My Wife Is Missing(62)

Michael gave it some thought before shaking his head no.

“She’s probably going to dump the rental now,” said Kennett. “Gives us something to work with. We’ll need to keep calling Avis drop-off locations nearby, focus on the one at the airport if she’s headed west.”

“How do we track her from there?” Michael asked.

“Carefully,” Kennett replied. “We track her very carefully.”





CHAPTER 27





NATALIE


BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED

The morning after she found the body, Natalie made a teary confession in Tina’s office.

“I followed Audrey after work that day you said she reported me to HR. She went to the McDonald’s on 128, seemed like she was waiting for someone, and then Michael showed up—or at least I think he did. I fell asleep in the parking lot and when I woke up I saw the two of them driving off together. Michael came home after I did, but then he left again, and in a hurry. I overheard him talking to a woman on his phone, so I figured he was going to Audrey’s to do … whatever. I got the nanny to come back and look after the kids, and I went to Audrey’s to catch him in the act.”

Tina’s eyes were clear and focused as Natalie recounted her version of the events that followed, which she did without sparing any detail.

“Oh, my God, Nat,” said Tina, all color drained from her face. Both Tina’s voice and expression conveyed her utter shock and disbelief.

“You’re telling me that Audrey Adler is dead and you saw her body?”

Natalie managed a grim nod.

Tina glanced over Natalie’s shoulder, peering through her office window into an array of cubicles as if she expected to see Audrey strolling through.

“Are you absolutely sure you saw what you saw?” Tina asked as she continued scanning the room.

Natalie returned a snort of disgust.

“Are you suggesting I imagined it?”

“You haven’t been sleeping well, and you’ve told me you’ve seen or imagined things that weren’t there.”

“I get that I haven’t been sleeping, but I’m not that messed up, T,” Natalie said defensively. “I know a dead, bloody body when I see one.”

“Right,” said Tina, who breathed out the word while fixing her gaze on her tidy desk.

“I don’t know what to do,” Natalie continued in a quavering voice. “Michael killed her. I’m sure of it. I found his shirt and missing gym locker key inside Audrey’s place—in her bedroom, no less! I have them in a plastic bag under the front seat of my car. Obviously, I can’t put them back where I found them, so now I have no way to prove to the police that Michael was there, that he did it, but he did. I know it in my bones. Maybe I did the wrong thing—maybe I should have left the evidence there. But I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was afraid it would point to me, the jilted wife.”

Tina set her fingers against her temples as if she’d been blasted with a migraine.

“We have to call the police, Nat … we have to—”

“No … no, we can’t.”

Tina’s eyebrows rose in a look of reproach. Her stern expression conveyed a clear warning: lower your damn voice. Some conversations must not be overhead.

“I’ll be charged with murder,” Natalie continued in a whispered tone. “Don’t you see? I’ve been stalking Audrey at work; HR knows about it. I’ve accused her of sleeping with my husband, and I put myself at the scene of the crime. I can’t call the police, Tina. And please, please, don’t turn me in. You’re the only one I can trust. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Tina did not look at all pleased to have been anointed her sole confidante. “Honestly, Nat, I wish that you had told the police and not me,” she said.

After swallowing a shaky breath, Tina nervously tapped her fingers against her desk, thinking, thinking. It looked to Natalie as though she were crunching numbers in her head, her face a picture of pure concentration as she carefully mulled over her next move. In the ensuing silence, Natalie despaired.

“Michael will make sure I take the fall for what he did,” she said. “He’ll sacrifice me to save himself.”

Natalie’s plea seemed to resonate with Tina who could now, finally, look her friend in the eyes.

“I hear you, sweetie, and I think I know what to do,” said Tina. “But I’m not letting Audrey just rot on her kitchen floor. My God.” Tina covered her mouth as she looked away in disgust. “I’ll call the police. Ask them to make a welfare check because we can’t reach her. She didn’t show up to work, didn’t call in, and that’s not like her.”

Natalie nodded in agreement.

“That’ll work. But what about me … and Michael?”

“Oh Nat,” said Tina, slapping her hands together in a show of prayer. “I want to get up and give you a big hug, but don’t want to call any attention to us, or this moment. I don’t want anyone to even know that you’re upset. This is going to be very complicated. It’s dangerous what we’re doing. The truth is always the safest way to go.”

While Natalie remained unconvinced about the truth being her best path forward, she was more focused on something else her friend had just said. Tina had used the word “we” as if to imply they were in this together, a team of sorts. With that Natalie felt lighter and far less alone.