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“Now is not the time to play cute. What have you done with her?”
“What are you talking about?” She leaned closer to the screen. “You haven’t even looked at anything yet.”
“There’s nothing here to look at. Why did you deactivate saving of recordings?” I checked a few other directories and found video files there that worked, long dull sequences of the corridor outside Julia’s door with the occasional stranger wandering by.
“I never did that. I get a great deal on insurance because I have constant surveillance. Is it just today that it’s been deactivated?” She snatched her phone back.
“It’s today and yesterday. Coincidentally covering all the time since I lost contact with Julia. Are you really telling me you know nothing about this?” Actually, I had a feeling her surprise was genuine… but she knew something for sure.
She folded her arms and stared out a window with the blind left up. “I don’t care for you to give me a hard time over this, Devin, but I made sure the girl’s parents knew where she was staying.”
It all rose again: the feelings I had whenever I was talking about them, or in their house—feelings that only Julia, of all the things connected to them, seemed beyond. Feelings I could never share with my mother, because she would exploit them in a way that was little better than the way the Mahoneys had.
“It was the right thing to do,” Mother added in the wake of my silence. “They have a right to be aware of their daughter’s movements, and this is my property we’re talking about.”
“Their daughter is in her twenties. They have no right to lay a claim over her she does not approve of.” The thought that I had failed so badly at getting my position across to her that she had been willing to let her parents take her away was humiliating.
“My son is in his twenties too,” said Mother, “though he’s at the other end of it. And—Devin, listen to me. I did this for you as well.”
“Okay,” I said, “well now you have however long it takes me to be ready to leave here to explain that to me.”
“Devin, I am not the only one to see this. It’s not healthy for you to be keeping yourself tangled up with that family, trying to marry the daughter for goodness sake. It’s so transparent that it’s not about her—and if you think she’ll be happy when she finds out the full truth, you’re a bigger fool than I ever raised you to be.”
She was right, of course: Julia wasn’t happy to think there was anything more to this than a simple case of a debt owed, and she had no idea what the full story was.
How did I make her see that she was no longer exclusively connected to whatever situation existed with her parents—that she hadn’t been since she flung that shoe at me and I wanted to hurt myself for the little flash of defiant fear in her eyes? I hadn’t managed to explain myself well to her yet at all; there was too much additional context she did not have. But if she had gone back to her parents of her own free will, she would probably have pushed for any answers they could provide, and I believed they would give them to her.
And if she had not, if this was a return kidnapping, then none of this was so important anyway. There was every chance the Mahoneys would hurt Julia for her part in this situation, to get back at me.
I would not go directly to the Mahoney residence, after all. They would recognise the cars I used, and I didn’t want to tip them off that I cared enough to rush to her side. I would call in on a favour with someone none of them knew I worked with.
“Devin?” Mother was peering into my face. “Are you listening to me? You need to let this girl go. If you are so desperate for a wife, there’s no trouble arranging that.”
“I’m not desperate for a wife.” I pulled out my own phone, checked a note saved. The contact I needed was saved only in my own head, and I had a complicated keying system to help me remember. “I intend to marry her.”
And Mother kept talking as if she thought this was still a discussion we were having. “It’s not that I gave her no chance to prove she could be a good match for you. I considered her on her own merits, and she proved to have few.”
“It’s an understandable conclusion to draw, Mother. She is inexperienced, unrefined in many ways. But we all must start somewhere. She has many admirable qualities, and will show even more if she is allowed.” I felt bad saying it. I had made the mistake of withholding that permission: I had expected her to grow, but had given her no guidance in figuring out the direction. I’d treated her potential to figure it out for herself as a test. It must have seemed like an unsolvable puzzle to her. And to think some of the men I spent time with complained women were complicated…
I was about to put my phone away, when I received a text whose sender raised my eyebrows immediately.
Hello, Devin. I’ve been thinking, and I’ve decided it just isn’t going to work out between us. Sorry I don’t have the courage to tell you in person. I did everything you asked though so I think it’s only fair you pay me what we agreed on. I’ll send you my bank details. Sorry, I just don’t want to face you again.
The message with the promised details arrived while I was reading, and once I’d checked that there was one final message.
Tell Caroline I’m sorry I disappeared on her while we were out yesterday. She was a good friend to me and only trying to help.
“Caroline?” Mother was reading over my shoulder. “Why did she never say anything? Did she think she would be in trouble for losing the girl?”
“Oh I don’t think it’s nearly so wholesome as that.” Now I was certain I could see what was going on here. They thought they had sent me something that would complete the narrative they wanted to push, but they weren’t smart enough about it. “This was definitely not sent by Julia. She couldn’t type in a fully-realised sentence to save her life.” It had irked me, all the lowercase and her writing u and i everywhere, but now I was glad she wrote in a way so distinctive I had noticed. “And as for your question… I think Caroline knows a lot more about Julia’s disappearance than she wants either of us to realise.”
Mother wasn’t stupid. I didn’t need to join the dots any further for her. “Caroline always acted like she was excited to have Julia join the family, more than I was certainly. I don’t understand why she would turn on her like this.”
I slipped my phone out of sight. “You know her better than I do. Maybe she’s been promised a cut of the profits from this scam.”
I didn’t know whether it was stupidity or something more honourable, but Julia had never seemed to care that much about the money after we’d made the arrangement. She hadn’t seen me as any of the opportunities I could provide her, actually. And that just made me feel worse about letting her down to this point. There was no doubt in my mind now, she had not left by choice, and I had neglected my responsibility to protect her for my own selfish reasons, trusting family members who had their own games to run.
I should have known better. I acted like Julia was the one who needed to prove her sense and stability before I gave her more information… but here I was showing how easily I could make the most rookie of errors.
