Since She Went Away(91)

“Rick, is this relevant?”

“Now, hold up. You see, I live a little life up there. It’s nice but slow.” He held up his left hand. Jenna saw the gold wedding band. “I lost my wife four years ago, and since then I’ve been spending more time online, looking at missing persons cases.”

Jenna swallowed hard. “Wait a minute. Lost her? Did she disappear?”

“No. Cancer. I’m lonely, so I’m online a lot.”

“Oh.” Jenna felt relief. She didn’t need to hear another sad tale. Not that a lonely old widower wasn’t sad enough. “I’m sorry.”

“What I’m saying, Jenna, is I’ve never met a celebrity before. That’s why I wanted to shake your hand. You’re famous. You’re on TV and everything.”

He looked so sincere and pathetic it was sickening. Jenna held her hand out and they shook. Rick even placed his left hand over top of hers, a two-hand shake. The waitress came by and Jenna ordered coffee and a blueberry muffin. When the coffee came, Jenna poured more sugar in than she needed. But she loved coffee only when it was supersweet. She didn’t understand the people who drank it black.

“Okay, Rick, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on.”

“Right. Sure. So I’ve been following this case ever since I first heard about it. And I’ve read all about the recent events, the things having to do with your son and that missing girl. You know, I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to him more. He seemed like a nice kid.”

“He has to stay out of this stuff. It doesn’t concern him. Not directly.”

“I didn’t like what Reena said about you tonight. I watched it in my hotel room here. I like her show, but sometimes it seems as though . . .” He seemed to be grasping for the right way to say what he wanted to say. “She has this tendency to turn against people.” He spoke about the TV host as though she were a close personal friend. “She builds people up, has them on the show, and then at some point, she turns against them and tears them down. I guess it’s for the ratings.”

The waitress brought the muffin, and Jenna checked her watch. “About Celia?”

“Okay, I’ve been following the case. She had that affair. And they haven’t found her body. They found that other girl’s body.”

“Holly Crenshaw.”

“Right. And they found this man’s body in the house where he was killed. But people have seen Celia other places, so maybe she ran away.”

“She wouldn’t leave her daughter.”

“I’m sure you know this, Jenna. But Celia’s grandparents used to own a house on a lake up near where I live. Sawmill Lake, it’s called. Her grandparents grew up in Indiana.”

Jenna sat back in the booth. Celia’s grandparents did come from northern Indiana. They had died before Jenna and Celia met, but Jenna remembered Celia talking about family trips up there when she was little.

“How did you know she had family in Indiana?” Jenna asked. “Was it in the news?”

“Now, that’s the funny part. It was someone on the message boards. At first, I thought this person was you because they seemed to know so much about Celia. But then I figured out who you were. To be honest, I just kind of guessed about you. Took a shot in the dark.”

“How exactly did you figure that out?” Jenna asked. “It’s kind of creepy, if you don’t mind my being honest.”

Rick looked hurt again. “No one’s ever called me that.”

“You’ll get over it,” she said. “How did you guess it was me?”

“Like I said, it was a guess. But you were so passionate about the case. You talked on the boards like you really knew Celia.” He reached up and rubbed at his forehead. “I don’t know how else to say it, except I felt your pain through the computer. It was palpable. You cared about Celia. Not because she was missing, but because you really knew her. Does that make sense?”

It didn’t surprise Jenna that she’d revealed too much. She always did. “I guess it does,” she said. “Who told you about the grandparents and Indiana?”

“This other person is just someone else who is curious about the case. But she’s really encouraged me. I think she’s a she. She says the picture I have really shows Celia, living in northern Indiana.”

Despite her misgivings and her desire to see Rick as a harmless kook, she felt her hopes rising, building in her chest and making her hands shake. She felt anticipation she hadn’t felt in a long time, a swirl of rising emotion. “You have a picture? Of someone you believe is Celia?”

“I sure do. Right here on my iPad.”

Jenna pushed her muffin and coffee mug aside. “You have to show it to me, Rick. Now.”





CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX


Rick reached down below the table and brought out his iPad. He started swiping the screen while Jenna’s heart rate increased, a steady thumping she imagined the other diners had to be able to hear above the clatter of dishes and murmur of conversation.

“It’s not the best set of photos,” he said. “It’s tough to take pictures of someone when they don’t know you’re taking them and they don’t want anyone to see them.” He continued to tap and swipe. “My theory is Celia wanted to get away for a while, and it made sense for her to go someplace familiar, someplace she went as a child. It would be like returning to a simpler time. We can all relate to that. See, maybe she left the earrings behind to make people think she’d been taken. One in one place and one in another. Like she was dragged away or something. I read in an article that they were her favorite earrings.”