45

“Thanks for calling me back, Ms. DeBoer. I’m sorry if this call seems rather out of the blue. I’m the acting coroner in Freeport, Michigan …”

“Oh my God!” Panic immediately shot through the phone line. “Did something happen to my mom?”

“No, I’m not calling with bad news.”

“Okay. Thank God.”

Emily heard a sharp exhale on the other end and made a mental note to work on her conversation leads. “I just need to ask you a few questions regarding a case I’m working on.”

“Oh. Will this take long? I have a client in five minutes.”

“I’ll be quick. I’ve been working on the case of Sandi Parkman. Did you know Sandi and her family?”

“Yes.”

“Were you aware that Sandi’s remains were found recently?”

“My mom sent me a news link about it.”

“I was wondering if I could talk with you about your relationship to Sandi and the family.”

“Am I … am I being questioned or something?” More tension in Mina’s voice.

“What? No. Nothing like that. I’m just trying to fill in some of the blanks. Mrs. Parkman mentioned that you knew the family.”

“Well, I knew Tiffani mostly,” Mina said, exhaling.

Now Emily was anxious. There was so much at stake here, and it would be only hours—or less—before Nick was arrested. She was desperate to discover if Mina might offer something, anything, that might direct suspicion away from Nick and toward a real suspect. She tried to keep the calm in her voice.

“There’s nothing to worry about. It would be really helpful to the investigation.”

There was a sustained pause on the other end. “I can call you back?” said Mina in a flat voice.

“Ah. Sure. Of course. When is a good—”

But Mina had already hung up.

*   *   *

Emily called Nick’s cell to see if he was home or at his office or maybe out on a call. No answer. She phoned the department next, and the assistant on duty said he had taken a sick day. Nick was never sick.

She made the trek to Nick’s house over snow-covered roads. How had everything tumbled so quickly into such a great tribulation? Her world was spinning. And she felt like she was losing grip as everything unraveled around her. Her eyes went hot with tears. Pull it together. Now is not the time to fall apart.

Her car didn’t handle well on the slippery country roads, and it took twice as much time to get to Nick’s as it normally did. Nick would have checked his emails for the morning and seen the report. That’s probably why he had called in sick. She felt the ticking of the clock with each bump on the snow-packed surface. Her heart was pounding through her fingertips as she gripped the steering wheel. She wanted to deliver the news in person and explain what she had done.

Nick’s house was the fifth one on the right after she turned onto the road that circled the lake. Through the bare tree lines, she could see the flashing red strobes from a police cruiser parked in his driveway. She was too late.

Emily pushed on the accelerator, and her car gently slid to the right shoulder. She corrected in time to avoid sliding off the road. She slowed the last twenty feet and pulled into his driveway.

Through the giant picture window at the front of the house, she could see Nick and two of his officers standing in the living room talking. There was nothing animated about their gestures. It seemed a friendly visit between colleagues. But Emily knew differently. They were there to arrest him.

Emily coasted to a stop and threw the car in park. She jumped out and shuffled through the snow to the front door.

As she went for the knob, the door opened. She could now see that his hands were cuffed behind his back.

Emily’s mouth gaped. “Nick!”

Each officer had an arm as they turned him toward the door to guide him out of the house. Emily thought they looked horribly uncomfortable and apologetic. It had to be awful to be arresting your own boss. Nick’s face was expressionless.

“Nick. It was me. I was in your bathroom—”

“Not a word,” he commanded.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Stop talking.”

“Is there someone I can call?”

“An attorney,” he said, without turning back to look at her.

The officers helped him down the slippery front steps. All she could do was watch as they escorted Nick to their squad car and drove away.

Emily stood there, looking into his empty house. From her vantage point she could see the kitchen counter, where she noticed Nick’s phone. She certainly didn’t want the cops coming back to confiscate it. She slipped off her wet boots and went inside. She grabbed the phone and started to guess the passcode. Nick’s birthdate. His street number. His badge number. Denied. Denied. Denied. She had one more try before it would lock her out. On a whim, she punched in her own birthdate. The phone lit up. Emily elbowed her shock to the side and found Nick’s dads’s number in his contact list and called him. She explained what had happened so his parents wouldn’t hear it from the cops, a friend, or worse, a news source. Then she called Delia.

Emily did nothing to hide her panicked tone as Delia bombarded her with questions. No, she couldn’t say over the phone what had happened. No, Nick was not okay. Yes, Nick was alive. No, Nick was not injured. Could she just please come to Nick’s house.

Emily shuddered after she ended the call. For the first time, the question of Nick’s innocence suddenly became very real for her.

Her thoughts somersaulted around her brain. She pressed her palms against the sides of her head and wandered over to the giant slider doors that led onto the back deck from the kitchen.

She stood there, staring out toward the frozen lake. The whitewashed landscape had a clearing effect on her mind. And a single thought was set in place. She had betrayed him.