I passed my phone with the draft of the Instagram post to Ashley. “Okay. How’s this?”
We were back in the bridal suite huddled around a round glass table. I’d been editing the caption on the IG post for the last ten minutes. Philip had stayed downstairs with Helene to handle the guests in the aftermath of the realization that Milo was definitely gone. Where? No one knew. But gone he was.
Ashley studied the screen.
“Well? What do you think?” I leaned back in the peach-colored brocade side chair and crossed my legs, sniffling.
She looked up solemnly and handed my phone back. “Looks good to go.”
“You don’t think I’m overreacting? Should I wait a couple of hours?”
She rested her hand on my shoulder. “Definitely not. In missing person cases, the first couple of hours are critical. It’s not like he had anywhere else to be. It was his own wedding, for God’s sakes.”
I took a deep breath and hit the “Share” button. I checked to make sure it showed up on my account. It had. And it had also posted to Facebook. It was real now.
“Okay, done. I’ll post the link to Twitter later.” I was hoping that the wider audience wouldn’t be necessary.
“No. Do Twitter now too.”
“Okay.”
Ashley squeezed my shoulders. “Good. Now, let’s go look for him. Where do you want to start?”
I thought for a minute. “I don’t know. I guess retrace our steps from the last time we saw him? Where we took the wedding photos.”
Ashley, my biggest cheerleader throughout our shared history in grade school, high school, and college, where we were roommates, jumped up and high-fived me. “All right! We have a plan. Let’s go back to where Simon took the wedding photos after the ceremony.”
Stopping only to grab our purses, we hightailed it to the hotel garden area. We took the Secret Maze shortcut, a labyrinth of pathways bordered by ten-foot hedges. I’d designed it for the Hotel Santa Sofia’s renovation, and it led from our wing to the Hidden Garden, an expanse of lawn surrounded by impatiens and begonia flower beds and azalea, camellia, gardenia, and night-blooming jasmine plants. We’d opted not to waste time changing out of our wedding outfits but now found ourselves regretting that decision, since we were shivering in our short flimsy dresses as the sun started to go down and the fog crept in from the ocean. Plodding through the twists and turns of the gravel and dirt path in heels hadn’t turned out to be a fun choice, either.
Ashley held my arm lightly as I led the way. “You sure you know where you’re going?”
“Are you kidding? I designed this baby. I could figure out the fastest route in my sleep.”
“What about in the dark?”
“It’s not dark yet. It’s just the shade from the tall hedges. Calm down.” But even as I spoke, the dimming light, like my bravado, began to fade, making it increasingly hard to see where I was going.
Ashley spoke quickly and verged on hysterical. “Okay. FYI, it’s official—I think I’m claustrophobic. It’s like a jungle in here. Who knows what type of wildlife is roaming around hungry—”
“Oh, stop!”
I didn’t need any of her negative thoughts. I had enough of my own. But she had a point. It was kind of creepy in the maze and, though hardly a jungle, Santa Sofia was home to a diverse wildlife population, many nocturnal, including coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks, and even mountain lions, but I didn’t want to stoke Ashley’s fear. The dense hedges were three feet wide and shut out the light and connection with the other pathways, making us effectively isolated from other humans, but not from any critter worth its salt, especially when recent wildfires had caused them to come into more populated areas in search of water, shelter, and food. Although we could hear voices when someone was on the other side, we couldn’t see anything. For all I knew, an unseen predator might be silently stalking us on the other side of the thick hedges, waiting for the right moment to pounce through the dense foliage to seize their next meal, in other words, Ashley and me.
As it turned out, around the next bend we did come face-to-face with a predator, but he was of the human, creepy stalker variety. Standing before us reeking of garlic was Santa Sofia Police Department (SSPD) sergeant Ernesto Gomez, my old middle school classmate who’d been obsessed with me in seventh grade. According to several mutual acquaintances, he’d never really gotten over my rejection, nor any female rejection, for that matter, because he had zero empathy. It never occurred to him that the reason we all rejected him was that being stalked twenty-four seven by a mouth breather with the social skills of a turtle was intimidating to a thirteen-year-old girl. Ernie never perceived himself as the problem, as demonstrated by his badmouthing of any girl who’d rejected him. Nevertheless, career-wise his bravado had served him well and was put to good use intimidating criminals and impressing police department higher-ups since he was rising through the ranks quickly. Any time I ran into him he tried to hit on me, and when I would once again rebuff him, he’d resume a surly attitude. I stopped short and Ashley, on my heels, bumped into me.
