Don't Look for Me(24)

“Let me ask you something else,” he said.

“Okay.”

“Are you sure you were coming back from New York City?”

There was a long pause.

“Yes. Of course I’m sure.”

“I see you have an E-ZPass. Did you leave on the east side or the west side? The east side would take you over the Triborough Bridge. There’s a toll scanner on that bridge.”

Edith Moore’s eyes lit up. “No—I definitely didn’t go that way. I went on the west side.”

Something wasn’t right about her answer. Nic could hear it in her voice and see it in the creases of Officer Reyes’s eyes. A little smile.

“The thing is,” Reyes said, going in for the kill, “your E-ZPass has no record of you entering or leaving New York City in the past sixty days. You can’t get into the city on the west side without passing under a scanner.”

Shit.

If she was lying about this, what else was she lying about?

“Well, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I went on the east side. Maybe that other bridge without a toll. On Willis Avenue.”

Reyes let this bone go. But he moved on quickly to other parts of her story. And her life. She was a nurse practitioner in Schenectady. Lived with her boyfriend. No kids. She had three cats. No, she was not in any financial trouble, and why are you asking me that? The reward money, of course. That wasn’t why I came forward.

Where did she go when she left the scene, left Molly Clarke to disappear on Hastings Pass? Did anyone see her when she got home? Did she stop along the way? What time did she go to work the next morning? And, the last question—are you sure you weren’t with someone in Hastings and not New York City?

What was he saying? That she was conspiring with someone in the town to fabricate a story about her mother?

“No!” she said defensively. “Why would you ask me that?”

Reyes backed off then.

“Just dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s.”

They drove back to the Gas n’ Go, got out of the car and stood in an awkward silence. But Reyes wasn’t through.

“Do you have time to come to the station—maybe look at models of trucks? It would help to narrow things down. You’d be surprised how different they can be,” he said.

Edith was flustered. “I don’t really have time for all that—I have to make my shift at the hospital.”

“Then we can send you photos. Do we have your email address?”

She handed Reyes a business card. “You can use the one on here,” she said.

Reyes paused, let the discomfort ease in. “I think that’s everything.”

Nic touched her arm softly. “Thank you for coming all this way.”

“Well, you know how to reach me—if you have any questions. Or if this helps you find your mother. I didn’t come forward because of the money, but I’m sure you’ll let me know if this information turns out to be useful.”

Of course, Nic thought. There was nothing pure in this world.

Reyes answered. “We’ll let you know.”

They started to turn away from one another, but then Nic remembered the question her father had asked her.

“Hey—one last thing.”

Edith smiled, but she seemed nervous as she glanced between Nic and Reyes.

“How did you get my number?”

She shrugged, again looking between the two of them. It was an easy question. The answer should have rolled off her tongue.

It was Reyes who answered. “Was it Mrs. Urbansky?”

“Is that the woman at the police department?”

“Yes,” Nic said.

“Right. That’s it. Sorry. That’s not an easy name to remember.”

They said their goodbyes. Edith Moore left. Nic and Reyes got back in his car.

“What was that about?” Nic asked. “The way you grilled her.”

Reyes drove back onto Hastings Pass, heading into town.

“She’s lying. She never went to New York. She was never driving home.”

“Maybe she was at the casino. Maybe she didn’t want her boyfriend to know. She said she lives with him, right?” Nic threw out scenarios but they sounded unlikely, even to her.

Reyes hit the gas harder.

“Look—I don’t want to dick you around like everyone else. This woman is lying. Her E-ZPass records show her on the New York State Thruway the day before the storm, getting off at the exit that leads to Route 7. It’s not the fastest way to the casino. Only thing that makes sense is that she was headed right here, to Hastings, coming from the north, not the south. She must have spent the night.”

“Then someone in this town knows her.”

Reyes continued. “If she’s the reason you came back here and started looking again, and if you do find your mother, she’ll get the money even if there was no truck. It won’t matter—she brought you back.”

Nic had considered this. “But then why make up the story about the truck? It would only lead me in a wrong direction, further away from finding my mother. Further away from her getting the money. Why not just say she saw my mother—and I know she did because of what she said—about my mother’s purse with the letters.”

Reyes considered this. “So maybe there is a truck with a broken taillight.”