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Isobel waved at the disgruntled farmer. Then, after they were out of earshot, she whispered to Liam. “Thanks for the save.”
“What?” Liam pulled her to the back corner of the bar where Mack was already waiting.
“Did you show her?” Mack asked.
“Show me what?” Isobel looked back and forth from Mack’s grim expression to Liam’s wary one. “What’s going on?”
Liam tapped something on his phone before holding it out to her. “Do you know you’re a missing person’s case?”
Isobel grabbed the phone which had a video from one of the network morning shows keyed up to play. And there was Catrina sitting on the couch across from the famous host. Isobel’s eyes widened and her heart sank through the floor.
“They’re calling you The Missing Heiress,” Mack said, reaching over and pushing play.
The camera focused on the hostess. “The public is fascinated by this case. Is it true your husband left your stepdaughter half a billion dollars in his will?”
The shot switched to Catrina. She’d had professional hair and make-up done but there seemed to be a few more lines on her forehead than Isobel remembered. What, had she been neglecting her botox injections?
“Yes, Isobel’s father loved her so much. We both do. It’s her birthday today.” Catrina dabbed at her eye with a handkerchief. Isobel felt like hitting something. Catrina, crying over her? Yeah, when hell froze over. “I just want to know that she’s all right. That she’s safe and getting the help she needs so she can receive her inheritance and live the life her father and I always wanted for her.”
Isobel’s hands clenched around the phone so hard she was afraid she’d crack it.
“When you say ‘the help she needs,’ what exactly do you mean by that?” The hostess tilted her head and looked at Catrina with a compassionate expression.
Catrina swallowed and sniffled dramatically. Isobel scoffed. “Overplaying it a bit, aren’t we, mommy dearest?”
In her periphery, Isobel saw Mack and Liam look at each other but she ignored them as Catrina began to answer.
“Isobel is a… a passionate girl. At times, troubled.” Catrina’s eyebrows came together. “But I’m afraid, sometimes she just…” Tears leaked out of her eyes. “Well sometimes she can become unstable. Violent even. Towards herself and others.”
Catrina stopped and broke down in sobs.
The hostess reached across and put a hand on Catrina’s arm. “I’m a mother too. And so are many of our viewers out there watching.”
The screen went back to a shot of just the hostess, staring straight into the camera. “Again, Isobel Snow has been missing since April 22nd, last seen driving a silver Toyota Carolla heading west on I-80.”
A picture of Isobel appeared on the screen.
Isobel winced. Oh God. It wasn’t a bad picture. They must have gotten it from her phone, but it was one Veronica had snapped of her smiling at Jason back when they’d all been at Cornell. Had they been sleeping together even back then or had it only started after she left?
They’d cropped Jason out of the picture but Isobel couldn’t help wondering if Catrina chose it because she was hoping to get a reaction out of Isobel.
“Do you have any last words in case Isobel or anyone who might know her whereabouts is watching this?” the hostess asked Catrina, who seemed to have barely recovered from her most recent sobbing fit.
The camera focused back on her. “Just please, please, Izzy bear. It’s time to come home. Everything will be forgiven. Just come home and get what you’re due.” Then a number flashed across the bottom of the screen.
Isobel slammed the phone back into Liam’s hand and turned away, barely managing to stop her scream of fury. Izzy bear was the nickname her mom—her real mom—had given her. It always set her off when she’d heard it after her mom died. And Catrina knew it. The bitch knew it and she was trying to goad her.
Plus, what was all that bullshit about Dad leaving her the money?
“Iz?” Liam asked cautiously.
“It’s bullshit.” She swung back around to him. “My dad didn’t leave me squat.” He couldn’t even look at her in the end. “Catrina had him so wrapped around her little finger.” Isobel was shaking, she was so mad. “The first thing she would have done was made sure his will was changed so she’d be the sole beneficiary.”
“I don’t know what that shit was about.” Isobel waved her hand toward the phone that was still in his hand. “Maybe some sort of trick to get me to turn myself in. Like I’d be stupid enough to go back just for the money.”
“Turn yourself in?” Mack asked at the same time Liam said, “Whatever’s going on, just tell us. We can help you. We can—”
“When did that air?” Isobel interrupted both of them.
