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She tapped out a reply.I’m about twenty minutes away. Go ahead and order the food and I’ll be there as soon as I can.
He replied immediately.See you soon. Drive safely.
She smiled, then sent a text to Chelsea.Any luck?
Chelsea’s response came through as Jo started the car.None. Naomie is supposed to meet her husband for dinner, and Julia doesn’t want me out here in the dark with the temperature dropping.
Dread pulled at her. The innocent explanations about where Madison might be were dying with the daylight—if she’d simply forgotten the time, sunset would have reminded her. And Jo didn’t like the idea of the three women, two pregnant, wandering around in the dark.
She fired back a reply.Julia’s right. Go home and stay safe, and I’ll call you as soon as I can.
She did a quick calculation. She was about twenty minutes away from the Pizza Palace, and Kiernan’s apartment was just off the pike into Oakhurst. If she fudged the timing a little, she could stop by on her way to the restaurant. Because the sad truth was, if something unpleasant had happened to Madison, her ex was the most likely suspect.
* * *
Praying for green lights, Jo drove as quickly as she could without breaking any laws, and pulled up to Oakhurst Garden Apartments ten minutes later. The complex, a series of colonial-esque duplexes with red brick and cream clapboard, made a stark contrast with Madison’s. While not fancy, it was clean and well tended, surrounded by a healthy, mowed lawn scattered with falling oak leaves.
The six-foot, early-twenties white man who opened the door had short, dark-brown hair, a clean-shaven face, blue eyes, and a swimmer’s build. His black T-shirt and olive cargo pants hung well on him, and he exuded a relaxed confidence unusual in someone so young.
“Kiernan Wendiss?” Jo asked.
“That’s me.” He smiled. “Can I help you?”
Jo introduced herself. “I understand you used to date Madison Coelho. Have you seen her today, or recently?”
His brow creased. “No. I haven’t seen her since we broke up back at the end of March. Is everything okay?”
Jo weighed her approach, and how much to tell him. She made a show of glancing toward the right half of the duplex. “Can I come inside? I have a few questions I’d like to ask you.”
“Sure—I—come in.” He stepped back.
A huge television dominated the room, across from a shabby brown futon and a beanbag chair. A can of Coke sat amid a scatter of books and notebooks on the coffee table, and Panic! at the Disco wafted out of a Bluetooth speaker perched on an anemic bookshelf.
He gestured to the futon and sank into the beanbag chair. “Is Madison okay?”
Jo sat. “Madison didn’t show up to an appointment with her friends today, and she’s not picking up her mother’s calls.”
Kiernan went pale. “That’s not like her.”
“Do you have any idea where she might be?”
He tugged at the pocket just above his right knee. “No. I mean, I don’t think I’m the right person to ask.”
“Back when you were dating, where would you have told me to look? Did she have any spots she liked to hang out?”
He gave a bewildered head shake. “Not really. If I wanted to go somewhere, she was always down. But mostly we hung here or at her place.”
“Do you know of anybody who might have a grudge against her?”
“Madison gets along with everybody.” He waved both his hands out to encompass the world. “She was a good person, and fun once she opened up.”
Jo paused, considering whether or not to bring up Madison’s baby. If Madison was fine, she was entitled to her secrets. But if she wasn’t, time was of the essence.
“If it helps, I know she’s pregnant,” he said. “My sister goes to PCC. When she saw Madison was pregnant, she was worried the baby was mine, but the timing’s off.”
Jo hid her surprise. Very few people were able to guess what she was thinking when she had her professionally passive face on. “Madison was six months pregnant according to her friends, and you broke up six months ago. Very possible if she wasn’t sure about the date of conception.”
He shook his head vigorously. “A little more than six months, and we didn’t have sex for a few weeks before we broke up. She’d been distant and didn’t want to see me.”
