Huff moved her head firmly from side to side. “No one but me. She didn’t even tell Cassie. She was afraid she might be going ... you know ... over the edge.”
“What did Cherry do about her concerns?” Adeline felt as if she were poised on a cliff and that the woman’s next words might send her plummeting over the edge.
“I don’t know.”
Shit. “What do you mean, you don’t know? You’re her best friend. She told you everything. Things she didn’t tell her husband.”
“She wouldn’t talk to me about it.” Huff’s expression reflected her certainty. “But she was doing something. Every time I called her she was busy. When I couldn’t catch her at home, her husband would say that she was tied up with work research.”
“But you didn’t believe that,” Wyatt suggested.
“No. I called her office. She was taking a lot of personal time. Her secretary thought she was going to physical therapy for back pain.”
“And you’re certain she wasn’t.” Adeline pushed Huff for clarification.
“If Cherry ever had back pain in her life,” Huff confided, “I never heard about it. No, I think she was trying to find answers.”
“To the dreams?” Adeline asked.
Huff nodded. “She didn’t want anyone to know. Not even Ron. And that was totally weird. They have a perfect relationship. She never hid things from him. Not in twelve years of marriage.”
“You believe she was looking for the childhood trauma that had provoked the dreams?”
“Yes. I think maybe her parents were keeping something from her.”
“Are you suggesting that Cherry had seriously considered the idea that Mr. and Mrs. Bowden might not be her biological parents?” Wyatt ventured.
Adeline stared at him. Not because what he asked wasn’t perfectly logical—Huff had just said as much—but because that same question had been hovering in the back of Adeline’s mind. Only it wasn’t about Cherry.
“I can’t imagine why she would have actually considered such a thing,” Huff argued vehemently. “She looks just like her mother, and they have tons of photos of her as a baby. Cherry and I attended school together from day one of kindergarten. There are no secrets in her family’s past. Our families have known each other forever.”
Adeline searched Huff’s face. Zeroed in on her eyes. “What doyouthink happened to Cherry?”
Huff didn’t speak for a long moment, but she didn’t break eye contact with Adeline. “I think she ran away.”
Now there was an answer Adeline hadn’t been expecting. “Why do you believe that?”
“I saw the fear in her eyes.” Huff’s tears spilled past her lashes once more. “She was scared to death that she’d hurt her baby. She didn’t tell a soul she was coming here. She just up and left and then disappeared. She took her purse and her phone.”
“But she didn’t withdraw any money from the bank,” Wyatt countered. “Neither her credit cards nor her cell phone have been used since her disappearance.”
“Cherry kept a petty cash fund at home. A few hundred dollars. Maybe she took that,” Huff offered. “And she has a lot of sorority sisters from law school. Any one of them could be giving her refuge.”
“You’re certain this has nothing to do with her husband?” Adeline asked.
“It’s not about her husband.” Huff shook her head. “It always comes to that. When a woman goes missing, everyone suspects the husband. Trust me,” she looked from Adeline to Wyatt and back, “her husband is amazing. If he weren’t, Cherry would never have left her kids with him.”
The woman was telling the truth to the best of her knowledge. Adeline had no doubts about that.
“Please don’t tell Ron I said this,” Huff went on, “I don’t want him to know I kept this from him.” A sob tore from her throat. “If I’d thought for a second that any of this might save her from some monster, I would have told you. I swear. But I don’t think there’s a monster involved here. I believe it’s the nightmares.”
“You don’t believe Cherry was abducted?” Wyatt asked for clarification purposes.
Huff shook her head, her lips trembling. “I don’t. I’m convinced that Cherry is running from this”—she flared her hands as if she didn’t know how to explain—“thing that’s happening to her.” She took a deep, fortifying breath. “She won’t come back until she’s sure it’s safe for her daughter. I can guarantee that.”
11
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