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Steve looked taken aback. Rina remembered that she hadn’t told Steve any of her family history thus far. He’d probably assumed that Rina’s parents were just as kind and loving as Trevor and Kerry Montgomery.
It was better not to assume anything. Rina had learned that in her line of work.
“Is Gail home?” Rina asked, pouring them both mugs of coffee.
“That’s part of the reason I’m here,” Steve said, his tone darkening. “She still hasn’t turned up.”
Rina frowned and slipped the pot back into the coffee maker. Steve’s face was shadowed. Rina could feel the collective Montgomery family’s heart breaking, even from a continent away. She could feel their panic, their devastation, and their desire to use anything and everything in their power to get Gail back.
She’d seen what missing children could do to the ones they’d left behind. She’d experienced it firsthand.
Rina led Steve back onto the porch, where they sat side-by-side on the swing, their eyes toward the glistening road. The chain clinked.
“She left her dorm room on January 6,” Steve told her. “She hadn’t spoken to her twin in about a week. They’d gotten into some kind of argument. I don’t know the details.”
Rina’s heart felt bruised. The swing creaked beneath them, drawing them forth and back. “Claire must be out of her mind with worry.” And then, it struck her. “Did she send you out here to find me?”
Steve shook his head. “No. This was all my idea.” He winced, then added, “She did ask me to call. But this is what you do. It seemed obvious to ask for your advice.”
Rina’s stomach soured again. She took a big sip of coffee and reminded herself that her excitement for seeing Steve had been misplaced. Steve was here for her help—and that was fine. But he wasn’t here because he wanted to be with her. Not the way she wanted him.
“In your experience,” Steve asked, “why do young women like Gail run away?”
Rina puffed out her cheeks. “There are a few reasons. They feel misunderstood at home. They’re in love with someone their parents don’t approve of. They’re into drugs and frightened of being caught. Then again, I’ve searched for what seems like hundreds of young women around Gail’s age. The story is always slightly different.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I don’t want to assume anything regarding Gail’s story,” Rina said. “I don’t want to do her that disservice. I’d need to know more about her case. About the people she hung out with. I’d need to talk to the twin. Abby’s her name?”
Steve nodded. “I told Claire you have contacts. People you normally reach out to.”
Rina’s heart thumped. What else had she revealed to Steve over the past nine months of their friendship? She’d opened her heart to him in so many different ways, yet she’d neglected to tell him the things that really mattered. Was that the reason their intimacy had always felt so difficult to grasp?
“I have a few guys, sure,” Rina said. “We might be able to see who she’s messaging right now. If she wants to be found, she’s probably texting all the time.”
“If it’s a cry for attention, you mean?”
“I guess so. If she really doesn’t want to be found, there won’t be anything.” Rina’s heartbeat quickened. She’d begun to fixate on the case, to shove her own problems aside and consider the emotional depths of this teenager she hardly knew.
“I know you’re dealing with your own family stuff,” Steve said quietly, putting his mug on the ground next to the swing. “I hope this isn’t too much.”
“She’s your niece. And she needs my help. It’s a done deal.”
Rina palmed the back of her neck and swept her gaze to the Pacific, which looked like a long, glinting string on the horizon. She itched to walk along it, to feel the salty breeze on her cheeks. “Let’s go,” she said suddenly, traipsing off the porch swing. She went inside for a moment to fetch her keys and phone, then locked the house and led Steve down the block toward the water. They didn’t speak; the only sound was the rush of cars as they swept past and their tennis shoes scuffing on the sidewalk. When they reached the beach, Rina removed her shoes and pressed her toes into the sand, thinking of it as a way of grounding herself and her emotions. Her heartbeat slowed.
“My sister disappeared, you know,” Rina said, speaking to her toes rather than to Steve.
“Oh, Rina. Oh, I didn’t know.” Steve’s voice was strained. He sat down on the sand next to her feet, and Rina collapsed beside him.
Before them, a toddler bubbled in and out of the sweeping water, his hand wrapped tightly around his mother’s.
“She was fifteen,” Rina said. “Normally, we walked home from school together, but I had something to do that day, so she walked home alone. I didn’t think anything of it. And when I got home, and she wasn’t there, I still didn’t think much of it. I was like, okay. Maybe she went to her boyfriend’s house. Maybe she went to the gas station to buy an ice cream sandwich. Whatever. But the hours drifted forward, and she never came home.”
Rina raised her chin to look at Steve, whose face was stricken. The sunlight had already worked its damage on his cheeks, tinging them red.
“My parents always blamed me for not walking her home that day,” Rina said. “And when I became a private investigator, and I still hadn’t found Penny? That made them hate me, I think.”
“How could your parents hate you?” Steve whispered.
