Since She Went Away(80)

Jenna’s heart was beating fast. She took deep breaths, trying to slow it down. Would she be jumping this way at the sound of a phone for the rest of her life?

“I guess that’s good,” Jenna said.

“I hear Reena is on your case to do the show again,” Naomi said.

“She is.” Jenna felt angry just thinking of Reena’s smug face. “I told her I’d think about it. She wants Jared to go on as well.”

“So, what are you thinking?” Naomi asked.

“I think I’d hate myself if I could have gone on that show and made a difference. If one person knew something about Celia or Natalie and my going on there could have tipped the scales. I know it’s crazy.”

“Not entirely. But you don’t sound certain.”

“I’m not, Naomi.” Jenna tried to keep her voice level. “I hate that bitch. I hate her overly made up, sanctimonious guts. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let her anywhere near my son.”

“That’s good.”

“You know who I’d feel like if I went on there?”

“Who?” Naomi asked.

“Charlie Brown.”

“Trying to kick the football every year?”

“Exactly. Tell me, Naomi, tell me I don’t have to go on. Tell me it won’t really make a difference.”

“Jenna, the word about Celia and Natalie is out on loads of news outlets and social media sites. You don’t have to carry the whole burden alone. You know that, don’t you? You’re not in this alone.”

The detective’s words brought a catch of emotion to Jenna’s throat. Simple. Direct. Calming.

She wasn’t alone.

“Then can I tell Reena to screw off?” she asked.

“I wish you would,” Naomi said.





CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX


Jenna didn’t want to watch the next night.

She tried to channel Ian, his detached calm, his refusal to get drawn into any of the messy emotional scenes surrounding Celia’s disappearance.

She tried reading another romance novel. She tried cooking. She stood over the stove with her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and made an omelet and bacon, the little splatters of grease hitting her wrist and hands and decorating the backsplash.

But she knew Reena was in town. In town and on TV.

And she wouldn’t be in town and on TV unless she had something important to say.

Jenna shook her head. She didn’t regret skipping the interview. Not at all. She wasn’t sure how she would have reacted if she’d been in the same room with Reena. She wasn’t a violent person, never had been. And it was rare for one woman to ask another to step outside and solve a problem with their fists.

But Jenna wanted to. She wanted to channel months of frustration and fear and sadness into one punch that connected with Reena’s overly powdered nose.

So Jenna was glad to be at home.

But she found herself in front of the TV when the ominous and overly dramatic theme music for Reena’s show started playing.

Jared came into the room and sat on the end of the couch. “You’re going to watch the freak show?”

“I’m ashamed of myself.”

“It’s kind of like porn, I guess,” he said.

Jenna looked up. She remembered Sally’s assertion that all men, including Jared, looked at porn. She started to ask but stopped herself.

“I’m glad we didn’t go on there,” Jared said.

“Are you?”

“Yeah. I don’t think it’s a good scene. I don’t think it helps. Like I said, it’s a freak show.”

“I think you’re right,” Jenna said. “No, I know you’re right. I just want Celia and Natalie to be found. I’d give anything for that.”

“I know you would,” Jared said. He slid down off the arm and onto the couch seat. “God, her makeup is horrible.”

Reena came on the screen. A live shot in front of the police station. The scenery around her looked so wholesome, so safe and homey, it was hard to believe such horrible crimes had happened in Hawks Mill. That people looked at each other with suspicion, that no one felt safe in their houses anymore.

Reena loved the contrast. It played right into her hands. She loved to sit on TV and scare middle America.

Reena jumped right in. She didn’t bother to bring her audience up to speed on either Celia’s or Natalie’s cases. She acted as if the unseen audience were an old friend, someone who was able to just pick up on the never-ending story of murder and betrayal and mayhem that Reena brought to their homes every night.

“I’m here in Hawks Mill, live in front of the police station in this beautiful town, because there is breaking news in the case of Celia Waters, the missing Diamond Mom. And, of course, we have the latest news on the case of Holly Crenshaw and yet another murder here in this picturesque little town. And this time the victim was a middle-aged man.”

Jenna’s hand moved toward the remote, an involuntary gesture. She knew she should turn it off. She knew she should look away.

But Jared was there, watching. And Jenna knew she couldn’t avert her eyes. Reena’s show was too much of a train wreck.

“. . . and you know I’ve had my doubts about Jenna Barton, the friend of Celia Walters who showed up late that night, that tragic night Celia disappeared. Snatched away by some animal.”