The House Guest by Mark Edwards(37)

I went into the frozen yoghurt place across the street. It was a popular hangout for teenagers and people in their early twenties. I showed Eden’s picture to the woman behind the counter, who looked at me like I might be a stalker before shaking her head. I needed to work on a cover story.

Next, I went to the Dunkin’ Donuts on the corner. A young man with an expression that matched the donuts – glazed – listened to my freshly minted story about my missing friend with little interest, before glancing at the picture and shaking his head.

For the next hour, I went up and down Bedford Avenue and the surrounding streets, telling anyone who’d listen about my friend who’d gone missing, asking them if they’d seen her. All I got were blank looks and shakes of the head, except for the few people who had seen and remembered Eden during that week. Like the guy in the Japanese place who’d served her on Friday night, or the man in the taco truck on the corner. But none of them had seen her since.

Only one conversation was notable. In the liquor store on North Sixth Street, the man behind the counter remembered selling Eden the bottles of tequila last Friday.

‘Yeah, I remember her,’ he said. ‘She irritated me because she was talking to someone on her cell when I was serving her. I hate people who do that.’

‘Did you hear what she was talking about?’

He paused, clearly reluctant to give out too much information. I tried my best to look pitiful. ‘Her parents are going crazy with worry. But if I can tell them she’s just gone off partying with a new boyfriend or something, that would make us all feel a lot better.’

‘I get it.’ He thought about it. ‘I don’t remember what she was talking about, to be honest. She said something like, “Tell him not to worry.” It sounded like whoever she was talking to was nagging her about something and your friend was pissed. Aggravated.’

A chill ran down my spine. Who had she been talking to? I remembered the day Eden and I had gone to the pool together. Somebody had kept texting her when we were on our way to the park, and Eden had seemed aggravated then too. Was it the same person? I had assumed it was her ex, but I now knew this ex didn’t exist.

‘There’s one more thing,’ said the guy in the liquor store before I left. ‘At the end of the call, when I was handing over her change, she said something in a foreign language.’

‘What language?’

‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure. Italian, maybe.’

That was weird. I didn’t think Eden was Italian-American. Who would she be speaking to in Italian?

As I stepped on to the street, my phone rang. It was Mona.

‘Adam? Where are you?’ She sounded a little out of breath, like she was walking fast. ‘Are you still in Williamsburg?’

‘I’m just around the corner from your house.’

‘Okay, cool. I’m five minutes away so I’ll meet you out front.’

‘Great.’ I began to walk in the direction of the house.

I was about to hang up when Mona said, ‘Did you already try knocking? Because Jack should be in.’

‘Yeah, I did.’

‘Huh. Maybe he’s in the basement or he’s gone out. Anyway, see you in a minute.’

She ended the call.

I reached the house before Mona, and thought about ringing the bell again, but decided I might as well wait. She wouldn’t be long. And, sure enough, here she came hurrying along the street. She had her sunglasses up on her head and was dressed smartly.

‘Hey,’ she said. ‘How are you? I had a meeting with a client. I thought I was never going to get out of there.’

Having overheard what she and Jack had said about me, I found it hard to smile. But then she turned to me and laughed, the skin around her eyes crinkling, and I remembered why I’d liked her so much when we met on the cruise. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hard on her and Jack. After all, Ruth and I had let a stranger into their home. They barely knew me and, until now, there had been no proof at all that Eden existed. In their shoes, I might have been just as suspicious and sceptical.

‘I take it you haven’t heard from Ruth?’ she said.

‘No.’

She reached out and touched my upper arm, making a concerned sound, and her eyes searched my face as if she were trying to appraise me, to figure me out.

‘Let’s go in,’ she said.

She fished in her bag for her keys and opened the door, going inside ahead of me.

‘Jack,’ she called. ‘Hi. Adam’s with me. Just in case you’re naked!’ She winked at me.

There was no response so she called his name again, this time with a question mark. But the house was utterly silent.

We went into the living room.

‘Let me check the basement,’ she said. ‘He won’t be able to hear me if he’s down there.’ She went out through the back door into the garden, then down the steps that led to the office. She came back almost immediately.

‘Nope, he’s not down there. I guess he has gone out,’ she said. She checked the time. It was quarter to nine. ‘He can’t be asleep already.’

She gestured for me to sit down but I didn’t want to. I was too on edge. I’d already experienced two disappearances from this house. Mona looked more worried than she was letting on too. ‘I’m just going to check upstairs,’ she said.