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Rory
On Tuesday evening we had dinner together—Jamie, Simon, and I. Jamie was making a special effort. She’d made gnocchi with slow-roasted lamb, which she knows I like. Simon was in a good mood, at least to begin with.
“My flight’s at ten in the morning,” he said. “Are you driving me to the airport, Mom? No biggie if not. I can book a car.”
Jamie looked at me. I put down my fork.
“I think you’re going to have to postpone that flight,” I said. Simon looked at me quizzically. “The Frasers want to search the house at Stowe. I mean, not the house, but the trails. They have some theory that maybe Nina went for a hike on Saturday morning, after you’d left, and that she got into some kind of trouble. They think maybe she’s still out there.”
Simon’s expression changed. There was a flicker of dismay. It came and went so fast that if I hadn’t been looking right at him I would have missed it entirely.
“No. No way. She’d had enough of hiking by Friday. She said to me that she couldn’t see herself going again until after snow season. Also, she had an injury. She’d twisted her ankle. So she couldn’t have gone hiking even if she’d suddenly wanted to.”
I studied his face. “Well, that’s all useful information, and we’ll pass that on.”
“You think they’ll cancel the search?”
“I doubt it. Maybe they’re clutching at straws, but I think they need to feel like they’re doing something right now.”
“And you’re going to let them do it? You’re going to let them in?”
“I don’t think I have much choice in the matter. Now that Leanne’s gone so public with it.”
Simon pushed his chair back from the table. “That’s bullshit.”
Jamie put down her knife and fork. “Simon...” she said, in a warning tone of voice. He ignored her completely.
“Dad, they don’t think that Nina went for a hike and got into an accident. They think that I hurt her. That I killed her or something, right?”
I didn’t answer him. I didn’t move.
“Yeah, exactly,” he said, as if I had agreed with him. “And you’re letting them search our land? That’s like letting them put up a big fucking sign that says ‘Simon Jordan, Girlfriend Killer.’ You’re letting them say that about me, okay?”
“Simon—” Jamie tried again, but he shot her a look so angry, so vicious, that she closed her mouth.
“You need to stop them. You need to pick up the phone to your lawyers, or whoever you need to talk to, and you need to just fucking stop them, get a restraining order or something, and you need to make sure—”
“Sit. Down,” I said, enunciating each word, cutting across him. He stopped talking, but he didn’t sit. I took a breath. “Simon, you’re being ridiculous. If you used your head for a second, you’d realize that refusing our permission would do exactly what you don’t want us to do—it would send out a signal that we’ve got something to hide. Is that what you want?”
Simon didn’t say anything. He stood there, looking trapped.
“You can also be assured that if we were stupid enough to refuse to allow the Frasers to search for Nina, the police would get a warrant the very next day.”
Still, Simon said nothing. The silence went on too long.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said, as gently as I could manage. “There’s nothing to worry about here. We’ll allow the search. Hell, we’ll do better than that. We’ll go along and help. We’ll be the most cooperative hosts the police have ever seen. And the signal we’ll send to the world is that you are completely innocent. That you are just as worried about Nina as her parents are. Okay?”
Simon nodded.
“Yes. Sorry. I... I guess I wasn’t thinking.”
“Well, it’s a difficult situation.” I glanced at Jamie. Usually she’d be the one to jump in about now, with a comment or a joke that would take the sting out of the conversation, but she said nothing. “Sit down, Simon. Finish your food.”
Simon looked at his plate and curled his lip. “I’m sorry. I’m not hungry.”
“They’ll be at Stowe by six A.M. tomorrow morning.” I said. He was irritating me now. His refusal of the food was childish. “And we’ll be there to greet them, and to help with the search. All three of us. Understood?”
He looked at me like he was thinking of challenging me, and then he subsided.
