The Herd(27)

“Last night was the first time for me,” Daniel said again. I shot Hana a look: Do we believe him?

“And you don’t know who she was seeing?” I said.

Daniel shook his head. “She wasn’t doing it that often. Three times since we signed this.”

It was so very Eleanor to have drawn up a tidy contract. “You’re going to have to think long and hard about exactly when she had these hookups, and what you know about who she was with,” I said. Also on-brand: covering her tracks with the neatness of a cat.

“You think someone she met is responsible for her disappearance?” Daniel’s head whipped around, his hair bobbing.

“Well, it doesn’t look great. That she had secret lovers.” Mikki leaned against the bookcase.

If this were a noir, we’d have a new deck of possible motives: Eleanor had run off with someone new. Or she’d met up with a bad seed, someone who’d kidnapped her or worse. Or we could look at the flip side, ignore Daniel’s insistence that none of this was his idea: Perhaps Daniel had fallen in love with someone else and decided to dispose of his wife. Or a new lover had fallen for Daniel and opted to eliminate the inconvenient spouse. Or nobody had fallen in love with anyone, but Daniel had set his sights on this new single life, convinced his wife to open up their marriage so he’d have her permission in her own goddamn handwriting…

“So you were with someone last night,” Hana prompted.

He nodded. “I worked late, then met her at a bar in her neighborhood. I thought it would be awkward to, you know, come home first, see Eleanor, and then take off again. And then—not talking the next morning, that was her idea, because neither of us wants to know details. She wanted it to be completely separate.” He whipped his hands out, away from each other. “It was just a woman I was talking to online. I’d never met up with her before. It was just sex.”

“The cops are gonna look into your alibi,” Hana said.

“I know.” He nodded. “Everyone in the world is about to know about my sex life. I don’t give a shit. I just want Eleanor back.”

The doorbell chimed, echoing up the stairs, and we all turned in the direction of the front door. Daniel loped out into the bedroom and the others followed.

My eyes fell on the drawer, still gaping open like a question mark. Moving quickly, I kneeled and plunged my hand inside. Financial documents: I didn’t have time to read them, but I whipped my phone out and snapped photos of the pages, one by one. A pad of Post-it notes was in the drawer, too, unmarked, and I peeled off the top quarter-inch of sheets and shoved them in a pocket before strolling back downstairs.

They were seated awkwardly around the living room, a pair of cops, a man and a woman, on the sofa, Daniel and Mikki in armchairs. The policeman appeared to be copying down details from Daniel’s driver’s license. Hana stood a few feet behind Mikki, her whole body curved toward her phone.

“The news about Titan got out,” Mikki murmured, nodding in Hana’s direction.

“What? I thought Hana pulled the press release back?” I whispered. I pulled out my phone; Joanna Chen’s article was at the top of The Gaze’s homepage, flame emojis indicating it was surging in traffic, and already twenty-seven comments clung to the bottom. It clicked: the tote bag full of press kits Hana had stashed behind the bar and then forgotten. Had a nosy reporter found it?

“And you are?” the policewoman said, craning her neck to see where I’d come from.

“Katie Bradley.” I pointed at Hana. “Her sister. And also one of Eleanor’s best friends.”

“I’m Detective Ratliff. This is Detective Herrera.”

“Are there more of you?” The male cop—Herrera, apparently—had wide arms, a thick trunk, and a New York accent to match: Are thair mora you?

“No, sorry. I—I got distracted on my way downstairs because people started texting me about this article that just went up. About the Herd.” I unlocked my phone, held it out. “It mentions Eleanor.”

Ratliff—pretty with full lips and wide-set eyes—plucked it out of my hand and scanned it.

“This is about the event Eleanor didn’t show up for. The news wasn’t supposed to get out tonight, though. It’s what our friend is dealing with—she’s their publicist.” Mikki jerked her head in Hana’s direction, then met my eyes. “They’ve never heard of the Herd.” We held each other’s gaze for a moment, keeping our faces neutral. Blink, blink.

Ratliff held out my phone and looked away theatrically. “You just got a new text.”

It was from Mom: “Just saw the big news abt the herd!!! Very interesting choice to join Titan.” A moment later, a second text: “Tell Hana to call me sometime. xo”

Hana walked back over and leaned against Mikki’s armchair, apologizing. She looked like she might puke. I mouthed You okay? And she gave a small, unconvincing nod.

“All right, do I have your attention?” Ratliff seemed more bored than annoyed. We all nodded rabidly.

“Right now we’re trying to assess the level of risk for the missing person. Ms….Walsh. That depends on a number of factors, and it helps us determine if we need to start investigating now or if we should wait a few days before taking further action.” She pulled a pen out of a pocket, clicked it. “Most people who are reported missing show up within forty-eight hours. So if she’s not immediately at risk, we’ll take that into account.”