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“Then what happened? After you talked to your father’s friend?”
“I went to the bathroom for a while. Waited.” She remembered waiting in the bathroom stall, upset that she’d gone out. At the time, she had no idea that her friend would vanish. If she had, she would never have left her alone.
“Waited?”
“Yeah. Tiffany and Charles were. . . arguing. They needed privacy. They’d gone out to the parking lot to talk.”
“Was it out of the ordinary? The fighting?”
“No.”
He watched her for a moment before he opened his notebook again and examined something. “How long were you in this bathroom?”
“Maybe fifteen minutes. I’m not sure. I wasn’t wearing a watch.”
He jotted a long note into his book, then looked up again. “And then?”
“I walked out to the parking lot, but I couldn’t find her.”
“So, what did you do?”
“I walked home.”
“Did you find it odd that she’d leave you there alone?”
Haley shrugged. “No, not odd. I just thought they left together. That maybe they made up and forgot about me.”
He tapped his ring against the desk again. “I wouldn’t be very happy if a friend did that to me. I’d find it strange.”
“Well, you don’t know Tiffany. Sometimes she’s inconsiderate. It wasn’t really unusual for her.”
“Did you hear from her after you left?”
“No, but I got a call on Sunday morning from her mom, Julia Perron. She asked where Tiffany was. She was worried.”
“Has Tiffany run off before?”
Haley shook her head.
“Spent the night away from her house without her mother knowing? Or talked about leaving town?”
Haley straightened in the chair. “She sneaks out of the house sometimes, but she’s always careful. She worries too much about her mother catching her. And no, she never talked about leaving town. Not like this. It just isn’t something she’d do.”
“Most 19-year-olds aren’t expected to be so accountable to their mothers,” Guitreaux observed.
“You don’t know her mother. She’s very overbearing. She still treats Tiffany like a child.”
“Is that right? Any idea why she would put up with that? From what I’ve gathered, Tiffany’s pretty strong-willed.”
“Money. Her parents control a big trust until she turns twenty-one. She does her best to stay in her mother’s good graces, but it’s difficult for her. She feels like her mother breathes down her neck and she hates her for it.”
Guitreaux nodded. “I see.” He tapped his pen against his upper lip for a few moments looking thoughtful. “Let’s talk about Tiffany’s relationship with Charles. For starters, what were they arguing about?”
“I think she was seeing someone else, or at least thinking about it. Charles might have known.”
“You talk to Charles since Saturday night?”
Haley shook her head.
“Not at all?”
“No.”
“The two of you. . . You and Charles. Would you say that you’re close?”
“Not terribly, but yes, we’re friends through Tiffany. Why?”
“Well, it just would seem that you two would want to talk after someone you both cared about disappeared.”
“I haven’t been able to find him. I’ve tried.”
The detective’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “I see. And you don’t know the gentleman’s name that she might have been seeing?”
“No sir, I don’t.”
“No clue who it could be?”
“No.”
“You and Tiffany. Were you getting along okay that night?”
Haley’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah? Why?”
“No disagreements? Arguments of any kind?”
“No, none. But why do you ask?”
He looked into his notebook, tapping his pen against his top lip. “Part of my job.” His eyes met hers again. “So the last time you saw Tiffany, she was leaving through the back door of Provost’s around 9:30. . . 9:45 PM. And you haven’t heard from either her or Charles since. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Clarify this for me, if you could. Was she alone?”
Haley was confused. “What?”
“When she left through the back door. Was she alone?”
“No, she was with Charles.”
“And again, that was the last you saw or heard from her?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, good. I think I have enough for now. Unless, of course, there’s anything else you can tell me that would help us find your friend?”
She grabbed her purse and stood. “I’ve told you everything,” she said, wearily. But as the words left her mouth, she flashed back to something Tiffany had told her that night. Something that hadn’t bothered her when it was said, but disturbed her now. “This probably doesn’t mean anything but. . . one of the last things Tiffany told me on Saturday was that Charles had been acting. . . obsessed. It was the first time she ever told me anything like that about him.”
Chapter 17
AFTER LEAVING DETECTIVE Guitreaux, Haley fumbled in the parking lot outside the diner for her car keys. Though there were only five keys on the ring, she was having a difficult time finding the right one. Her hands shook and her lungs revolted against the hot, humid air. She coughed and an excruciating pain shot through her head.
Recounting that night over and over again had drained her, stripping her of the little energy she had left. Although she didn’t think Charles had it in him to do something horrible to Tiffany, why else would he avoid her?
She heard someone call her name. Squinting in the harsh sunlight, she saw Austin jog toward her. “You’re in no shape to drive. C’mon, let me take you home.”
“No, I’m okay,” she insisted, dropping the keys, then bending to pick them up again. She grabbed at them, also picking up several pieces of gravel. She straightened and wiped the gravel off her hands. “I am. Really, I’m fine.”
But when she tried to look up at him, to show him she was okay, the tears surged forward.
“It’s going to be okay,” he assured her. “Let’s get you home. Chris said he can get your car to you sometime this evening.”
She trembled as they drove down Main Street. Too many horrible things were happening and she wasn’t sure how much more stress she could take. Before going in to speak with the detective, Chris suggested she take a few more days off. It was a relief because focusing on something as small as placing an order was becoming difficult. Her head was too muddled.
She spent the previous day holed up in her room, downing double shots of Nyquil and trying to sleep. But sleep didn’t come until late in the night, after she spent hours staring at a crack on her bedroom ceiling. And when it did come, it was in the form of a vivid nightmare: Her riding her bicycle to the grocery store, only to realize that she didn’t know the way back home. As she rode, nothing had looked familiar. It was as if she was in another town. She drove around and around, terrified.
“Is the AC too cold?” Austin asked, pressing his palm against one of the vents.
“No, I’m fine,” she sniffed. “You’ll want to turn left at the church.” She glanced at Austin, the boy she’d had a crush on for months. She had made small talk with him on several occasions since she worked at Luke’s, but not as much as she’d like to have since he and Chris spent most of their time in the trailer out back.
She knew her crush was i
Besides, Mac was good to her. And Austin had a serious girlfriend. Beth, a freshman at Texas A&M. Rumor had it, he was going to ask her to marry him. And Haley was likely to some day marry Mac.
“How’s Beth?”
The edges of Austin’s mouth turned up. “She’s good. Real good. And Mac, how’s he?”
“Doing well. I didn’t realize you knew him.”
“Oh, I don’t. Just seen him around Luke’s,” he said. “And, of course, Mrs. Motor Mouth talks about him from time to time.”