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Her head came up like he’d awarded her a prize.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jamie
The cops showed up at our house on Monday evening at five o’clock. When I came back from yoga their green all-wheel drive was at the gate. I recognized the car as a state police vehicle right away, and I guess I figured maybe Rory was inside the house, meeting with a politician senior enough that they’d had an escort. Not that that was a regular thing, at our house, but that’s how far away I was from thinking that the visit was about Simon and Nina. I pulled in behind the police car and pressed my buzzer for the electronic gate. It opened, they drove in and parked, and I followed. They met me at the front door and introduced themselves. Matthew Wright, who was a detective and a senior sergeant, and Sarah Jane Reid, a blond girl who looked too young to be much of anything. Her nose was too much for her face. She would have been pretty if she’d done something about it. Neither of them was in uniform, but even if I hadn’t seen them drive in, I would have known he was a cop. Or maybe I would have guessed military. There was something about the way he held himself. He had authority, baked in.
“Okay, well, how can I help you?”
“We’d like to speak with your son. Is Simon here?” Matthew Wright looked past me toward the garage. The garage door was just coming down, but you could clearly see my car and Simon’s car and the truck we use to get around in heavy snow. My first instinct was to lie and say that Simon wasn’t home, for no reason other than that I felt out of my depth. I shook off the urge.
“He’s probably inside,” I said. I opened the front door. “What’s this about?”
Wright waited for a moment before answering, just long enough, I figured, to let me know that he didn’t have to talk to me, that he didn’t have to answer my questions.
“Nina Fraser’s family have reported her missing. She was expected home on Saturday morning, and she didn’t show, and she hasn’t been in touch. Her family say that Simon might have been the last person to see her.”
“Seriously?” I turned my head and raised an eyebrow at him.
“Afraid so.”
He followed me into the house, and I led the way to the kitchen.
“Did Leanne tell you that Nina broke up with Simon on Friday night? She’s probably off with her friends. Partying. I told Leanne this last night. Nina’s not a child. Leanne’s totally overreacting.”
He didn’t answer. Just followed me as I led the way into the kitchen and put my bag on the counter. There was a cereal bowl with some Cheerios rapidly drying and congealing on the bottom of the bowl. A half-empty coffee cup sat beside it. I gathered them up and put them in the sink while he stood there, watching me.
“I’ll get Simon,” I said.
“Thank you.”
I went downstairs, to the back of the house, and knocked on Simon’s door. There was no answer. I knocked again and then pushed the door open. He was lying on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His hands were crossed on his stomach, and his phone was balanced on his chest. He was wearing headphones. Not the little earbuds I wear when I run, but big, over-the-ear cans. There was a smell of stale beer in the room. I hadn’t seen him since Cody had picked him up on Sunday. Had he come home last night, or this morning?
“Simon.”
He didn’t hear me. I waved my hand in the air and the movement caught his eye. He saw me and slid his headphones off.
“There’s a detective upstairs,” I said. “He wants to talk to you.”
“A detective?” He scrubbed at his hair with two hands, like he was trying to wake himself up.
“He says his name is Matthew Wright. He’s state police. He wants to talk to you about Nina.”
“About Nina?”
I felt a surge of irritation and anxiety. My voice came out sounding sharp and worried. “Yes, Simon. About Nina. Can you get up and come upstairs, please?”
He pushed himself up until he was sitting on the side of the bed. He was wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt. Just a few years ago he’d been a gangly, clumsy teenager. Before that he’d been a little boy, with hands and feet that seemed too big for his body, but still all smiles and hugs and sudden enthusiasm. In my mind’s eye, in my heart, I still saw Simon as that little boy. Every time I turned to look at him and saw the young man he had become, it was like stubbing my toe.
“Be careful when you talk to them, okay?”
He looked at me like he didn’t understand me.
“I’m sure Nina’s fine, and she’ll be home whenever. But... just in case... be careful what you say.”
“Nina hasn’t come home? So where is she?”
“That’s the point, Simon. Her parents don’t know. They called the police. I’m sure she’s fine. Really.”
