Page 93 of Carver’s Craving

“MacKenzie’s a handful all right. And I adore her. Rough start in life, and now she’s a pampered pet who lives the life of luxury.” Seth sipped his coffee. “Okay, lap of luxury is relative. I live in a cabin about the size of this one. For my huge dog, though? She manages to get everywhere. Well, her and her fur.”

“Ah. These two apparently shed. Fortunately, I’ve not seen it. Come spring, though, it might be a different story.

Seth cocked his head. “Spring? You planning to stay that long?”

I met the cop’s hazel eyes. “Carver’s asked me to. Stay, that is. Like…forever.”

“Wow. That’s quick, isn’t it? You’ve barely been here a month. Or were you involved back in, Oshawa, right?”

“Yeah. Well, I was in Oshawa and he was in Toronto and no, we weren’t together back then. He’d tell you I was jailbait when he first met me. And he wouldn’t be wrong. Even when I hit the age of majority, though, he wasn’t willing to go there. Not that I pushed all that hard.” I sipped my hot chocolate. “What does this have to do with Baxter?”

“Just that you and Carver both know him. If there’s a change in your relationship with Carver, how might that affect Baxter? You guys had plans, right? I doubt they involved playing house in Mission City.”

My gaze sharpened. “We’re not playing house.” I straightened. “I love him. Carver. He loves me. I guess in some ways that appears sudden. In others, though, it’s just a natural progression of the relationship we had previously.”

Seth nodded. “Sure. Just, there’s a big age difference.”

“Yeah. But, like, that doesn’t bother me. Again…what does this have to do with Baxter’s disappearance? Do you have any leads? You know where his van is, right? Can you do some kind of forensics?”

That gaze sharpened.

I held my ground.

“The van isn’t, to the best of our knowledge, a crime scene. Baxter walked away from it in one piece. If something happened to him, I’d say it’s likely it happened after that. Right?”

“Well, sure.” This was getting us nowhere.

“I want to talk to you about other people in Baxter’s life.”

I scratched my elbow. “I’m the only one here. Everyone else is back in Ontario.”

Seth nodded. “Of course. But we’re wondering who we might want to talk to. Parents? Siblings? Spouse?”

“Ex-spouse.” I sat a little straighter. “Well, I mean, I don’t think talking to Arlene’s going to help. She was—” I searched for the right word. I thought about my friend from back home. Marta. I remembered the kind librarian here in Mission City. Marnie. Even my own mother and sister-in-law. All warm and caring women. I was mature enough to understand that not everyone was like that. Still, I didn’t like speaking ill of someone.

Seth arched an eyebrow.

“I told Baxter he was making a mistake, okay? But they were young and in love and all those things that make you do crazy shit. They were twenty and both in a tough headspace.”

“How?”

I pursed my lips. “Although my parents don’t understand me, at all, I wouldn’t say I’m estranged from them. Baxter is. Well, from his dad. His mom died when he was little. He was raised by his aunt, and his father would drop by. When Baxter started high school, his dad moved him back into the family house. Rules, discipline—all these things Baxter wasn’t used to. His aunt had been lenient because Baxter’d always been a good kid. Appreciative of the home his aunt gave him. His father scared him, frankly.”

“That doesn’t sound healthy.” Seth radiated compassion.

“Nope. Our rock band was the only fun Baxter was allowed to have. Everything was about academic achievement. And man, did Baxter achieve. Top in just about all things he put his mind to. That’s why his dad let him continue with us.” I winced. “Come graduation, things deteriorated quickly. His dad wanted him to apply to RMC—Royal Military College—down in Kingston. Baxter did, but then tried to sabotage the application. He also applied to the University of Toronto and McGill in Montréal. He got into both and landed scholarships. Now, if he’d gone to U of T, he could’ve stayed in the band because Toronto and Oshawa are so close.”

“That didn’t happen?”

I shook my head. “Despite his best sabotage efforts, he got into RMC. So his father ordered him to attend.” I swallowed. “Things got physical. Now, Baxter’s got a bit of muscle, but he’s not a fighter. His father’s a big bruiser of a guy. He broke Baxter’s collarbone.”

“Okay.” Seth was taking notes, but also meeting my gaze a lot.

Disconcertingly so. Compassion radiated from him. Are all cops this way? Isn’t that a disadvantage? Is it something he can turn on and off? I took a breath. “His dad got charged. He pled down, but Baxter got a restraining order. Things weren’t going well for me at home, and Frank just wanted out, so we rented a basement suite. Believe it or not, the older lady we rented from was mostly deaf. When she wore her hearing aids, they were hooked to the television or her phone. And she had one of those old houses with great soundproofing. We installed some baffles and were good to go. I mean we only played during the day when all three of us were home. We didn’t want to bother any neighbors.”

“Sounds like you were making an effort.”

I eyed him. “We didn’t want trouble. We’d gotten some decent gigs by then. I’d met Carver, although there wasn’t anything between us. Not romantically. I thought he was cute. I also thought he and Baxter hit it off more. Again, not in a sex kind of way. Just that Carver and Baxter…” I trailed off.