I lean in. “How so?”
“Don’s a man who’s used to getting results. He was always the kind of guy to throw money at a problem until it got solved. Well, that didn’t work in this case. Besides me, I’m guessing he hired a half-dozen other investigators to track this guy down, but no one could. I’ve never seen someone vanish so completely. Literally no trace.
“Anyway, after a few months of this, Don went nuclear. He turned up at my office unannounced, demanding answers I didn’t have. He was red-faced and pissed off, pacing around the room covered in sweat, asking where the fuck Adrian was. Telling me I’d better find him or else. Threatening me. Saying he’d end my career if I didn’t. I kid you not, every time Don came in after that, I could feel my blood pressure rising. He wanted nothing more than to make Adrian pay. Don loved his daughter. Evelyn meant the world to him. She—”
He stops suddenly and pulls a buzzing phone out of his pocket. “Give me a second, will you? I have to take this.” He punches a button and brings the phone to his ear as the waitress returns with our meals. I pick at my salad and listen to Zane’s one-sided conversation.
“She fell again?” Pause. “How bad is it this time?” Pause. “Okay, good, but you should still take her in to be safe. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’m almost done.”
He ends the call and runs a hand over his face.
“Do you need to go?” I ask.
He considers it. “In a bit. I’ll eat first. Unfortunately, this happens a lot. My daughter’s sick. She falls sometimes. But this one doesn’t sound too bad. She’ll be okay. I’m not so sure about mywallet, though.” He shakes his head. “Health insurance isn’t cheap when you’re self-employed.” He picks up his hamburger and digs in. “Where were we?”
“You were about to tell me what happened to Adrian.”
“Right. After a year of searching, I finally turned up a few leads. I put my other cases on hold and went all in. When I finally located Adrian, the first call I made was to Don. The guy lost his mind. He said he was packing his bags. Told me we were leaving that night. He said he’d kill Adrian himself. Said he’d strangle him to death.” Zane picks up his hamburger and takes a bite, chews. “It sounded like he was having an aneurysm. I’d never heard him so angry before. He died two hours later. He never made it to the airport.”
“And then what?”
“Then nothing.”
I do the math. Donald Nash died a week ago. Which means finding Adrian is recent. My pulse ticks higher. “Paula isn’t going to go after him?”
Zane laughs. “Seriously? The woman is in the middle of burying her husband. And no. The case is officially dead. She told me to drop it.”
The answer leaves me cold. “Why would she do that?”
Zane sighs and returns the hamburger to his plate. “Put yourself in her shoes. Evelyn wasn’t her kid. Sure, they mostly got along, but it was Don she really loved. It took years to get Evelyn on her feet. Once they did, she and Don had a normal marriage for a while. They were happy. But then all this shit with Adrian happened and she lost him again. First, she watched him deteriorate in real time, and then she had to watch him die. She was there when he had his heart attack. It happened in their living room. She gave Don CPR for twenty minutes before the paramedics showed up.”
Jesus.I imagine it. Paula crying, spilling tears in between breaths and chest compressions.Come back to me!
“That’s terrible. But I still don’t understand why she’d let Adrianget away with this?”
Zane shrugs. “People process grief differently. And she saw what happened to Don. He was hellbent on making this guy pay. Obsessed with it. It poisoned their marriage. It poisonedhim.Then it killed him.” Zane drags a fry through the ketchup on his plate and pops it into his mouth, chews. “I mean, sure, maybe she’d be able to make a case with the evidence I have and bring Adrian to trial, but that would mean she’d have to testify. She’d have to see his face every day in court. On the news. Cases like this can take years. Paula just wants to move on. Sometimes justice doesn’t mean much when you’ve already put everyone you love in the ground.”
My vision blurs, a tear breaking free before I can stop it from rolling down my cheek. I wipe at it angrily and look away. Someone laughs nearby. Dishes rattle. The noise of the restaurant muffles to a din. I’ve put the people I love in the ground. But unlike Paula, I can’t just walk away from this. There’s no moving on for me. I have no life without Noah and Ethan. That future doesn’t exist.
“Where is he?” I ask, attempting to regain my composure.
Zane wipes his mouth with a napkin, then pushes the folder over. “It’s all in here.”
I peer at it, zeroing in on the name printed on the label. “Who’s Reed Aldridge?”
“That’s his real name,” Zane says. “Adrian Wallace doesn’t exist.”
Chapter 30
REED
Durango, Colorado
Age Seventeen
Taylor quit speaking to him on a Monday. All week, Reed had tried to talk to her. He looked for her at lunch but only found an empty seat where she usually sat. In the halls, he’d spot her from a distance, but the second he’d start her way, she seemed to disappear. Anytime he bumped into one of her friends, they stared at him like he’d done something wrong, like he’d hurt her somehow. But he hadn’t. Reed loved her and she loved him. They’d been saying it for months now.
I love you.The first time she’d told him was after a party at Jason Callahan’s house. He thought it was because she’d had too much to drink. But then she’d said it again the next day during a movie. She’d whispered those three words into his ear and it felt like a spark coming to life in his chest. When he said it back, the spark whooshed into a flame. Reed loved her, he did—so why wouldn’t she speak to him? The question left him in a panic.
