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Erica sat in a lawn chair, bent over a notebook. She had on a faded yellow bikini top and a pair of cutoff sweat shorts. Beads of sweat glistened on her tiny copper shoulders. “Sometimes. Depends on whether he has a floozy or not in his life. When he does, the grass gets pretty high.”
Haley gazed at Erica, taking in her petite figure, her long, thick eyelashes and slightly angular face. . . and wished she looked like her.
She liked the way the girl bent over her work, sometimes scrunching up her forehead, deep in thought. The way she silently moved her lips as she pored over what she’d written. She found her intensity and simplicity to be stu
Tiffany had been gorgeous, but she was the feminine and dolled-up type: hair meticulously done, makeup skillfully applied. But to Haley, the au natural girl next to her, with her razor-sharp wit, focused frown, and glistening sweat was just as beautiful. But perhaps what was most attractive about her is that she knew who she was. Like really knew. Haley envied her for it.
“I don’t know why we’ve never hung out before. We’ve always lived so close,” she said.
“Tiffany,” Erica said flatly. “She’s why.”
Haley didn’t say anything, knowing Erica was right. Reaching into the plastic cup, she cornered a plump cricket and pulled it out. She laid it on its back and jabbed the hook into the tough armor of its chest and watched white goo ooze onto her ragged thumbnail. Staring at its writhing body, its ante
Out of sight, out of mind.
She ran her thumbnail along the edge of the pier, freeing the goo, and watched the red and white bobber float on the water’s murky surface and bounce gently in the warm breeze. After a little while, she moved her line closer to the seawall. “Mac and I broke up,” she murmured.
Erica looked up from her notebook and tilted her head the way a curious dog would. But she didn’t look surprised.
Haley set her pole on the pier and shifted so she was facing the girl. “A week ago, I caught him in a lie for the first time. It was a stupid one, really, but still a lie. And knowing he lied about one thing makes me wonder if he lies about other stuff, you know?” She sighed. “Then I find something of Tiffany’s in his truck the other day and I flip out. He said that he’d given her a ride a week before she disappeared and that she must have dropped it. You’d think that with that explanation, I’d feel fine, but I don’t.”
Haley thought about the scenario again. Mac and Tiffany together, alone, and cringed. She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can trust him anymore.”
“He didn’t like her, did he?”
“No, he hated her. Well, at least he said he did. I’m so confused. Everything’s just so crazy. First, my dad. Then, my mom and Becky. Then Tiffany. The prank phone calls. Now Mac. I feel like I could go insane at any second. Just snap and go completely crazy.”
Erica uncrossed her slender legs and let her feet drop to the pier. She leaned forward. “So, what did he lie about?”
“Porno magazines.”
“Yuck. My Dad has some of those, too,” Erica said.
“But Mac always told me he liked his women wholesome and that he hated pornography. Yet, I found one in his truck. A really filthy one. It just makes me wonder all kinds of things. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I’m wondering if something could have happened between him and Tiffany behind my back. I mean, I’ve never had a reason not to trust him or to think he’d cheat on me, but now. . . I don’t know. I can’t get the idea out of my mind.”
A school of ducks glided by. Wary of the two sitting on the pier, the mother duck quacked shrilly at her group of ducklings, warning them to stay close.
Haley glanced at Erica and saw an odd expression on her face.
“What?” Haley asked.
Erica was quiet for a minute, watching the ducks. “I think I should tell you something. Something you’re not going to like,” she said. “It’s about Mac.”
***
IT WAS TWO-THIRTY in the morning and, as always, Haley couldn’t sleep. With a steaming cup of tea in hand, she flipped off the kitchen light and went out to the porch.
A thin sheet of fog hung in the yard. Pale moonlight bathed the center of the bayou. She curled up on a rocking chair and tried to sort everything out.
The anxiety she’d awoken to had been paralyzing and insistent. Erica said she’d seen Mac at Rachel Anderson’s. Late at night and her husband hadn’t been home. Were the two having an affair? If so, when had it started? Weeks ago? Months? Haley was begi
She’d also just discovered that neither her mother nor Becky were home and she had no idea where either of them were.
A barn owl called out and she glanced toward where the sound had come. She tensed as she saw something move in the darkness of the carport. Someone. . . was walking towards her.
Unable to move, she held her breath as he came closer. . . now only a few feet from where she sat. An unbidden image of Tiffany’s face passed through her mind’s eye.
Horror-stricken, her tea cup tumbled from her hand and smashed onto the concrete. The crash shattered the ambient night sounds and all went quiet. She sucked in her breath.
***
A FEW MINUTES later, Haley was staring at Charles. He sat on the porch swing, his shoulders sagging, his hands clasped together. But instead of appearing overly anxious as he had been the last time she’d seen him, he just looked exhausted. Resigned. Dark circles framed his eyes and his face appeared swollen. Even so, he looked much thi
“How are you holding up?” he asked, the bug zapper behind him incinerating an unfortunate mosquito.
Haley laughed, surprising even herself.
“That good, huh?”
She stared at him, not knowing how to respond.
“You don’t look so good,” he said.
“Well, that makes two of us.”
There was a long silence.
“I still look for her, you know,” he said. “I can’t sleep not knowing. Hebert and bullshit Guitreaux aren’t doing a damn thing about her. Their whole investigation seems to be a crock of shit.”
She thought about what Kim had said at the diner a couple of days before. Charles had been visiting the Sheriff every other day since Tiffany had disappeared. So often, that the Sheriff had ordered him to stop. Let the law do their job. Kim said that Charles hadn’t reacted well to the older man’s words and that there had been a confrontation.
“She was my life, Haley. My fucking life.” He laughed, but his face looked pained. “I guess the joke was on me, huh?”
Haley was tired and wanted nothing more to just crawl into bed and pass out. Even so, she knew she wouldn’t be able to.
“This is really taking a toll on my mom,” he said. “Between her being worried to death about Tiffany and the shitty way folks have been treating her at the college. The comments behind her back, the stares. . .” Charles’s mother was part of the custodial staff at Cavelier de La Salle. “People stopping in front of the house and yelling nasty things,” he continued. “Hell, someone even threw a brick into our living room window last night. My little brother got hit with some glass. This is getting to be too much. Way too much.”
He leaned back and sighed. “She’s a wonderful woman, Haley. You know, she left everything in New Orleans to move us here. Her friends from childhood, her sister, a good job. Just to make sure me and my brother were okay. And this had to happen,” he said, his left eye ticcing. “Sometimes I think things would be much better for her if I wasn’t around.”
Three bolts of heat lightning pierced the sky like silent screams. Everything about the night became still. Even the crickets.