrug. “Your words, not mine. You know I love Dave. He’s my buddy,” said Rick. “But it’s weird, right? And Erika’s the one with legal expertise, and evenshe’swondering.”
Julia could count on one hand the number of in-depth, heartfelt conversations she’d had with Rick over the years. It was odd how much she could relate to Erika on a soul level and yet have almost no connection to her spouse.
“I just don’t believe David would ever harm anybody,” said Julia, while simultaneously recalling all the times she’d seen his anger get the better of him.
“Then why not let the police search the house?” asked Rick. “Why make such a fuss if he has nothing to hide?”
“He’s worried about confirmation bias,” said Julia, surprising herself with how quickly she came to David’s defense.
“Or maybe he did something in a fit of jealousy,” Rick countered.
“You really think David would kill Fiona over a drunken lap dance? I think his ego is stronger than that.”
“Yeah, probably. But we never know what goes on behind closed doors.”
Julia silently stewed.With friends like this…“I think I know David fairly well, and I don’t believe for one second that he did anything to his girlfriend.” Anger surged through her, a welcome reprieve from the lingering self-recrimination. “In fact, I’m going to go check on him, see how he’s holding up…” She stood to go. “I don’t think we’ve been giving David nearly enough support. Maybe instead of tossing out accusations, you should be the buddy you say you are and be there for him.”
Off she went, leaving Rick with no opportunity for a retort. She marched purposefully, but as she walked away, she noticed Taylor pass by their kitchen window. Julia paused, coming to a realization. She was in no shape to comfort David tonight. She would check on her friend, but it would have to wait. She had to focus on herself and her daughter before she could help David with his troubles. She continued on, now heading for home, away from the glass house. Maybe Taylor had the right idea and they could watch something mindless together.
It certainly wasn’t a solution to her problems, but she knew, like the standard instructions about applying an oxygen mask on an airplane, she had to help herself before she could help someone else.
Chapter 28
Izzy
I’ve been a bundle of nerves. Finding a hidden photo inside the secret compartment of a mysterious box is one thing, but discovering it’s a picture of your long-lost aunt from yesteryear is something else entirely. Add to that the possibility that my boss is responsible for her disappearance, and it’s a recipe for high anxiety stew.
It can’t be a coincidence that two out of the three missing women from Lake Timmeny possessed the same box with the secret compartment. But what does it mean? More important, what did David do to my aunt Susie? The raw anger that went into the black marker scrawled across his face will haunt me forever.
What little shut-eye I got last night was plagued with horrible dreams of someone carting me off into the woods. It was a man, but he was faceless, almost shapeless. I could feel his tight grip around my wrist as I grunted and strained against his efforts. He tossed me like a trash bag into a waist-deep hole he’d dug into the ground. The landscape looked vaguely familiar, similar to where the construction crew dug up those human remains. But now it wasmelying inside that hole as my kidnapper dumped shovelfuls of dirt from above.
The mix of soil and gravel rained down in a steady stream, coating my body like a layer of concrete, spilling into my mouth, and filling my throat as it buried the scream I couldn’t release. I jolted awake just before more bits of earth covered my face entirely.