Ernie leered at us expectantly. “Well, well, well. Look who we have here, the jilted bride.”
He might just as well have said “Gotcha.” I forced a weak smile. “Hi, Ernie.”
“And her jilted bridesmaid.” Ernie raised his bushy eyebrows up and down at Ashley.
I swung my arm back to keep Ashley from attacking him on the spot. “I only wish the explanation for Milo’s disappearance was that simple. I’m worried something bad has happened to him.”
Ernie had always reminded me of a cold fish, literally and figuratively. He had a cold-blooded, reptilian vibe going on. He had no chin to speak of, a feature his constantly gaping mouth only accentuated.
He gave me a lurid smile as his gaze roamed my body. “Yeah, I saw your Instagram post. That’s why I’m here checking things out.”
Ashley broke through my block. “The only thing I see you checking out is Tory.” Under her breath she added, “Some things never change.”
I’d always suspected Ernie had gone into law enforcement for the wrong reason, more for the power than for the nobler calling to protect and serve. Already our brief interaction had confirmed my worst fears. I believed in giving people the benefit of the doubt but, dude, my eyes were up here.
Ernie’s smile faded. “Why do you think something bad has happened to your husband? Did he have any enemies?”
“None that I know of.”
“Who would want to hurt your husband on his wedding day of all days?”
I shook my head. “That’s just it. I don’t know. He never mentioned any jealous ex-girlfriends.”
He moved closer to me. “You know, I would never leave you on your wedding day.”
Ashley stepped up. “Really? Are you trying to hit on her when her husband has just disappeared?”
Ernie furrowed his brow.
“Ernie’s not hitting on me, are you, Ernie?” I tried to salvage his pride by denying the obvious only because I needed his cooperation.
He shook his head and glared at Ashley. “But you suspect foul play?”
Heartened by the thought he might actually be of help, I forced an ingratiating smile. “I do.”
“Why exactly?”
“Because we had plans for our future together. We had reservations to fly to Italy to celebrate our marriage with his family. We’d lined up a realtor to sell his town house. We were looking ahead and we were in it for the long term together.”
Ernie scratched his head. “Hmm. Would anyone profit from his death?” He scrutinized me with a mean squint. “What about a will? I’m assuming you’re the main beneficiary.”
Ashley moved in between Ernie and me. “What about it?”
Ernie threw her a sly smile. “I was wondering if he had one, and if he did, who benefited.” He gave me the side-eye.
Ashley had helped both Milo and me with legal matters recently and, in fact, we’d both had wills drawn up and had designated each other as beneficiary.
Ashley stood up straighter. “Don’t say another word, Tory. As her lawyer, I must insist you set up a formal interview if you want to ask my client any questions regarding her husband’s disappearance. Come on, Tory. We have a real investigation to conduct.”
Ernie sputtered for a few seconds. “I’ll call you to set up an appointment. Make sure you don’t leave town. I could always extradite you, you know.”
Ashley tugged on my arm as she pushed by Ernie. Once we’d moved out of earshot, she stopped. “Okay, you lead the way. I have no idea where I’m going.”
I took the lead. “I can’t get over Ernie. Where does he think I’m going to go? Italy?”
“Well, you did mention you were planning on going there.”
“Oh, yeah. You’re right. Shoot! I need to cancel the tickets.”
Great. As if I didn’t already have enough to worry about, the last thing I needed was to have to deal with Ernie and his insinuations. Ernie’s words echoed in my head. Even Ernie wouldn’t have left me on my wedding day. What did that say about Milo? Had Milo had second thoughts? Was I an idiot for searching for someone who might have purposely left me? Or did he have an enemy he’d never told me about? If he did, what had Milo done for someone to hate him enough to possibly harm him? I shivered at the thought a dangerous person might be at large. For the next few minutes, Ashley and I marched onward through the maze in silence as I struggled to get my mental turmoil under control.
Ashley clung to my arm. “Are you positive you know how to get out of here? Wild animals pale by comparison to being lost in this maze with Ernie.”
I chuckled. “I think Ernie’s the one who should worry. You were fierce back there.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t worry about getting lost. We’re good. I promise. Just keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. Maybe Milo dropped something. I don’t know what we’re looking for really. Just be observant.”
