Like Elliott, Huff was mid-thirties. Long black hair and dark eyes, nearly black as well. Tall, thin. Well dressed. Her body language suggested impatience, but maybe she was more nervous than impatient. Adeline hadn’t decided yet. The watch could be more for show than for keeping up with the time. Seriously, who wore watches anymore?
“This won’t take long,” Adeline assured her as she took a seat. Wyatt sat down next to her. “Why don’t you tell us about Cherry’s abrupt fears related to water?”
Huff blinked but not quickly enough to hide the surprise and the first inkling of uncertainty. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Wyatt didn’t speak, as promised, just watched the woman.
“Let me explain something to you, Ms. Huff.” Adeline leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest. “We know about the problem. The fact that you’re concealing information that may have something to do with why Cherry’s missing makes you a suspect.”
Outright fear replaced the uncertainty. “A suspect?” She looked to Wyatt. “How can I be a suspect? Cherry and I are like sisters. The idea that I would do anything to harm her is ludicrous.” Huff lifted her chin in defiance. “I should call my lawyer if what you say is true.”
Adeline reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. “Be my guest.” She slid it across the table. “Of course, we were hoping to keep this out of the media.”
Huff’s eyes rounded with uncertainty. She drew her hand away from the phone as if it were contaminated. “This can’t get out. Cherry would ...”
“Cherry would what?” Adeline held that worried gaze, let the other woman see that this detective was not happy.
“She would be mortified.”
“Ms. Huff,” Wyatt spoke up, “if we can deal with this here, get all the facts, then perhaps no one else will need to be involved.”
Good move. Adeline resisted the urge to smile. “Otherwise,” she countered before the woman could catch her breath, “this could get pretty ugly. You know how the media twists things.”
Huff caved. “Okay.” She closed her eyes and took a breath. “Cherry will be extremely upset that I told you this, but”—she met Adeline’s gaze once more—“if it’ll help find her, that’s all that matters.”
Well, yeah. What the hell was wrong with these people? “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
“Three months ago, Chastity, Cherry’s daughter, turned four. It was as if some long-slumbering phobia triggered. Cherry started feeling anxious all the time. Having nightmares. She refused to take a bath, something she’d loved doing, with her daughter.” Huff flared her hands. “She has this big Jacuzzi tub and she loved running a big bubble bath and playing with Chastity. She called it girl time.”
More of that too-familiar tension knotted in Adeline’s gut. “Did she ever describe the nightmares to you?”
Huff nodded, her expression resigned. “She said she kept dreaming that she was holding Chastity under the water.” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes. “It terrified her. She was scared to death ... that she was having some sort of breakdown.”
“Did she recall any other elements of the nightmares?” Wyatt asked.
Huff shook her head, then stopped. “Not until she got that.”
Adeline’s breath was trapped in her lungs. “The cut-and-paste letter?” She was careful not to mention the contents, though from Huff’s comments in her previous statement she evidently had seen the letter.
“Yes.” Huff swiped the tears from her cheeks with meticulously manicured fingers. “She and her husband had called Chastity their little princess since the day she was born. Cherry would go nuts every timeRon, her husband, called her that ...afterthe letter came. Ron just figured it was because of the letter.”
A frown nagged at Adeline’s forehead, ushering forth the distant ache that threatened to turn into a full-fledged skull breaker. “Wasn’t it because of the letter?”
Huff shook her head. “It was because of something else she remembered from the dream.”
Jesus Christ. Could the woman get to the point any more slowly? “Something else?”
“In the dream,” Jessica said hesitantly, “while she was holding her daughter under the water, she would say something like ‘no more princesses’.”
The full impact of what Huff was saying suddenly hit Adeline’s brain. “Her older child is a boy.”
“Chad,” Huff confirmed. “He’s nine.”
Those deep spasms started in Adeline’s gut once more. “So you believe that Cherry was afraid of hurting her daughter? That she feared the dreams somehow might become a reality?”
“She started doing all this research,” Huff explained. “She was convinced that the dreams were connected to some childhood trauma. But her parents assured her that wasn’t the case.” Huff leaned forward. “She even started to question whether or not her parents were really herparents.Is that ridiculous, or what? I felt so sorry for her. I was literally watching my best friend fall apart.”
Adeline fought the tension clamping around her throat. “Did she talk about this to her husband?”