The air is musty and dank, smelling of mildew and mice. The only things in the barn besides the black SUV are some rusty-looking gardening tools hanging from hooks on the wall. At Gwen’s side, Sababa whimpers. “It’s okay, boy,” she says, bending to rub his head, but she knows it is anything but.
Aimee emerges from the back seat of the car, tears in her eyes. “Nothing.”
“Let me check the trunk.” Gwen opens the back, but it is empty except for a few reusable grocery bags and a soccer ball.
“I’m so sorry, Aimee,” Gwen says, shutting it again. She didn’t expect to find Scott in the trunk, but she is desperate to help somehow.
Aimee crumples to the barn floor, her back against the tire of the car, and hangs her head. Her long waves hang like a curtain, hiding her face, but Gwen can hear her crying. Gwen is taken off guard. Aimee never loses it. Gwen crouches beside her. “Aimee, it’s okay, we’ll find him. This is good.”
“Good?” Aimee looks up, tears streaking her face. “How is this good?”
“Because it means he was here. This will give the police something to work with. I’ll call them now.”
As Gwen stands up and dials the number, it hits her that she would not have reacted this way if Anton went missing. She didn’t even burst into tears when she learned he had been murdered.She is oddly jealous of Aimee for being in so much pain, because it reflects how much she loves Scott. She’s forgotten what that feels like. Not to love someone, because she loves her boys more than anything in the world. But to beinlove.
After Gwen calls the police, she and Jean take Aimee back inside.
“I had no idea the car was there,” Jean whispers as they settle Aimee onto the couch.
“No one’s blaming you, Jean,” Gwen tells her. “Can you watch Aimee for a minute? I need to ask someone to pick up her kids from school.” Gwen considers reaching out to Barb, but decides against it. Too complicated to explain everything to her mother. That leaves Lisa. She’s loath to contact her but texts her for Aimee’s sake. Lisa responds right away that it won’t be a problem.
Is everything all right with Gwen? Is this about Scott?
She’s fine. Will fill you in later.
Gwen purposely did not writeIwill fill you in later. Someone will, but it won’t be her. If she had her way, she’d never speak to Lisa again. She may have Marcus fooled, but Gwen knows the truth about her and Anton. Gwen returns to Aimee’s side to wait for the police. Finally, two officers show up, and Jean takes one of them out to the barn while the other comes into the house. Officer Tom Nguyen looks like he graduated from high school last year, but despite his baby face, he seems to grasp the severity of the situation right away.
Gwen is happy to take control, knowing Aimee is too distraught to do much talking. She relays the story—how Cathy Stocker pretended to live here but was really the cat sitter, that Scott never came home last night, and how they found his car in Jean’s barn. This is her role to play right now, but she also hopes it will win back some of Aimee’s trust. She needs Aimee and can’t bear the idea of losing her friendship.
“Where can he be?” Aimee asks of no one in particular. “I don’t get it. He can’t have just disappeared.”
“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Officer Nguyen says.
“Has he been kidnapped?”
“We don’t know that. Let’s not jump to any conclusions,” he says. “Let’s talk about Cathy Stocker. Do you have any other information about her? Even if it seems irrelevant? Did she mention friends?”
“I don’t know anything more than what she’s told you,” Aimee says.
“Did your husband ever meet her?”
“No, never. He never had a reason to.”
“But there may be a connection between them,” Gwen says, cautiously. “We just learned, today, that someone had been blackmailing him. And that this Cathy woman may have been involved.”
Officer Nguyen, who has been standing the whole time, takes a seat near Aimee. “Is this true? That your husband was being blackmailed?” He waits a moment for her to respond. Gwen nods. “That’s a pretty important detail to leave out.”
“We didn’t leave it out,” Aimee says. “I know it’s important. That’s why we’re telling you now.”
“What was he being blackmailed for?”
“I don’t know. I just found out today from a private investigator he hired to look into it.”
“Why didn’t you call the police when you found this out?” Nguyen asks. “What made you decide to come here?”
“I don’t know.” Aimee looks at her hands. Gwen’s heart aches for Aimee. It was a dumb thing to do, and it looks even worse now. But Aimee was so upset earlier.
“Do you think that it was Cathy Stocker who was blackmailing your husband?” he asks.