Chapter Five
“So what’s next for you?” Charlotte asked Marin as they wandered down an aisle in the local pet store, looking at puppy supplies. “Any plans to start dating women?”
It’d been a week since Marin’s unexpected and tearful confession, and Charlotte was still so honored that Marin had felt comfortable sharing something so important with her.
She was grateful for this new friendship, hoping that maybe she’d finally found purpose in what they’d gone through together that day on the bus.
Surely this was it. Marin would be part of her life now, and maybe Charlotte would find the rest of what she was looking for here in Vermont, too, reconnecting with her dad and hopefully even figuring out what had happened to her mom.
“That’s a terrifying question.” Marin gave her a stiff smile, then rolled her eyes.
“The easy answer is yes, god yes, I’m so ready to start dating.
I’ve only been thinking about this for twenty years now, but that’s also why it’s not an easy answer, because it’s intimidating as hell to think of putting myself out there.
Most women my age will have . . .” She huffed, her cheeks going slightly pink.
“They’ll have much more experience dating women than I do. ”
“Okay, I get that.” Charlotte picked up a purple stuffed dragon with shiny wings that crinkled when she touched them. “Is this not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? I’m totally buying it for Ember.”
“I love it,” Marin agreed. Her shopping cart already contained a crate, a small dog bed, bowls, and several toys and treats.
Charlotte squeezed the dragon, producing a high-pitched squeak that made them both laugh. “As for dating, when you say you’re worried about your lack of experience, you’re talking about sex, right?”
Cheeks even pinker now, Marin nodded. “I’m forty-seven, and—”
Charlotte held up a hand. “Look, I know this is outside my wheelhouse as a straight woman, but first of all, I think you can’t be the only forty-seven-year-old who’s looking to date a different gender for the first time, and second, you can take dating at any pace you’re comfortable with.
I’m someone who needs to get to know a guy before I sleep with him, so when I use dating apps, I start with coffee, then maybe some other casual activity.
There’s a lot of ‘getting to know you’ before we make it to the bedroom, so even if that hasn’t been your style in the past, maybe it’s a good place to start now.
Get coffee with a woman. Or go to a gay bar and see if someone buys you a drink.
That’s not so scary, right? Just ease your way into it. ”
“I like the sound of that, but does Middleton even have a gay bar?” Marin asked as she picked up a package of bright-red tennis balls.
“Good question. I honestly don’t know the answer, because we don’t have many bars in general. It’s a college town, which means we have more inclusive spaces than some other parts of Vermont, but you don’t necessarily want to look for women in places where students go.”
Marin visibly shuddered. “God, no.”
“So, online dating could be a good place to start. And we can look and see if there are any gay bars around. I’d be happy to go as your wing woman.” Charlotte grinned at her, flapping the dragon’s wings as she spoke.
Marin chuckled. “I appreciate that, and I could certainly use a wing woman. If nothing else, you can cheer me on while I set up my online-dating profile.”
“Definitely. Just let me know when you’re ready. We can open a bottle of wine and get you all set up to date.”
Marin exhaled slowly. She did that a lot when she was trying to relax herself, Charlotte was starting to notice. “You’ve done this, then? Online dating?”
“Sure,” Charlotte said, remembering that Marin said she had married Andrew when she was twenty-four.
That probably meant she hadn’t dated since her early twenties.
It would be intimidating, getting back into the game after so long, no matter what gender you were dating.
“I don’t love it, but it’s so hard to meet people any other way these days. ”
“I want to say it sounds exciting,” Marin said. “But honestly, it sounds terrifying to click on someone’s picture and invite them out for coffee. Chemistry is such an indefinable thing. How do you know who you’ll hit it off with in person?”
“You don’t. That’s why you start with something simple like coffee. Then, if there are no sparks, you haven’t wasted too much time and energy on that person. But online dating does open you up to a much wider dating pool than just hoping you’ll randomly meet someone.”
“True.” They approached a long display of collars and leashes. Marin bypassed the camo and studs to pick up a small raspberry-pink collar with reflective strips on it. “What do you think of this one?”
“I think that color would really suit her. She’s solid black, right?”
Marin nodded. “I don’t wear much pink myself, but I think I like it for Ember. Okay.” She placed the collar and a matching leash in her cart. “What else do I need?”
