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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE STREETS WERE quiet; it was still early. Sierra didn’t much care which direction she went in, her feet stumbled first down one road and then another. All she cared about was getting as far away from Reed as possible.
She wandered in a daze, her mind refusing to focus on anything as it shied away from the terrible truth.
Kingscote wasn’t that big and after a while she found herself walking along The Esplanade, with the ocean stretching out, sullen and dreary before her. She came across a bench seat, set on a grassy knoll, facing the water, and sat down, suddenly too exhausted to keep going. Staring blankly out to sea, she held the tears at bay. She was too numb to cry.
How long she sat there, Sierra wasn’t sure, but when she looked up, the sun was much higher in the sky. She couldn’t sit here all day. Her car was a wreck, and she had no immediate way to get home. An idea formed in her head. She’d go to Kylie’s. It was the first place that came to mind. She would be safe there. She could think there.
Her phone had been buzzing in her bag ever since she left Reed’s place. She didn’t need to look at it to know they were messages from him. She didn’t want to read them. Not any of them. Nothing he could say would ever make this right. She turned her phone off. It was better that way.
Kylie’s house was only five minutes back up The Esplanade, and then two blocks inland. Sierra knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. Where could she be? Her discombobulated mind took many minutes to process the answer. Today was Monday. Kylie would be at work, and her kids would be at school. Sierra knew where the spare key was kept, so she headed around to the backyard to retrieve it from the special rock hidden in the garden.
Kylie wouldn’t mind if Sierra let herself in, she was a good friend. That’s what good friends did. Sierra made it as far as the brown leather couch in the living room. She lay down gratefully and curled into a ball, pulling her long legs up into her chest.
Reed.
Oh no, Reed.
It couldn’t be. He couldn’t be the one. Her mind refused to believe it. But somewhere inside she knew it was true. If only he hadn’t been chasing that speeding car. If only she hadn’t had the music up so loud. If only she’d picked Grace up five minutes earlier, like she was supposed to. If only she hadn’t met him. She wished she’d never met him. This pain was like losing her daughter all over again.
Sierra curled even tighter as the sobs began to rack her body.
The sound of a key rattling in a lock woke Sierra hours later. She sat up and looked dazedly around the room. Kylie walked in, her hands full of shopping bags, her two boys following behind her. They all stopped and stared at Sierra sitting on their couch.
“Sorry,” Sierra said, getting painfully to her feet. All her muscles felt like they were made of molten lead, still painful and aching from the crash. “I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t know where else to go.”
Kylie dumped the bags on the kitchen counter and made her way to the couch, shooing the boys toward their bedrooms as she did so. “No probs, honey. You know you’re welcome anytime.” A worried frown lined Kylie’s face, belying her easy words. “I’ve got a bottle of wine in one of those bags. Shall we open it?”
Sierra wasn’t sure if she wanted alcohol, but she nodded mutely and followed her friend back into the kitchen.
Kylie turned to study her and gasped, “What the hell happened to your face?”
“I crashed my car yesterday,” she replied, and gave Kylie the short version of events.
Sensing that Sierra didn’t want to go into detail just yet, Kylie chatted brightly about her day while she prepared dinner, and Sierra sat on a barstool on the other side of the counter watching as she sipped slowly at her wine. This was the second time in less than a week Sierra had come to Kylie for help. She owed her friend big-time. Kylie waved away her offer to help cook dinner in her efficient way, her short blonde bob swaying as she moved, and told her to stay put and chill out. Kylie was petite and athletic, everything about her exuded proficiency and competence. She worked as an administrator at the island’s only accounting firm, and was dressed in a classic pencil skirt and matching navy jacket. There was nothing flippant about Kylie, and that was one of the reasons Sierra liked her so much. Every now and then Sierra caught Kylie eyeing her speculatively, but she didn’t ask the questions that were hovering on her lips. Sierra knew she owed her a more in-depth story, especially after she’d used her friend’s house as a crash pad. Twice.
“Have you heard about Tom?” Kylie stopped what she was doing and turned to stare at Sierra, confusion and worry creasing her face. “I can’t believe it. Maureen told me this afternoon at the supermarket. They’ve arrested him, but they’re not saying why yet. Do you think he’s a suspect in the missing-girl case?”
Sierra froze. She wasn’t sure what to say. Reed had told her in confidence about Tom Hubbard’s arrest for having kiddie porn on his computer. But they were yet to file any charges, and so the public hadn’t been told the details.
She decided to play innocent. “No, I hadn’t heard.”
Kylie continued, “God, what if they find out Tom has been keeping her prisoner in his basement, or something equally depraved?” Kylie pursed her lips as she glared out the window, considering. “Nope, I won’t believe it. Tom isn’t capable of something like that. Jesus, we all know the man. Trust him. He’s a pillar of the community. Why would he do something as stupid and sordid as that? He wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t.”
Sierra silently agreed with Kylie. She didn’t think Tom had anything to do with abducting a child, but he couldn’t be completely discounted, especially if he had those pictures on his computer.
After dinner, when the boys had gone to their rooms to do homework, Kylie could no longer hold her tongue.
“So, honey, what’s going on with you?”
Sierra leaned back in the couch and stared at the floor, unable to meet her friend’s gaze. Where to start? After a moment’s consideration, the beginning seemed like the best place. She’d never told her friends about her car accident, or losing her baby. At first, it was because she didn’t want to burden them with that kind of sob story so early in their friendship. Afterwards, it had never seemed like the right time to bring it up. And part of her wanted her friends to see her as normal. Well, as normal as possible, anyway. She didn’t want them looking at her with pity or even condemnation in their eyes.
Sierra sucked in a deep breath. “You know I moved to the island around ten years ago, right?”
“Yes, you wanted to get away from your ex-husband, after a bad divorce.” Kylie reached over to top up her wine and waited for Sierra to continue.
“That’s true. But it’s not the full story.” She glanced behind her to make sure the boys were still safely tucked away in their bedrooms. “I wasn’t just escaping my ex, I was also recovering from a bad car accident.”
