I always get a jolt when I see these three together because they’re so different. Paul looks like he still needs his mom to cut his steak, and Melissa, that’s his girlfriend, still giggles like the nineteen-year-old she is. While my wife, the uncontested leader of their little group, could be running the UN.
He held his hands up and tried to keep eye contact, something I’m trying to teach him. “It wasn’t my idea.”
“I know, that’s why I’m not breaking your legs. New rule, if she comes to you with this shit, you come to me. If you don’t, and I find out.” I slashed my finger across my throat, and he gulped.
The phone rang, and I answered it while the three of them started talking about some other dumb shit they were up to. “Hello!”
“I found her.”
“Really? Where?” His words made no sense. Why would Lauren put herself there? Then my eyes went to Jenny as the rest of his story unfolded.
Everything started to click when he mentioned the name of the judge that had set Lauren’s bail; it was the same man who’d ruled in the adoption case; that’s not a name you forget. She didn’t try to hide her tracks; she’d given her name at the precinct when she went to see Lauren, something she never told me about.
There was no direct link between that and Lauren’s disappearance a few days later unless you knew what to look for. “I wasn’t able to get close to her; I had to sneak on the island in one of the supply planes; it cost a pretty penny. But from your description I think it’s her, I snapped a few pictures I’m sending them your way right now.”
“There’s no way off that island, that much I can tell you, so if you were worried about her coming back, I think you can put that to rest.” I got up and walked over to the printer as the full-color image came through.
“Is there anything else?”
“No, that’s about it, like I said, I couldn’t get close, security there is pretty tight. One thing I did learn though, she’s there for eighteen to twenty years, longer than a lot of the people there.”
“Okay, thank you, that’s the end of the job then.” I studied the picture for a few seconds. The woman in the picture barely resembled Lauren. For one, she had dark roots. I never knew she was anything but blonde. Without the expensive makeup, she looked a few years older than her age, but it was the way she fit in with the other people surrounding her. These people were obviously suffering from some kind of mental imbalance that shook me more than anything.
She looked more pissed than medicated as she glared down at something. What’s that she’s clutching in her hand? It looked like a picture, but I wasn’t sure, and it wasn’t that important. I ran the photograph through the shredder and turned back to my wife and her friends.
I walked over and wrapped my arms around my wife, giving thanks for the one-thousandth time that she’d waited for me. “I’ll make that climb with you.” I don’t trust the smile she gave me.
The End