“Chew toys,” Charlotte said.
“You seem to know a lot about puppies,” Marin observed.
“An ex-boyfriend of mine was majorly dog obsessed. He raised several puppies while we were together, so yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time around puppies.”
“One of my nieces is the same way,” Marin said with a soft smile. “She’s been texting me suggestions nonstop since I told her about Ember.”
“I love that,” Charlotte said. “How old is she?”
“Thirty-six,” Marin said, then laughed at the surprise on Charlotte’s face, because she’d been imagining an adorable little girl texting Marin about puppies. “Yes, my nieces and nephews are grown. I’m a great-aunt already. I’m the baby of the family, remember?”
“Right.” They reached the aisle with chew toys, and Charlotte selected a package of puppy teethers, then tossed it into Marin’s cart. “I’d be happy to come over when you bring her home and help you get her settled, if you like.”
“That would be great, actually.”
“Definitely, and before that, let’s plan our wine night to get you set up for online dating.”
“Maybe this weekend?” Marin suggested.
“Weekends are actually really busy for me with work. I can meet up, but it would be tricky.”
“How about Thursday night? I don’t teach on Fridays.”
“Thursday should be perfect. Let’s plan on it.”
They went through the self-checkout, and then Charlotte helped Marin load her new purchases into the Outback before they went their separate ways.
As Charlotte pulled into her driveway ten minutes later, she slowed automatically to check the mailbox, surprised to find a manila envelope wedged inside from the Middleton County Sheriff’s Department.
Holy shit. She’d been waiting on this for so long she’d decided it wasn’t coming.
It had been months since she’d requested a copy of the file from her mother’s disappearance.
Charlotte’s fingers tingled, and her stomach tightened. The sheriff’s department had closed her mother’s case within a few months of her disappearance, but what if Charlotte found something in here that gave her a new lead toward finding out what happened?
Since returning to Middleton, Charlotte had looked up as many of her mom’s old friends as she could find, but none of them had anything useful to tell her.
She was still trying to track down her mom’s best friend, a woman named Beverly Sinclair.
Charlotte remembered Bev being around a lot, almost like an aunt, and yet, they’d lost touch after her mom’s disappearance.
Charlotte hoped Bev might have something useful to tell her.
The problem was, Bev had left Vermont twenty years ago.
She’d moved to Massachusetts with her husband, but they weren’t there anymore, either, as far as Charlotte could tell.
There were a lot of Beverly Sinclairs on the internet, and Charlotte had messaged as many of them as she could, but so far, the only responses she’d received were to say they weren’t the Beverly she was looking for.
But now, Charlotte had the sheriff’s report. She sat at her kitchen table and opened the envelope. The file looked alarmingly thin, all things considered. She’d known the sheriff’s department hadn’t spent much time investigating her mom’s disappearance, but even so, this seemed light.
The private investigators her dad hired after the sheriff’s department closed their investigation had done so much more legwork.
She’d have to ask him if he still had any of their documentation, because she’d like to look through it too.
She skimmed a report about her childhood home being searched but didn’t learn anything useful.
She flipped to the next page, which contained an interview with a man named Allan Svenson.
Who was that? The name tugged at something in Charlotte’s memory, but she couldn’t place him.
Maybe he was another professor at the university?
When she was little, it had felt like her parents’ entire lives revolved around that university, and consequently, so had Charlotte’s.
The interview had been transcribed from an audiotape by Deputy Lou Bouchard, noted as LB, Allan Svenson as AS.
LB: How do you know Mrs. Danton?
AS: We’re colleagues.
LB: Phone records show you call her an awful lot for someone who’s just a colleague.
AS: We teach in the same department.
LB: Is that all? Some of these calls are pretty late at night. You want to try again?
AS: We both like to talk about history. We enjoy each other’s company. Is that a crime?
LB: It’s a crime if you two were having an affair and she wanted to end things, so you did something to her before she could leave you.
AS: That’s not what happened.
LB: I hope you’re not lying to me, because if you are, you should know that I’m going to find out, and it’ll be worse for you than if you just tell me the truth now.
AS: I didn’t hurt Terri, and I don’t know where she is. That’s the truth.