My gaze roamed the ground, straining to see something, anything, that would give me hope. I really wasn’t hoping we’d find Milo on the ground. The whole host of morbid scenarios that conjured up made my knees wobbly just thinking about them. I started to tremble, nevertheless, and tried to convince myself it was the cooler temperatures of the late afternoon rather than my visceral reaction to the shock of Milo’s disappearance. Probably both, but despite freezing and feeling like I’d been shot in the heart with a stun gun, my brain geared into overdrive.
Where the devil is Milo? And why did he lie about Iris? It was bad enough he was gone, but he knew how attached I was to her. Why would he give me the scare of my life and make me think they were both missing? That was just plain cruel, and so unlike him. Whatever the reason, I had a sinking feeling I couldn’t deny. Not only figuratively, but literally. A stretch of the maze had turned into a quagmire. With each step, the heels of my Cinderella slippers sunk into the squishy dirt underneath the gravel pathway. I continued the rest of our journey on tiptoe as I silently swore at the hotel groundskeepers for over-irrigating during a drought.
The Secret Maze had three outlets: one that led to the wing of the hotel where the bridal suite was located, one that led to a small parking lot, and the one we now approached that led to the Hidden Garden, where we’d had our ceremony. The nomenclature of Secret Maze and Hidden Garden was a bit misleading, less a literal reference and more a branding attempt to conjure up the wonder of childhood adventures, since both were in plain sight for anyone who visited the hotel grounds.
Ashley stopped abruptly. “Wait a minute. Did Milo ever go into the Secret Maze? What’s the point of trudging through here if he never went here?”
My thoughts flashed to the moment days before when I first introduced him to the maze. He’d marveled over every detail I pointed out. I’d shown him all the little cubbyholes carved into the dense hedges with platforms and feeders for birds and squirrels, inspired by Iris’s crazy squirrel obsession. We hadn’t encountered any squirrels, but Milo had spotted a tiny hummingbird nest the size of a walnut shell hidden in one of the recesses.
“Yeah, we took the maze shortcut to our suite this morning from the parking lot.”
Ashley lowered her head and squinted at me. “Are you okay?”
“What?” I gave her a wistful smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. He thought it was cool.”
“Good. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t out here freezing my butt off for nothing.”
I laughed as I picked up my pace.
“Hey! Can you slow down? I’m having a hard time keeping up with you in this tight dress. Last thing I need is to lose you.”
“We can’t linger too long. We won’t be able to see as well once the sun goes down.”
When I stopped and turned around, she was tugging at her dress.
“Can’t you just hike it up while we’re in the maze? It’s not like anyone is going to see you.” I suppressed a chuckle as I resumed leading the way.
“Ouch!” Ashley swore under her breath.
“Now what?”
“I just kicked something.”
I spun around and looked at her feet with her pearly pink toenails peeking out of her sandals. I didn’t see anything at first. I scanned my phone’s flashlight around the area and gasped. “Oh. My. God. It’s a phone.” I bent down to pick up the muddy phone and became lightheaded as I stood up. The screen looked like someone had smashed it with a hammer.
Ashley caught her breath. “I swear my toe didn’t do that.”
“It’s not that. It’s an iPhone with a blue case. It’s Milo’s phone.”
Ashley’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“How many people do you know who have a blue iPhone cover like this?”
Ashley gulped hard, registering her agreement. “I wonder how it got here?”
“I don’t know. But dropping a phone would never cause this kind of damage. Look at it—it’s destroyed. It doesn’t make sense unless he was trying to hide something.”
Ashley shook her head. “Hold up. You’re jumping to conclusions. Ruining your own phone like that doesn’t make sense. It could have gotten smashed in a fight. I bet someone else did it. Looks like they were real mad too.”
Our gazes locked.
I took a deep breath. “Okay, so let’s say Milo cut through the maze to go back to the hotel after Simon took our group shots and ran into someone who was enraged for some reason and they smashed his phone to smithereens, then what?”
We both exchanged a frightened look as we realized at the same moment where this was heading. And it wasn’t good.
My voice quavered. “Why would someone smash his phone so violently?”
Ashley shuddered. “Maybe they wanted to send a message.”
“Like what?”
She nervously fidgeted with her dress and spoke hesitantly. “Um, I don’t know. Maybe to warn us off trying to find Milo or—”
I grasped her arm and leaned in closer, trying to get her to speed it up. “Or what? Stop skirting the issue.”
Her eyes flickered and the corners of her mouth rose and fell as we both realized my unintended pun.
“Okay.” She inhaled slowly and then exhaled. “Or we’ll end up like his phone.”
I hated to admit it. But I had to agree.