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CLAIRE: She already interviewed me. She’s upstairs with Abby.
CLAIRE: She seems to have her head on straight about this. But I can’t help but think Gail is too far away to find.
STEVE: She isn’t, Claire. We will find her.
Claire didn’t want Steve to leave her alone, even in texting. She racked her mind for something else to say.
CLAIRE: How was California, anyway?
CLAIRE: You look good. Healthy.
STEVE: Let’s just say Rina and I cleared some things up.
STEVE: I’ll explain in person.
STEVE: But I can’t believe she’s been so patient with me. She’s a saint.
CLAIRE: She knows how special you are. We all do. I hope we show it.
ChapterNineteen
Rina swallowed both Abby and Claire in hugs and stepped back into the staggering chill of the early evening. Steve's house was just a few blocks away, and she touched the house keys he’d given her, which hung loosely in her pocket, a reminder of all she’d gained. As she walked along the driveway, Charlotte pulled up with Rachel in the front seat. They waved frantically and popped out to hug Rina goodbye.
“We’re staying the night,” Charlotte explained, her head tilted toward the house.
“Do you really think Uncle Russel had something to do with this?” Rachel asked in a small voice.
Rina knew better than to promise or assume anything. “I’m going to do everything in my power to find Gail,” she said. “And I’m taking what Abby said very seriously.”
Rachel and Charlotte fled past her, toward the crackling fire and the soup Claire was making on the stovetop. This left Rina alone on the sidewalk, her hands shoved deep in her pockets as the winter wind cut her like shrapnel. She was thousands of miles from California, from the whimsical colors of Santa Monica Beach, from the peach sand, from the taco truck. Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling she was where she belonged.
After she’d left Penny’s place yesterday, Rina and Steve had driven all over the West Coast, listening to the radio and going over everything Penny had told Rina during their brief exchange. Ultimately, Steve had said something that stuck to her bones. “Your sister is just as selfish as your parents are. She wanted to protect herself from them. You got the full brunt of their personalities, the full weight of their attacks. And it’s up to you if you want to forgive Penny for leaving you like that.”
Rina still wasn’t sure. Upstairs with Abby, she’d seen herself instead, cross-legged on the bedspread, telling the cops everything she remembered from the final day she’d seen Penny before she’d disappeared. Abby’s eyes reflected her fear and shock, but they were also resigned in a way. As though she’d begun to recognize this new, Gail-free reality as her only one.
When Rina reached Steve’s place, she was pleased to find Isabella in the kitchen, boiling a pot of water for pasta and slicing tomatoes. Isabella put her knife to the side, dried her arms, and hurried across the kitchen to hug Rina hello.
“My dad told me he’s in love with you,” Isabella said softly as she stepped away, still gripping Rina’s arms. “And I said, ‘duh.’”
Rina blinked away tears. She hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted Isabella’s approval until she’d had it. She treasured it as though it were a precious, breakable thing.
Rina poured herself a glass of wine and headed up to the office she used when she spent time here. There, she logged into her various accounts and reached out to her associates. She needed as many people as possible to needle through the events of Russel’s life. It was as though Russel’s decisions and movements were pieces of trash in a garbage can—and it all needed to be removed and identified as they hunted for clues.
The many parallels between Penny’s and Gail’s disappearance were not lost on Rina. Gail was upset about her father; she’d fallen in love with an older guy. She’d abandoned her sister and best friend without another word.
If Gail had left of her own accord, Rina forgave her instantly. She was naive. She was young. She couldn’t possibly understand the weight of her actions.
Then again, Penny had been three years younger than Gail at the time of her disappearance. Why, then, was Rina so quick to forgive Gail and so willing to hold on to her anger toward Penny?
It was too personal, she guessed. She held the darkness next to her heart.
After Rina set the wheels in motion to hunt down Russel’s movements, Isabella called from downstairs. It was time for dinner. Rina returned downstairs to find Steve showered and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, showing Isabella photographs from his trip out West.
“Look at that shirt you’re wearing,” Isabella said, referring to the one Rina had bought him. The one she’d ruined with her tears. “You look like a guy who just got off a surfboard.”
Steve beamed and chuckled. “Did you hear that, Rina? I looked the part.”
“You can take the man out of the East Coast, but you can’t take the East Coast out of the man,” Rina teased, rising on her tiptoes to kiss him.
