Chapter 33

Two and a half hours later, Josie was in the passenger's seat of Gretchen's car, watching the scenery flash past as they arrived in a small town in Bucks County called Riddick. It was on the outskirts of Doylestown, which was where Seth Lee's last known address had turned up nothing. It was also less than a half hour from April Carlson's hometown of Hillcrest. Gretchen turned onto what looked like Riddick's main street. Storefronts in old brick buildings lined both sides. Potted flowers, outdoor benches, and black metal lampposts appeared at regular intervals.

"This is a lot nicer than the three strip malls and the shopping center we passed on the way in," Gretchen remarked.

"Yeah," Josie said softly. She was trying to save her voice for the interviews to come.

From each lamppost hung the same flyers that they'd already seen taped to the windows of various businesses. The photo showed the face of a uniformed officer, his hat positioned just right, smiling stiffly for his official department photo. Josie didn't need to read his name to know he was the officer Heather Loughlin had told them about. The one April Carlson had gone on a couple of dates with before he disappeared. Shane Foster. Above his head the word MISSING shouted in huge capital letters. Below his face was a date almost three years ago to the day with the words Never Forgotten and under that, Hillcrest PD with a contact number.

"I think this is it," said Gretchen as she turned onto a residential street.

Five minutes later, they stood in front of a tiny, one-story home. Grime clung to its formerly white siding. The strip of grass that served as a front yard was high and unruly. Other than the single pot of colorful spring flowers on the front stoop, it looked like no one lived there. But this was the address they'd found for Mira Summers's parents. Josie had confirmed it with Carol Summers when she'd called to set up this meeting. They'd decided to start here and then work their way over to Hillcrest to speak with April's parents. Josie wasn't even sure what they hoped to find out besides anything that connected Mira, April and Seth Lee. Something that might lead them to the identity of the child whose plea for help had ended up in the hand of a dead woman.

Josie wiped at the sweat dampening the back of her neck and then knocked on the door. She heard movement inside and then the door swung open, revealing a small woman in her seventies. Brittle white hair framed her weathered face. "You the police that called earlier?"

"Yes," said Gretchen.

They presented their credentials. Carol gave them a cursory look and then waved them both inside. The odor of stale cigarettes hit Josie like a slap. On the coffee table sat a blue ceramic ashtray filled with butts. A single lit cigarette still burned, the smoke curling upward. Carol shuffled over to the sagging gray couch and picked it up, taking a long drag. "Sit. Wherever."

The only other furniture in the cramped living room was a brown armchair that looked even older than the couch. Its seat was crooked. Josie wasn't sure it was sturdy enough to hold a human being. Gretchen seemed to have the same idea, standing on the other side of the coffee table, but leaving Carol with a view of the television across the room currently playing a game show. Josie maintained her position a few feet away from Gretchen.

Carol sighed. "Fine. Don't sit. Whatever. So, you're here about Mira?"

"Yes," said Josie. She looked around the space. Only a half-wall separated the living room from the kitchen. It was empty. "You might have seen on the news?—"

"Don't watch the news," Carol interrupted. "Too depressing. Haven't watched the news in ten years."

"Then you might have seen on social media—" Gretchen began.

Carol cut her off again. "Don't spend much time on there either."

Josie was going to suggest that she might have gotten wind of Mira's abduction from friends, assuming the coverage had reached Bucks County, but Carol Summers didn't strike her as the kind of person who had a lot of friends. "Is Mr. Summers here?"

Carol gave a harsh laugh. "Mr. Summers is dead. May God deliver his soul to the gates of hell." Using the two fingers cradling her cigarette, she made the sign of the cross. Then she laughed again.

Josie didn't need to look at Gretchen to know that she, too, had no idea how to respond to that. But Gretchen made an attempt. "I'm…sorry for your loss?" It came out as a question more than a condolence.

Carol waved the cigarette, sending the smoke trail into a zigzag. "Don't be. Gordon was a bastard. A mean old bastard. Mira probably told you he used to beat the shit out of me. Never laid a hand on her. Still can't figure out why but that bitch stood by and watched him hit me till I was black and blue and never lifted a damn finger."

Josie couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Mira. No wonder she didn't speak to her parents. The dysfunction in the household was distressing. Had Carol really expected Mira to try to stop her father's violent assaults as a child? Or did she mean when Mira was an adult?

"When did your husband die?" Josie tugged the collar of her polo shirt up, making sure it covered the bruises Seth Lee had left behind.

"Five years ago. May he rot in eternal hell."

That was well before Mira had left Bucks County to move to Denton.

"When is the last time you spoke with Mira?" Gretchen asked.

"Don't know. Four years ago? She don't talk to me no more, and that's just fine by me. I'm not surprised you're here. What's she done?"

Gretchen said, "She hasn't done anything. On Sunday, she had a car accident after being stabbed. Yesterday she was abducted by the man we believe stabbed her. We think that she knew him. There is a warrant out for his arrest, but we haven't been able to locate him."

While Gretchen spoke, Josie took out her phone and pulled up a photo of Seth, turning the screen toward Carol so she could see it. "Seth," she said immediately. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to the television. "Fucking crazy bastard. I'm not surprised. It was only a matter of time before he tried to kill her. I told her over and over again. Did she listen to me? Of course not. Well, this is what she gets."

Again, Carol's callousness toward her own daughter was jarring. Pocketing her phone, Josie asked, "How did Mira know Seth?"

