The Last Thing She Ever Did(83)

“I suspect that Brad Collins did just that. He told Franklin everything he knew about Charlie’s disappearance.”

“Which was nothing.”

“And now look at Franklin. Talk about making matters worse. He’s about to be picked up for assault. DA could charge him with attempted murder. Or worse. We don’t know if Collins is going to make it.”

“Wow,” Jake said. “Losing your kid and then killing some poor SOB out-of-towner. That’s bigger than making matters worse. That’s creating a shit storm.”

“That’s a buck, Jake.”

Jake grinned. “I barely make enough to pay my bills. Cut me a break, Detective.”

She looked at Jake and gave him a half smile. She liked him. He was a nice kid.

“Okay. Grace period. Now let’s go to Sweetwater and see David Franklin.”



David Franklin was at the hostess’s desk with Amanda when Esther and Jake arrived. David’s eyes stayed fixed on the pair of investigators, and the life seemed to drain from his body.

“You aren’t here for dinner,” he said.

“No,” Esther said. “I’m afraid not.”

“Did you find my boy?”

Esther shook her head. “No. That’s not why we’re here. You know that, don’t you, Mr. Franklin?” Her eyes landed on his bruised and scraped right hand.

“I couldn’t stop myself,” he said. “I was sure that freak took Charlie.”

Esther motioned for the restaurateur to come from around the desk. “I need to see your hands,” she said.

“What are they talking about, David?” Amanda asked. “What’s going on here?”

“Can I call my wife?” he asked, refusing to look in her direction.

“From my office, of course,” Esther said.

Jake retrieved a pair of handcuffs. They were still shiny and new, and he’d looked forward to clasping them onto someone’s wrists from the moment they’d been issued.

“No, Jake,” Esther said, shaking her head slightly. “We’ll be fine without those.”

“What’s happening here?” Amanda asked again. Her voice had grown louder, and it carried past the hostess’s desk. The two patrons sitting closest to the door looked up to see what the commotion was all about.

“Amanda,” David said, his tone calm, words measured, “I need you to handle things until I get back.”

She started to shake. “Where are they taking you?” she asked, pushing past the detectives and standing next to David. “What did you do? Did you do something to Charlie?”

He turned around just as he was about to be taken outside. He looked around the entrance to Sweetwater and then over at the young woman.

“Never,” he said. Her words had stung. “Not Charlie. Not ever.”



The next morning, Carole sat in the Jarretts’ kitchen and stared at the paper. Her phone had gone off what seemed like a hundred times during the night. Some were texts from her husband, but most were media requests. She’d ignored them all. There was nothing left inside of her but the ache for her missing son. Everything else felt like a pile-on that was burying her. Bertie folded herself on Carole’s lap and purred.

Liz emerged from the bedroom. She wore her running clothes; her hair was in a loose ponytail. Each day she felt worse than the day before. She knew how things would go. Carole would cry. She would cry. Carole would rage about David. She’d complain that the police weren’t doing enough. She’d remind Liz over and over that there would be no point in going on without Charlie.

That morning, though, there was no instant litany of those same old subjects.

“What is it?” Liz asked, sliding into the chair next to Carole.

Carole tapped her finger on the screen of her phone, showing the latest post from the Bend Bulletin.

Liz read, occasionally taking her eyes away to meet Carole’s.

Restaurateur Charged with Assault of Ohio Man

David Franklin, a popular Bend restaurateur, was arrested on suspicion of assault in the beating of Bradley Collins, an Ohio man recently interviewed by police in connection with the disappearance of Franklin’s three-year-old son, Charlie.

“If this goes to trial—and we think it won’t get that far—then David Franklin will be a very sympathetic defendant,” said Stephen Richter, Franklin’s attorney. “No one knows what happened to his son, and no one knows the kind of grief and distress that kind of uncertainty causes. I’d probably do whatever it took to get answers, too.”

Franklin was released last night.

“He didn’t, Carole? He didn’t do this, did he?”

Carole nodded. “He did. He texted me.”

“My God,” Liz said. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too. He’s done now. When Charlie comes home, David will never be alone with him again. I knew he was self-absorbed. Selfish. A jerk. But I never thought he had that kind of hate or violence in him.”

Liz set all of this in motion, and she knew it. She wondered if there would be any way out of what she’d done now.

“He was trying to find out what happened to Charlie,” she said to fill the air.

Carole put Bertie down. “Doesn’t matter. He almost killed someone. I can’t see any circumstances where I could forgive that.”