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“Still, we can’t risk it. We’ve got our families to think about.”
“You’re damn right.”
We hang up. Then I watch the video Russel sent me. It was taken on a cell phone and uploaded two minutes ago.
Lionel Strafer is an average-looking man in a plain black T-shirt. He could be anybody. Nobody would ever suspect him of anything if it weren’t for his money.
As the Feds escort him to the car, he lifts his head and shouts into the sky. “I am the answer! I am the answer!Iam the answer!”
I pull out of the alleyway and drive toward my apartment. It’s time to initiate the disappearance. Jamie King has to vanish. Then I’ll be a new man with a family and wife that I’ll never stop loving.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE
Lena
“You and Mr. King were in a relationship, Miss Harwood?” Officer Ramirez asks, leaning across the coffee table. She looks formidable, the type of woman I hope my daughter becomes. When she asked if she could speak to us, I couldn’t think of a way to make her go away.
Mom glances at me and smiles, almost like we’re in on some secret joke. Their relationship was my biggest fear before. Now, it’s just one more angle to the insanity.
“Is something… funny, Miss Harwood?”
“It’sMrs.Harwood,” Mom says, sitting up, seeming like the woman she was before Dad died. That must’ve been while she was still living her own narrative, a happily married woman. It was always part of her, even if it went away. “And I don’t see how this is appropriate. What does it have to do with anything?”
“It’s a simple question, Mrs. Harwood.”
“I don’t understand the connection to Jamie either,” I say, leaning forward, a confused look on my face.
“You called him the day you went missing,” Ramirez says, narrowing her eyes at me.
“I thought he could help. He was in the military. I was scared of calling the cops. The note said no cops, and then they took me.” I swallow, thinking of what I did, pulling that trigger, and thinking I’d do it again. I don’t know what that says about me. “They locked us up.” Well,somebodydid. “They humiliated us.” That was Jamie, but I liked it. Maybe it’s not humiliation if it feels good. “They terrified us.” At the beginning, he did, my man, my savage. “Now you want us to go over and over and over it.”
Ramirez sits back, frowning, shaking her head. “No, Miss Harwood. I didn’t mean… Of course not.”
“Do you know where they kept us, Officer Ramirez?” Mom snaps. “In a cell. No lights. No—”
“I’ve seen the photos,” Ramirez says, quickly standing up. “I didn’t mean to stir any emotions.”
I step forward and narrow my eyes. She’s gone all shifty. “You’re not supposed to be here, are you?” I say. “Your bosses. They don’t know you’re here.”
She flashes a dark look at me.
“Of course she’s not,” Mom says, stepping beside me. “After all we’ve been through…”
“I’m just trying to do the right thing,” Ramirez says. “There’s something about that Jamie King. I’ve got a sixth sense about these things.”
“What, you think he’s a bad, bad man?” I say, rolling my eyes. “He’s a flashy stock trader. I was glad when my mom dumped his ass.”
“AndIwas glad to get rid of him.”
Ramirez nods. “I’ll see myself out.”
Mom and I keep staring at her until she’s gone. Then I say, “Sorry, Jamie. Jeez, I didn’t mean that.”
Mom nudges me playfully, still seeming like her old self before Dad got on that plane. Maybe it was partly an act, but she seems younger, full of life. “I think he’ll forgive us. That was quite thrilling. Maybe that’s how we look on the bright side of all this. We’ve had a good thrill.”
Mom seems manic, but not in a desperate way. She seems weirdly hopeful. Maybe it’s the trauma and the lack of sleep. Maybe it’s the antidepressant I saw her take earlier. Or perhaps it’s just hope. Hope for the future. Hope for the daughter she thought of in the dark. Hope for Hope.
“Yeah, Mom,” I say. “That’s one way to look at it.” It’s a bland statement, but I don’t want to shatter this mood. Luckily, she’s not listening, humming as she walks to the window.