Carol laughed humorlessly. "Oh, she didn't tell you? Of course she didn't. They're a couple. He's had his hooks in her since she was eighteen years old. In fact, she took off with him for almost four years when they first met. Didn't hear from her once. Then she came back for a while. It's always been an on-and-off thing between them. Mira always goes back. Doesn't matter whether he hits her or cheats on her. Doesn't matter what weird shit he wants her to do, like only eating food he grows himself in some special soil, or moving into a shed on some random person's property because it doesn't have electricity. You know, if you don't have electricity, the authorities can't hook up their cameras to spy on you." At this, her laugh turned deep and lasted several seconds. Ash fell from her cigarette as she held her stomach. Her expression hardened once she finished. Taking another drag, she said, "Let me tell you something about my daughter and her precious Seth. Whatever he's done to her? She deserved it."

Josie worked to keep the shock from her face. Gretchen busied herself getting out her pen and notepad and Josie knew she, too, was trying to control her reaction.

Carol missed nothing. She stubbed out her cigarette and leaned back into the couch. "I know what you're thinking. I'm a terrible mom. How could I say that about my own daughter? Let me tell you something. When Mira got to be a teenager, she made it her job to judge me for staying with her dad even though he beat me to holy hell every chance he got. She never understood the way things were. She made such a fuss about why didn't I leave? How come I never called the police? She wasn't worldly enough to understand how those things work. He always controlled all the money. Never let me work. I couldn't just go out into the world and get a job and a house. With what skills? With what money? I called the police a few times when she was a baby, but I had nowhere to go but here. How could I press charges? He told me he'd kill me if I kept doing it. Every time I called, he'd break a bone. He wasn't afraid of the damn police."

She reached for the pack of cigarettes on the coffee table and shook one out. Stabbing it in the air, she continued, "He was in the army. Thought it made him a tough guy. There wasn't a man alive that could intimidate Gordon. Truth be told, he probably would have shot any police officer who came to our door to arrest him for beating me. I knew it. He'd kill anyone who tried to arrest him, and I'd be next. As sure as the sky is blue, one way or another he was gonna kill me and that was that."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Summers," Gretchen said.

Carol found her lighter under a tabloid magazine and lit the cigarette, inhaling deeply. "Don't be. I'm here and he's not. Anyway, after four years with Seth, Mira came home with a black eye. I asked her, ‘He do that to you?' She said no, but I could tell by her face that I was right. I told her, ‘Well, that's the pot calling the kettle black, now, isn't it?' Then I asked her if she was going to leave him on account of him hitting her and she just burst into tears. She tried to tell me that it wasn't the same between those two as it was between me and her dad because Seth didn't mean to hit her and they were in love."

Carol said the word "love" like it was a punchline and then she laughed.

Gretchen jotted down some notes. "What did your husband think about Seth?"

"Gordon didn't like too many people, but he was okay with Seth, at first. He liked that Seth used to be in the army. Didn't give a shit if Seth hit Mira. That's what wives and girlfriends are for, right? But then Seth started acting funny. Kept saying that Gordon was in on some plan, that his old commanding officers in the army had to ‘silence him,' and that Gordon was part of their little spy network. Well, that was that. Seth wasn't welcome here anymore. Mira moved back out shortly after that. I think because Seth insisted. She always did everything he told her. Everything. No matter how ridiculous. But she'd move back in here from time to time when they were on the outs or when he disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Josie said.

Carol sucked on her cigarette again, this time holding the smoke in her lungs for a few seconds before exhaling. "Yeah. He'd just take off. Not tell Mira where he was going—said it ‘wasn't safe' for her to know. Could be months. Could be years. Then one day he'd show back up and she'd take him right back."

Josie said, "Did Seth have children?"

"Hell, no," Carol coughed. "Can you imagine? No. Mira wanted kids at some point, but he didn't. He thought if they ever had kids, the government or the army would come take them away."

Gretchen asked, "Do you know where Seth would go when he ‘disappeared'?"

"No. Who the hell knows with him?"

Josie stepped out of the way of another plume of smoke. It was making her already irritated throat worse. "When is the last time you saw him?"

"Not sure. It's been years. He didn't come to Gordon's funeral even though Mira asked him, so probably before that."

Gretchen blinked several times. Josie could see her eyes were getting red. Probably from the cloud of smoke enveloping them. Would it be rude to ask Carol to open a window?

"Mrs. Summers," Gretchen said. "When officers responded to the car accident that Mira was involved in, they found a deceased passenger in her vehicle. Her name was April Carlson. Mira told us she didn't know her and had never seen her before. You might have heard of her. She used to live in Hillcrest?—"

"Mira's half-sister, you mean?"

Josie exchanged a stunned look with Gretchen before turning back to Carol. "April Carlson was Mira's half-sister?"

"Yeah. The one whose rich family started whining about her going missing about a year ago." Carol rolled her eyes. More ash fell into her lap and she brushed it aside. "Heard all about it every place I went. People go missing around here all the time. Look at that police officer. They never did find him."

Gretchen flipped a page in her notebook. "How do you know April Carlson was Mira's half-sister?"

Carol sighed, as if she was becoming bored with the conversation. "My husband had a gal before me, but she was smart enough to get away from him just as soon as she got pregnant. She moved a town over, married a new fella. A good man with a good job. Treated her real sweet, but she never let that baby know who her real father was, which was smart. Guess when that baby grew up, she wanted the truth. Her mother told her finally. She showed up here one day asking around. Imagine her disappointment when she met my husband."

Carol laughed long and hard until a coughing fit seized her. She pounded on her chest with her free hand before resuming. "She never came around again, but she and Mira talked a couple of times after Gordon died. Mira never said, but I always thought that April got her that job at Hillcrest Elementary. That's around the time she stopped talking to me altogether. Guess that job didn't work out if she ended up around your way. Figures."