One of Those Faces (47)

“And you saw him after the murder?”

I shook my head. “No.” Oh god. Erin. “He came to a class at my studio before I went home and heard Holly,” I said, slowly. “Then, I saw him a couple of times after. He’s dating my friend.” I turned to Wilder. “Why is he here? What does he have to do with Holly?”

He cast a look around the room. “I can’t tell you the details,” he said. “I’ll give you a ride back home.”

I stood up beside him. “What? That’s it?”

He let out a long breath. “Just to be clear, you did not see him in the alley that night?”

“No.” I had hoped there was some impression, some face in that shadow that had buried itself deep inside me somewhere. But the shadow was still a shadow in my mind. “I really didn’t see who it was.”

“Okay, let’s go.” He gently tapped my shoulder, herding me toward the back door.

“He saw me,” I said once we were both sitting in the car.

Wilder turned his key in the ignition.

“You said he wouldn’t see me.” The panic set in. I had to talk to Erin. “He recognized me.”

Wilder’s eyes remained focused on the road ahead.

“You have to give me something,” I insisted. “Why did you bring him in?”

“Look, I appreciate that you tried, but I don’t owe you any information,” he grumbled.

“What if my friend’s in danger? I have to let her know.” What about Iann? Did he know his colleague had been questioned by the police? “What if he comes after me?”

Wilder parked at the curb past my building.

I could make out Bug standing outside the first floor, tinkering with the heating unit.

Wilder patted at his jacket pocket. “He’s a person of interest at this point,” he said, extracting a new stick of gum. After a moment, he continued. “He’s an ex of Holly’s, and we recently discovered they had a fight the week she was murdered.”

I clenched my jaw. “Will he be arrested?”

“I don’t know.” His voice was strangely calmer than usual.

Why was he at the studio the night Holly died?

“I’ll keep you updated,” Wilder said, unlocking the doors.

A tightness knotted in my chest as I walked up to my apartment. Once inside, I turned on the light and let my bag fall to the ground. I closed the door, ignoring the sound of Wilder’s engine starting behind me. The sound of his car revved and died as it continued down the street.

It’s not him. Part of me had expected to see a different face in the police station. I was relieved. My father wasn’t capable of it after all. Yes, he is. You know what he did.

But instead, it had been another face I’d recognized. I dialed Erin’s number, cursing when it went to voice mail. “Hey Erin, give me a call as soon as you get this.” This couldn’t wait until tomorrow night’s class.

I walked straight to the bathroom and swung open the cabinet door, feeling against the crumpled napkin until my fingers wrapped around two pills. I swallowed them without another thought, then sank onto the floor.

I pulled my jacket off, the envelope from Jenny’s apartment peeking out as it fell to the floor. I ripped it open as Woodstock appeared beside me.

It was a pay stub from Let’s Entertain. They had paid her $6,558.98 through direct deposit. She got paid that much for one month’s worth of work? I set the paper down and unlocked my phone. I typed her name into Google. Her social media popped up immediately. She had all the different kinds of accounts. I clicked on her LinkedIn page first.

Marketing director.

That explained the enormous paycheck. And the downtown one-bedroom apartment. She’d graduated from Northwestern the year before I’d started and had worked at various downtown companies since. She’d been at Let’s Entertain, a nightlife company, the longest, at three years.

I clicked back to the results and opened her Facebook page. She wore so much makeup in her pictures that I suddenly didn’t feel sure that she resembled me at all. I scrolled down her timeline through the years. Through the pictures of tequila shots. Through the pictures of her kissing guys on the beach, at the pool, and at the club.

I stopped on her high school graduation photo. It may as well have been me standing there but with perfectly straightened hair swapped for my own frizzy teenage tresses. Issi had always had straight hair.

I scrolled farther until I saw the pictures of her family. I was at once relieved and disappointed by the two boys on either side of Jenny and another girl, all with matching smiles shadowed by her beaming mom and dad.

Seeing Jenny and her perfect family filled me with another emotion, one so intense that my fist clenched involuntarily.

Why couldn’t that be us?





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO


His face is distorted through the water before I break the surface. He stands above me on the pier. His eyes are looking through me.

“Dad!” My mouth starts to fill with water once I open it, the waves breaking against my lips.

Without a word, he kneels slowly onto the pier and reaches toward me. I extend my hands, finally able to lift my head above the waves. His eyes finally focus on me, and he grips both sides of my head before submerging it.

The icy water rips through my lungs like knives, my nails meeting the flesh of his hands. A torrent of bubbles explodes in the water in front of me as I scream.