Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
N athan led Scarlet to a little dive bar in Greenwich Village called Johnny’s. An ancient jukebox was at the bar's far end, and stools lined a long bar counter. There was very little space for anything else. It was still early—just a few minutes before eight—and only a few others nursed their beers in peace. The real crowd would come in sometime after nine thirty and liven the place up.
“Howdy, Nathan,” the bartender said, rapping his knuckles on the bar top. “Been a couple of weeks. How’re things?”
“All good,” Nathan said, then stuttered, “This is an old friend of mine. Scarlet.”
“Any friend of Nathan’s is a friend of mine,” the bartender said. “What can I get for ya?”
Scarlet ordered a glass of white wine—something simple to calm her jitters—and Nathan went for a dark beer. They sat toward the far end of the bar, nearest the jukebox. Neither of them knew what to say.
It was terribly bizarre that they’d reconnected on Reddit. But, Scarlet supposed, stranger things had happened. They were happening all the time. Like this “cult” or whatever it is.
“So,” Scarlet said, unsure of her voice. “What does ‘evman12’ mean?”
“What’s that?”
“Your Reddit username.”
Nathan wrinkled his nose and let out an exhausted laugh. “Oh. I came up with that like ten years ago. I forget what it means. I think it has something to do with a movie I was into at the time.” He laughed again. “You know better than to bring up someone’s online presence.”
“You’re right. It was rude of me.” Scarlet filled her mouth with wine. “I’m really sorry to hear about Maddie.”
Nathan’s smile fell. “Yeah.”
“She was Ivy’s age, right?”
“Yes. She was supposed to start her sophomore year at Columbia this September,” he said. “But she disappeared in March or April.”
“Without a trace?”
“Not exactly,” he said. “Sometimes my parents hear from her. She asks for money. They’re terrified and want to give her whatever she needs, so they send it. I mean, she’s only nineteen years old.”
“Have they contacted the police?”
“Yes. That’s the first thing they did. But the police can’t do anything if she left on her own. On purpose.”
“What makes you think she’s involved in this crew on Nantucket?” Scarlet asked. Slowly, she removed a notepad from her backpack and began to write down what Nathan told her. Any tiny clue could lead to something. She’d learned this from her father.
“Because she came home exactly one time,” Nathan said. “And I happened to be there.”
Scarlet gaped at him. Her pen was frozen over her notepad.
“She knew my parents were out,” Nathan said. “It was a big gala event they always attended every year that demanded thousands and thousands of dollars per ticket. I don’t live at home anymore, obviously. Ever since I went to film school, my dad and I haven’t exactly seen eye to eye. But I was there, looking for an old DVD of Taxi Driver I’d bought back in high school. I heard someone come into the apartment. You remember where I lived, right? It was an apartment building like yours. The doorman wouldn’t have let her in if he didn’t recognize her. Anyway, I assumed it was my parents or something. But the person crept around like they were trying to rob the place. I got freaked out. I grabbed a baseball bat from my old bedroom and tiptoed through the halls until I reached Maddie’s old room. There she was, crouched on the floor, rummaging through an old shoebox. There was a load of cash to the right of it. I’m guessing it was cash she’d gotten from graduation or something. I don’t know. My parents weren’t always keen on putting every bit of cash into the bank. It was an old family rule. Trust no one.
“Finally, Maddie noticed my presence and turned to look at me. Her eyes were feral. That’s when I realized what she was wearing. A super long skirt. A blouse that made her look super hippie-dippy. And her hair was crazy long and scraggly.”
“When was this?” Scarlet asked. Her voice was hardly a whisper.
“The gala’s always at the end of June. Must have been around then,” he said.
“What did you say to her?”
“I mean, I’m her older brother. This is my kid sister we’re talking about. So I leaned against the doorway and tried to tease her. I was like, ‘You’re in big trouble, you know?’ She jumped up and scooped all the money into her arms. She looked at me as though I were a monster she’d been warned about. I didn’t understand it because we’d always had a great relationship.
“I changed tactics after that. I asked, ‘What are you wearing? What kind of people are you hanging out with? Are you Amish or something?’ She got really nasty and said, ‘You’ve bought into all their propaganda. You’re a sheep.’ And then she tore past me, grabbed a tote bag, and stuffed all the money inside. I ran after her, but she was always quick, and I was always clumsy. She got the elevator before me. I got the next one. But when I reached the foyer downstairs, the doorman said she’d already gotten into a taxi and left. He looked just as freaked out as me. He said, ‘That was my Maddie! I’ve known her since she was a baby girl! How could I say no to her?’ I felt bad after that. My parents were really angry with the doorman. They wanted to have him fired for not keeping Maddie back. But luckily, they were able to just move him to another building rather than fire him.”
Scarlet shook her head. Little Maddie! She remembered her just as the doorman
did. Bright and happy and silly and free.
“One of the girls I saw in Nantucket was one of Ivy’s classmates, too,” Scarlet explained.
“Do you think they’re all girls from rich families in Manhattan?” Nathan asked.
“It’s certainly possible. It’s easy for them to call their parents and ask for money,” Scarlet said. “But it means someone is at the top of all of this. Someone is manipulating them.”
“Someone who thinks he’s a Charles Manson type,” Nathan said. His eyes were stormy. He drank too much of his beer at once and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
Scarlet understood. If Ivy were involved in something like this, she’d be heartbroken, but she’d also be deliriously angry.
