He looks at her unblinking, and Cathy thinks,I know where this is going.
“Separated. Her divorce just got finalized, but she hasn’t signed the papers yet. She’s been staying at our parents’ house.”
“She talk to you about her divorce?”
Cathy shifts in the hard plastic chair. The windows are frosted glass, the lights bright and uncomfortable. “No. We, uh… we lost touch for a while.”
“How long?”
“About five years.”
“Uh-huh. That’s what I’d heard.”
“But I spoke with her on Friday last. We were meant to meet Saturday, and she didn’t show.”
Sergeant Jenkin types something on the computer and scratches his head. “That’s when you went to the house?”
Cathy nods. “I got a video. There’s a nanny cam in one of the rooms and I caught something following Hazel down the hallway when she should have been alone. Here.” She holds her phone out, but Sergeant Jenkin doesn’t take it.
“One thing at a time, Cathy. You know, funnily enough, we had a call aboutyou. Mr. Jenner from across the street had some concerns that you were trying to break in.”
Cathy rolls her eyes. “I was looking for my sister.”
“All the same.” Sergeant Jenkin taps a finger on the desk in admonishment. “I think you’d better leave the welfare checks to us. Don’t want to have to caution you, Cathy.”
Cathy gives him a tight, insincere smile. Her insides feel hot and corrosive, and she has never wanted a cigarette more badly in her life.Just suck it, do it for a friend.She flattens her palms on the desk, leaning closer.
“We got a note.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“Me and Suzie.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Suzie Trebath?”
“Actually, it’s White now.”
“Aw, lovely Suzie. Good as gold, she is. Never gives anyone any trouble. I’ve always liked her.”
I bet you do, Cathy thinks hotly. She passes the note to Sergeant Jenkin, pointing to the words printed there, fading to a light, tea-stained brown.BELLE VUE.
“A man brought this into the pharmacy, but we think it’s Hazel’s writing on the receipt because it’s the same one Suzie gave her. Do you see? She’s trying to tell us something.”
Sergeant Jenkin takes the piece of paper and holds it up to the light. He frowns. “Belle Vue. I know that place. Used to be a school for special kids.”
Cathy ignores the anachronism because she knows that once she starts, she won’t stop. It’s a fight she doesn’t have the energy for.
“I know, we went up there yesterday. My sister spent some time there as an inpatient recently, and I thought maybe she’d gone back in, but she hasn’t. Here’s the thing that bothers me, though—those words are written in invisible ink. Whoever this man is, he can’t have known that Hazel had put it there, because it only shows up when you heat it.”
“Who is this man?”
“I don’t know. There’s CCTV of him, but it’s hard to make his face out. He—”
Cathy experiences a strange thing then, something she thinks of as a brain fart. A static image of a hydrangea bush, there and gone in a moment.
Sergeant Jenkin lays the receipt in front of him and folds hisarms on the desk. He is smiling with mild, barely concealed amusement. “Wow. Invisible ink, CCTV, nanny cams. You have been busy. You girls ever thought about becoming detectives?”
“I just want to find my fucking sister,Neil.”