The Last Thing She Ever Did(69)

He caught her look. “Investors came today.”

“You look great,” she said, nudging a glass of wine in his direction.

“You all right?” he asked, appearing to notice the tremor in her hands.

“Yes. No. I’m not sure.”

“Is this multiple choice?”

She looked at her glass. “No. Owen, I did something stupid today, but before I tell you, I want you to know that I’m sorry and it worked out and I’ll never do it again.”

“Liz,” he said calmly, “what did you do?”

“I went to where you—where we—put Charlie.” The correction was necessary. She was responsible for Owen’s involvement in this mess. “I went back there. I had to find out why no one had found him. I couldn’t take it another minute. You don’t know what it’s like over there at Carole and David’s. She’s hanging on by a thread and I don’t think she can take another minute of not knowing what happened to her little boy.”

“You killed him,” he said flatly, “and now you want to be the one to find the body?”

“It was an accident, Owen. Don’t you ever say that I killed him! I didn’t mean to do any of it. You know that. You know it.”

“But it’s true,” he said. “That’s what you did.”

Liz was tired of tears. She was angry with her husband for acting as though he’d been a paragon of virtue in the debacle their life had become. She pushed back at him for the first time.

“Don’t judge me.”

“Don’t be a moron. What if someone saw you?”

“Someone did. In fact, I talked to the rancher.”

“Holy shit,” he said. “You’re off the rails now.”

“Sometimes I don’t know why I married you.”

“I have that same thought,” he said. “Especially since you killed the neighbors’ kid. Great move, going back to the body. Did you act all shocked in front of the rancher? Did you cry when the police came?”

“None of that happened, Owen.”

“Why not?”

“Because the body was gone.”

His eyes locked on hers. “Gone where?”

She held his gaze. “Gone. I don’t know where.”

Owen took a second to think.

“Maybe coyotes or a pack of dogs got the body,” he said finally.

She drained her glass and eyed the now-empty bottle. “That’s disgusting. Don’t even say that. Charlie was our little friend.”

“A little friend that you killed with your car, Liz. Don’t get sanctimonious with me. Was there any blood or bones?”

She set down her empty glass and went to find another bottle in the kitchen. “You think I would have withheld that from you?”

Owen followed her. He had a knack for yelling at her in a whisper, and he did that now.

“Don’t ask me that, Liz. I don’t even know you anymore. I have no clue what you are or who you are. The Liz I knew wouldn’t have done half the things you’ve done since Charlie died.”





CHAPTER FORTY

MISSING: SEVENTEEN DAYS

Esther Nguyen put down her phone. The call from the Oregon State Police was the kind that no one looking for a missing child wants to receive.

“Human remains were found south of town,” the officer had said.

“We have a missing boy,” she’d replied, knowing that just about every jurisdiction had their eyes wide open on the case since it had started nearly three weeks prior.

“Right,” the officer said. “Medical examiner is en route now.”

Esther could feel her adrenaline spike. “Is it our boy?”

The reporting officer said he didn’t know. “Better notify the parents before you get out here,” he said. “News crews will be coming. This’ll be all over the state in the next hour.”

She put down the phone and went for Jake, who was trying his best to figure out the new coffeemaker in the break room.

“We might have found Charlie,” she said.

“That’s great!”

“Not great.”

Jake’s face fell. This was not the ending he sought for his first major case. “Jesus,” he said. “I thought we’d find him.”

Esther had hoped for the same thing. “We need to alert the Franklins,” she said. “This is going to blow up all over the news.”

“What are we going to tell them?” he asked as he followed her down the hall.

“Human remains were found off 97 and there’s no way of knowing if they are Charlie’s.”

Jake’s face went white. “Holy shit, body parts? What the hell did the freak who took Charlie do to him?”

“Animal activity, Jake. They think that the body was dumped out there and coyotes got to it.”

Jake got into the passenger seat while Esther turned the ignition.

“I guess that’s better than someone cutting up the kid with a chain saw or a hatchet,” he said.

Esther looked over at Jake, and he flushed a little. She let it go, knowing his graphic description was his cover for being sick to his stomach about what she’d just told him.