“I didn’t know their base could be Nantucket till I read your post,” Nathan said. “I thought about coming out there immediately. But funds are tight for me at the moment. I cut myself off from my family, which was probably stupid. And I make ends meet with the cinema and a few other odd jobs.”
“I guess they didn’t want you to go to film school?”
“It doesn’t sit right with my dad that I don’t want to go into finance like him,” Nathan said. “He can’t understand what he did wrong. But my parents are both distracted and despondent now. They want Maddie back. She was their golden child who always did everything right.” Nathan sighed. “It doesn’t matter what my parents think of me. But I love my little sister. I don’t want her involved in this. And I certainly don’t want some egomaniac manipulating her to get to my family’s money. I didn’t refuse it just for some guy to fund his cult with it.”
Scarlet continued to scribble notes to herself on her notepad. Nathan watched for a moment and then ordered them another round of drinks. Unbeknownst to Scarlet, nearly an hour had passed.
Scarlet set down her pen and took another sip of wine. Her head throbbed.
“I want to get to the bottom of this,” she told him. “The plan was to make a documentary about it and discover the truth as I dug deeper. But I understand if that’s too sensitive. If you want me to stop pursuing it, it’s all right.”
“No,” Nathan said in a formidable tone. “I’d like to help you. If you want that.”
Scarlet swallowed the lump in her throat. Desperation glimmered behind his eyes.
Nathan said, “I went to film school. I studied documentaries and feature films, sound and design, and art and writing. I went as far as I possibly could on a student level, and then, I mostly gave up because I hate LA and can’t afford to make movies here. But this? Something so personal? It’s what I’ve been waiting for.”
Scarlet’s stomach began to hurt. If he joins me, it means it isn’t fully mine anymore. But it matters to him. And the story will come alive with his involvement.
It means I won’t be able to back out when it gets hard.
“Tell me what I should do,” Nathan said, raising his chin.
“Can you take some time off your jobs?”
Nathan snorted. “Probably not.”
Scarlet lowered her eyes. They had to be in Nantucket for the documentary to work.
“But I can quit,” Nathan said.
Scarlet’s laughter caught in her throat. “Are you sure?”
“I think I can get another few crappy jobs when I get back to the city,” he said. “I’m not worried about that. I am worried about my sister. I’m worried about my parents, safe in their ivory tower, their hearts breaking more and more by the minute. And you know they’re not the only ones. These parents aren’t all talking to each other. They’re embarrassed that their children ran away and refuse to pool their efforts to fix this. Again, because they’re embarrassed. This type of thing happens to other people. Not them.” Nathan sipped his beer. “You know how the Manhattan elite are.”
Scarlet raised her eyebrows and continued to write. “Oh, I do. I really do.” She raised her chin to look at him. She enjoyed a flashing image of a memory: his lips upon hers; their bodies not knowing what to do; their lips loose and confused. It had probably been a terrible kiss, but it had been their first, which made it special.
“Would you mind if I interview you properly for the documentary?” she asked. “We could set you up somewhere, maybe on a Nantucket beach.”
“Of course not,” he said. “I’d just tell the camera everything I just told you.”
“Perfect,” Scarlet said.
Another moment of silence passed between them. Scarlet felt so strange, almost as though she were dreaming. She reached for Nathan’s hand, and he let her hold it for a few seconds before he pulled away. Maybe the intimacy was too intense for him. Or perhaps he had a girlfriend he hadn’t told her about.
Scarlet tried to wade around that to get an answer.
“Is it going to be difficult for you to leave the city?” she asked.
“Like I said, I’ll quit my jobs and sublet my room.”
“But I mean, are any people going to miss you here?” Scarlet asked, sounding tentative.
Nathan’s eyes widened when it clicked. “I just went through a breakup in late spring, around the time Maddie disappeared.”
“I’m sorry.” Scarlet’s heart swelled.
“It’s okay. We weren’t right for each other,” Nathan assured her.
“Is anyone right for each other?” Scarlet asked with a laugh.
“I don’t know. Our parents are still together,” Nathan pointed out. His mischievous smile returned for a split second, then disappeared into his scowl again.
“True. It feels like a fluke,” Scarlet said. “But I know it took decades and decades of hard work. And I know my mother’s career always went on the back burner.”
“You think she resents him?” Nathan asked.
“I ask myself that all the time,” Scarlet admitted. “She’s very good at loving my father. She’s very good at loving us. But after her cancer—”
Nathan’s face broke. Both hands swept to the sides of his face. “I completely forgot. I should have said something immediately.”
Scarlet’s heart warmed. “No. It’s okay. She’s okay.”
“I heard it was a tough time,” Nathan said. “Your family left not long after that?”
“She had surgery, Dad quit his job, and we all bounced to Nantucket,” Scarlet said. “I left NYU for a brief time, too. It was topsy-turvy.”
“Sounds like it.”
Scarlet thought Nathan had the unique capability of listening, asking questions, and staying interested in what she said. It was far different from any man she’d ever gone out with. What made him so empathetic? Was it his interest in film?
“I still can’t believe we ran into each other like this,” Scarlet said. “It feels like fate.”
“I don’t believe in fate,” Nathan said with a slow smile.
“What do you believe in?”
Nathan pulled off his concession stand hat, folded it, and shoved it in his back pocket. “I believe in quitting bad jobs. I believe in moving on. And I believe we’re going to find my sister and whoever’s behind this. We have to.”
Scarlet squeezed his hand. “We have to.”