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“And find someone there.”
“Yes. Now I need to go pick up Frankie and head to the airport. I’ll let you know when we find out something. Call me if anything changes here.”
“I can take you to the airport,” Zack offered.
“I’m going to park there. It’s all good. Don’t worry about us.”
Cooper left the apartment, leaving Zack standing in the middle of the living room, a multitude of thoughts running through his head. Had his father had something to do with Sarah’s disappearance? And their mom’s? He was exhibiting some shifty behavior, and it was hard to believe in Joel’s innocence when he didn’t believe in his father in general.
And then there were his own problems. Cooper had summed it up well. Did Zack want to be richer? Because that’s why he would be going back to Wall Street. It wouldn’t be because he loved his job and received some sort of satisfaction doing it. His job was to make money for the firm, and in turn for himself. It was that simple.
It put the entire issue into perspective.
* * *
After Zack had brought Lucy up to speed on what Joel Winslow was doing to hinder the investigation, it wasn’t a shock to her that he’d decided to go to the bar that supposedly let in underage kids back when they were in high school. He was hoping that he might be able to find out some details about what Sarah might have been into, and then see if that had any connection to Lily Winslow’s disappearance. Or was the connection Zack’s father?
Did innocent people do what Joel Winslow was doing? Lucy didn’t know for sure, but she agreed with Zack that it was certainly something to look into.
“More than one person said that Sarah was into not so good things when we were in high school,” Zack said when they arrived at the campus town bar. From the outside it hadn’t changed much, and when they walked in it was like stepping back in time. That same sour beer smell, the loud music, and the slightly sticky floor. The only difference was that this was the middle of the afternoon, and with the students gone for the summer there was barely anyone inside except a lone bartender wiping down the scarred oak tables and counters.
It was only when the bartender turned around that Lucy realized it was Angel, Zack’s ex-girlfriend. What a fun surprise.
Angel’s eyes lit up when she saw Zack, and she’d taken a few steps toward them when she seemed to noticed Lucy. Her smile dimmed visibly but she ran up to Zack anyway, giving him a big hug.
“I saw you at the wedding, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to you. It’s so wonderful to see you.” Angel gave Lucy a fleeting glance. “And you, too, Lucy.”
Lucy and Angel hadn’t been friends in high school, and there really wasn’t any reason to pretend that they had been. She wasn’t hurt or upset that Angel wasn’t warm and welcoming, although all these years later it seemed a bit silly, to be honest, to even care what went on then.
Teenage angst surely felt real when they were kids, but all the stuff that seemed so important back then barely made the radar as an adult. Paying bills and adulting fixed a person’s perspective quickly.
“It’s nice to see you, Angel,” Lucy replied.
Angel, however, had already turned her attention back to Zack. She was smiling and had linked his arm with hers.
“Let’s go sit down and catch up. I can get us some drinks.”
“I’m fine,” Zack replied. “Lucy?”
“I’m good, too.”
Angel pouted a bit but didn’t push any further. She did lead Zack over to a table with Lucy trailing behind them. Zack and Angel slid into one side of the booth and Angel immediately followed, with herself having no option but the opposite side. Zack was giving Lucy an apologetic look, but this wasn’t his doing. She wasn’t threatened by Angel. If Zack had wanted to be with her, he’d had ample opportunity, and he hadn’t done it. She didn’t have any reason to believe that he’d been pining all these years for his high school sweetheart.
“Angel, how long have you worked here?” Zack asked. “I thought you were selling real estate last I heard.”
“I’ve been here about a year. I hated real estate but it had flexible hours so I could be home for my kids. Now that they’re a bit older, they don’t need me to be home after school. I’m the manager here,” Angel said proudly. “I’m here Monday through Friday from eleven to seven. There’s another manager that does nights and weekends. It’s so much fun to be here on campus around the students.”
“That’s wonderful,” Zack said. “Everyone should do something that they enjoy. You’ve always been a people person.”
Lucy wisely kept her mouth shut. Angel wasn’t paying any attention to her anyway. She only had eyes for Zack. It was weird and awkward, a wall of tension between them.
“I hear you’re doing well on Wall Street. Everyone says that you’re making a killing.”
Lucy hadn’t told a soul that Zack had quit his job, and from the way Zack hesitated to reply to Angel’s statement, he wasn’t going to reveal it now.
“I think a lot of people are exaggerating. I do okay. Listen, the reason we stopped in was because I was hoping there might be someone still working here that was employed back when we were in high school. I wanted to talk to them. Ask them a few questions.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Angel asked, her brows pinched together.
