Melissa was listening once again to the fourth ring of yet another unanswered phone call to Charlie’s phone. Hi. You’ve reached…
She hung up, knowing already that the voicemail box was full. Why were the messages not being checked?
She and Mike had no luck finding the woman from the park, but Melissa had a theory about her identity. Only Charlie had the information she needed to know if she was on the right track.
Desperate, she sent another text, her fingers trembling as she tapped at the screen. Please call me back. I’m scared something has happened to you and Rachel now, too. What is going on?
Her gaze moved to the muted television on the console table at the edge of the living room. So far, the local news had covered a drug bust in Riverhead and had now cut to footage of a fire at an apartment complex in Islip. According to the text at the bottom of the screen, all residents had been evacuated and two were being treated for smoke inhalation. Had they forgotten about Riley already?
She was trying to call Charlie and Mac again when a knock at the front door startled her so badly that she let out a sudden scream, piercing the silence of the empty cottage. She took a deep breath and settled her worn nerves, assuring herself it had to be Mike returning from JFK airport with their mother, until she realized they weren’t due for another hour.
Charlie! It had to be him, after all of the unreturned phone calls.
She ran to the door, expecting to find him on the porch. Maybe he had lost his phone. Or the battery had died. He’d have an explanation. Of course he would. The alternatives were all unimaginable. By the time she reached for the doorknob, she was already berating herself for letting her imagination get the best of her. As she unbolted the lock, she even believed that Riley would be standing beside him, holding her daddy’s hand. The police had found her. That explained why no one was answering their phones. They’d both be smiling, eager to fill her in on all the details.
This nightmare would finally be over, and they could all drive back to the city together—the three of them, going home as a family.
Her heart fell as she flung the door open. It was Detectives Hall and Marino.
She squinted against the glare of the pink-white sky preparing for sunset over the bay view in the distance, hoping they didn’t perceive her expression as a glare. “Detectives, did you get my messages? I’ve been trying to reach you.” The coffee cup. It would prove she was drugged.
“May we come in?” Hall asked. “There’s a matter we’d like to discuss.”
Of course there was. From the early minutes of this investigation, all these detectives wanted to do was talk… even though she and Charlie had already told him everything they knew. “I’ve been trying to call you all day. Do you know where Charlie and his sister are? I’m worried about them.”
“When we saw them last, they were with his lawyer, Grant Macintosh,” Marino said.
“I know how that must look,” she offered, “but we felt like we needed help. We’re all so exhausted, and Grant’s an old friend from my days at the prosecutor’s office.” She wanted to explain it was all because of Charlie’s former in-laws, but she had no way of knowing how much Charlie and Mac had told them about the situation.
“We,” Marino said. “You said we needed help, but as we understand it, Grant Macintosh represents your husband, Ms. Eldredge, not you. And we’re here to talk to you, not Mr. Miller.”
Her whole life, Melissa prided herself on her skill with words, but now she just wanted to scream. In her mind, she heard herself yelling, Stop all this talking and find Riley!, but instead, she looked away from the detectives to steel her patience. The sight of Riley’s grin in the corner of the television screen suddenly became the only thing in the world that mattered. She leapt toward the remote control on the end table and unmuted the volume. How much of the coverage had she missed?
“… where the three-year-old was last seen. But tonight News 12 has learned that the missing girl’s father was remarried only last month, and, in an unexpected twist, his new bride—the missing girl’s stepmother—was also abducted as a toddler in what was then a headline-grabbing national news story.” Melissa felt a wave of panic wash over her as another photograph appeared on the screen. She recognized his face immediately. She’d seen the picture before. It was that man—that sick, disgusting man—walking out of a California courtroom forty-seven years earlier while her mother stood trial for the murder of her children, Peter and Lisa. Before Melissa was even born. Before the man in the photo resurfaced on the Cape, a little heavier, older, and balder, and living under a different name. Before he found their family. Before…
Words across the bottom of the screen blared, STEPMOTHER MELISSA ELDREDGE KIDNAPPED BY CARL HARMON 40 YEARS AGO. Her legs nearly gave out at the sight of her name next to the one she refused to ever speak aloud. Her stomach began to roil with a seasick feeling.
When she turned to look at Detective Marino again, he was facing the television, hands on hips. “That’s what we’re here to talk to you about. That’s what we cops call a bit of a coincidence.”