Open House(32)

“As well as you used to?” the detective repeated.

“She and my sister were best friends during college,” Haley said. “My sister is Emma McCullough, the student who disappeared from Yarrow.”

Haley had only said it like that a few times in her life, and each time it made her want to retch. It was too factual, and as much as Haley loved facts, she preferred to talk about Emma in a more roundabout way, mostly in stories from growing up.

The police detective nodded, and Haley couldn’t tell if she’d known about Emma before this moment or not. Maybe it didn’t matter. “So you knew her well, years ago, as your sister’s friend,” she said, and Haley nodded. “And what is your relationship like with her now?”

Haley shifted in her seat, the metal chair creaking beneath her. “Josie’s my real estate agent. My fiancé and I are looking for a house to buy, and she’s been helping us for about a month.” Haley swallowed. It felt so hot inside the room, and she needed water. “Well, I guess, longer than that, because she found us our current house to rent. But we’ve been actively looking at houses together during the past month.”

The detective raised her eyebrows. “Funny,” she said. “Josie and Noah sold my family and me our house, five or so years ago, when they’d just opened up their real estate business.” She stopped talking, but held Haley’s stare like she was waiting for her to respond to this tidbit.

“What a coincidence,” Haley finally said, unsure of what else to say.

“There was a problem with the house, actually,” the woman said, her eyes boring into Haley’s, and again, she left an uncomfortable silence between them, as if she were waiting for Haley to respond.

“Oh?” Haley said.

“Oh,” the detective repeated. “There was a terrible, and I truly mean god-awful, sewage smell that rose from the crawl space every time we did the laundry. My husband and I never understood how that didn’t come up on inspection. Seems like a pretty big thing to miss, don’t you think?” The detective shrugged. “Well, you know how it is. These things happen, I suppose.”

Haley crossed and uncrossed her legs. She really needed water.

“Cost us tens of thousands of dollars to replace the septic tank, though,” the detective added. Haley exhaled, and the woman finally dropped her eyes to her paperwork. “Crazy thing is, Noah’s totally unreachable now,” she said, perusing what looked like some kind of incident report. “And so is the only other employee at Carmichael Realty, a Mr. Chris Paxton.”

“That’s Josie’s brother,” Haley said. And then she immediately felt idiotic for telling the detective something she must have already known.

“Both of their phones are going straight to voice mail,” the detective said. “Doesn’t that seem strange? Real estate agents are almost always by their phones, almost like police detectives.” She gave a chuckle that sent chills over Haley’s skin. “But it appears Noah Carmichael and Chris Paxton have gone completely off the grid.”





TWENTY-FIVE

Emma

Ten years ago

I sit in the back of Noah’s Jeep with my legs crossed. The headlights illuminate the narrow patch of road ahead of us, and I watch as a small animal scurries out in front of the Jeep. Noah doesn’t slow down. I gasp when he nearly hits the thing, and he laughs, and then so does Josie.

“You guys suck,” I say playfully, but really my insides are turning. There’s pressure on my bladder every time the road gets uneven, but it feels different from having to pee. I can’t imagine the baby is big enough to make me feel like this, but maybe my body parts are moving around in weird ways?

I open my phone to see a text from my sister. I’m coming tonight, just text me where you are, ok?

Good. I need Haley tonight. I’ll text her back when I don’t feel so carsick. The Jeep gets so bumpy in the back seat, and Josie always says she has motion sickness and needs the front. “Can you guys roll the windows down?” I say, feeling way too queasy for a ride like this.

“It’s freezing!” Josie says, laughing, but it’s really just her way of saying no to me.

“I’m going to be sick, Josie,” I say through gritted teeth, but Josie still doesn’t roll down the window. Noah hits a pothole, and dirty water splatters the windshield. Finally he rolls down his window.

Josie turns and gives me a small, sad smile over her shoulder. Then she asks Noah, “Have you told Emma your big news?”

“I was going to tonight,” Noah says, rounding a sharp corner.

I try to focus straight ahead through the windshield so I feel less sick, and my eyes settle on Noah’s headlights scattering the gravel and flickering into the thick foliage. I try not to think about the creatures lying in wait, the coyotes and owls we all hear at night, and especially the black bear a handful of students have reportedly seen while running.

I want to ask Noah to turn back, but I don’t. Instead, I ask, “What big news?” The engine growls as we pick up speed, and I can see Noah’s wolfish grin in the rearview mirror.

“Australia,” he says, looking utterly satisfied with himself. “I got into the semester abroad program for the fall.”

No. A few weeks ago he told me he was applying, but I didn’t pay much attention then because there wasn’t a reason to, other than the fact that I would miss him while he was gone.