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Harris stared at Elisa for a few charged seconds before turning to his brother. A guy who was either clueless or pretending to be. Both options made him a hollow shell of a man.
Harris took his time moving his plate away from the edgeof the table and making room to rest his elbows there. “Abby has only been gone seven months.”
No, not like that. Elisa couldn’t let the wordgonesit there as if it were remotely accurate. The word failed to speak to the gravity of the situation. “She’s not justgone.”
Harris blew out an exaggerated breath full of frustration. “Okay, why don’t you pick the words I should use?”
If that was a challenge, she accepted. She looked at Josh. “Abby is missing. Your fiancée, the supposed love of your life, has disappeared.”
Josh shook his head. “No.”
She couldn’t believe he wanted to fight about this simple point. “Yes.”
“We’ve talked about this. Talked so much that I can’t stand to have another conversation about it.” The color drained from Josh’s face as he spoke.
It. Nother, it.Elisa hated him. “Try one more time.”
Josh blew out a long breath before starting. “Abby ran away. She left me. Came close to abandoning me at the altar but, lucky for me, decided not to wait that long and subject me to the full level of embarrassment she clearly craved.”
Ah, yes. The familiar refrain of Josh as victim. Elisa had bought into that nonsense for most of the time she’d known him. Not anymore.
He created drama. He had outbursts. Most days he usually did what everyone did—went to work, paid his bills, hung out with friends and family. But there were times, when he claimed to be pushed or wrongly targeted, that he came out verbally swinging. He’d explode into road rage if a driverdared to cut him off. He’d become obsessed with payback if anyone made him feel unworthy.
If she was right, he killed the women in his life only to turn around and complain about being alone. Talk about a sick, circular mess.
“You make it sound like Abby left willingly.” Elisa couldn’t believe he thought he could sell that, but the pleading in his eyes suggested he did.
“Exactly!”
Elisa watched him, looking for any signs of lying. His hands shook and the vacant stare highlighted his shock at being challenged. But he was forgetting one small detail... “I still don’t understand how you know it was Abby’s choice to leave.”
Elisa feared he could speak with authority on the subject of Abby’s leaving because he was the one who made her disappear. That Abby was dead and buried somewhere and only Josh could lead them to her. Elisa would bet everything she owned that horrifying result was true.
“Where is this coming from?” Josh morphed into anger, as if he had a right to be furious at her for raising the issue. “We discussed this situation months ago and resolved it. Now you’re bringing it up again?”
Elisa ran right into a wall of guilt. She’d messed up. She’d been in a terrible place in her own life and accepted his half answers back then. Didn’t ask enough questions. She owed it to Abby to do better now. “She’s still missing, Josh. She hasn’t made contact or popped up somewhere.”
Josh visibly wrestled with his control. He clenched hisjaw as he spoke. “She left with her car and her purse. I took that as a sign she wanted to end things with me.”
“With you, not me.” And that was the point. The one thing Elisa couldn’t manufacture an excuse to explain. “No one has seen or heard from her since. Not me. Not her other friends. Not people she worked with. Not the people she owed projects to.”
Abby Greene disappeared from the planet seven months ago. Thirty-one and vibrant and in the middle of investigating ways to set up an art studio. Not someone looking to end her life or move away—the two alternatives the police offered months ago, back when they pretended to listen and care.
Elisa had met Abby at a book club and introduced her to Josh. That meant she’d basically walked Abby to her death. The guilt at having assisted in the whole sick process clogged Elisa’s throat until she choked on it.
“Maybe she wanted a fresh start.” Josh rolled his eyes. “Come on. You’re looking for extreme solutions when the most obvious one—she wanted to move on—is staring right at you.”
“Let’s keep from getting defensive, okay?” Harris asked. “She’s trying to figure this out. We all are.”
Elisa appreciated the spousal support but had to wonder if it was conditional. Could she go too far, say the wrong thing, and then get body-slammed in the fallout?
But she could focus on what her husbandmightsay or do later. She had Josh’s attention now. “I’m the one who reported her missing. Abby, the woman you told us you couldn’t live without. I’ve gone over the last few months in my headand you have never, not once, made a serious attempt to find her.”
“Because she dumped me!” This time Josh yelled the response.
“She disappeared!”
“Okay, stop. Both of you.” Harris took a quick glance into the other room, but Nathan sat with his headphones on and his gaze locked on his tablet. Oblivious.
