Chapter Thirty-Six Stella
Chapter Thirty-Six
Stella
I’d been trained to help people wade through the intolerable. To enter a tentative stalemate with the unimaginable. Standing
at the front door to what once had been Xavier’s house, soaking in the October sunshine even as it clashed with the lingering
sense of hopelessness in the air, I couldn’t think of a single word of comfort. Whatever wisdom I’d gained through my practice
failed to materialize.
I came over because Hanna’s voice on the phone earlier had been rambling, incoherent. She swore about the police being useless.
She cursed the waiting press and the choking smoke still hanging in the air. She blamed herself for not installing the alarms
on her house earlier, though it was hard to see how they would have stopped this disaster.
Eleven restless hours had passed since the ambulance crew dragged her away from the smoke-filled scene and took her to the hospital.
She refused to stay for very long. Now it was early afternoon, and she wandered the huge house in search of answers.
I canceled my therapy schedule again. This time to be here.
To ensure she wouldn’t walk this path alone.
Marni drove into the circular driveway behind me as the big front door opened. Without a word, Hanna stood there. She looked
ragged and worn. Hair escaping her ponytail. Wearing jeans and sneakers still marked with streaks of ash and soot.
I knew what she’d been doing—not showering but searching. I also knew it wouldn’t help.
“There’s nothing . . . I . . .” She shook her head as if the right words refused to come out.
“I know.” I’d watched the news. Lukas filled me in on the unreleased information he knew.
He’d stumbled over the tragic fire during one of his strange late-night jogs to clear his head. He’d been several streets
away when he smelled fire and switched directions to check it out.
For as long as I’d known him, he’d run whenever pressure built up and he couldn’t release it. Some weeks it was the only way
he could sleep. He insisted the night air helped him concentrate and relax. I blamed Aubrey’s reappearance for his current
bout of stress-induced insomnia.
Describing Hanna’s state, her emotional disintegration, took a toll. Lukas had been shaken by what he saw and lacked his usual
confidence. He sounded haunted. Looking at Hanna’s drawn face now, I understood why.
But that wasn’t the worst. That wasn’t the news that dragged Hanna down, pummeling her until her energy bled into the hard
ground. Her baby boy, now a man, was gone.
Jeremy Sato had vanished.
Like Tanner family members before him, he wasn’t where he should be. Couldn’t be reached. Hadn’t bothered to call. No keys. No wallet. No messages. No car. No texts. No sign he’d contacted anyone.
The café had caught on fire. Fire trucks rushed to the scene. An ambulance whisked two women to the hospital. But no Jeremy.
Another devastating Tanner family fire.
Even in his anger, if Jeremy thought his mom needed him, he would have been there. I’d seen their bond, that dynamic, firsthand.
Skipping the welcomes and the small talk, Hanna turned and walked into the house, leaving the door open for us to follow.
Her steps dragged. Her shoulders stooped as if pulled down by invisible weights.
“Any news?” Marni whispered the question to me the second we stepped into the grand foyer with the carved wooden ceiling and
wood-paneled walls. An impressive staircase twisted up on our left, winding its way to the upper floors. In front of us, a
large open area anchored by a massive marble fireplace and a grand piano no one ever played greeted us.
Xavier’s presence lingered here. The opulence. The formality of it.
“Lukas drove to Jeremy’s school. Filled in the administration. Talked to Jeremy’s roommate.” I spit back in a low voice every
piece of information Lukas had passed on. “No one has seen or heard from Jeremy, and his car isn’t there. They checked the
security tapes and don’t think he went back last night.”
“At least he wasn’t in the fire. Only one body,” Marni said.
Hanna nodded. “Daniela is still in a coma.”
The news had the whole town reeling. Daniela was a fixture.
She maneuvered her way around the café, reluctantly accepting compliments as if they embarrassed her.
Hanna owned the place. She was the heart.
The friendly, outward face. But Daniela provided the structure.
Every local knew who made the delicious food we all craved because Hanna was Daniela’s loudest cheerleader.
Marni shook her head. “I don’t get it. From a fire? Did the roof fall on her?”
News trickled out all morning. Lukas filled in the gaps. Town gossip churned out the rest. On this topic, I trusted most local
sources. “Daniela has a head wound. The working theory is she was attacked. The building might have been set on fire to cover
it.”
“None of that makes sense.” Hanna had stopped in front of us, staring us down with her pale face and pain-filled eyes. “She
wasn’t supposed to be there. She should have been at home. Miles away. Jeremy was the one staying in the office.”
I hated to say this, but she should know about the town talk. “The police think—”
“That he’s pissed off at me because of the Xavier news and ran away. Yeah, I know.” Hanna started walking down the open hall
again. “It’s bullshit and it doesn’t explain the fire.”
We stopped in the family room. This space had an airy feel to it. Paint the color of goldenrod and outlined in white brightened
the area. Light poured in through the wall of windows on the far side. The furniture had been the same for as long as I could
remember. Couches and chairs in shades of blue and yellow. Not patterns and pillows I could imagine Xavier picking but comfortable
and not too stuffy. Not in this room.
Hanna plopped down, seeming not to care about the expensive fabric. Her faded jeans blended into the plush blue cushions. “The police keep telling me that he’s a college kid and got bad news and is somewhere cooling off and will resurface. But they don’t know him.”
“Maybe some of the information about Xavier was hard for him to hear. That’s understandable.” Marni’s tentative voice suggested
she’d hoped to wade into this tough topic and take the temperature before diving in deeper.
“I get that but he was at the house earlier last night. We talked and . . .” Hanna blew out a long breath. “He was still pissed
but he offered to install the security cameras. I thought he was going to do it this morning.”
I took a turn at being rational and, hopefully, supportive. “It’s possible he went out for a drive. I do that when I need
some space to think.”
Hanna shook her head. “He did read the trust documents. Even if the provisions overwhelmed him, he’s not the type to bail.
He’d never just run off.”
“Will he know to look for you here?” Marni asked.
“I’ve left a hundred messages. And the café . . . Well, he’ll know he can’t stay there.”
“I drove by today. The police are all over it . . .” The last part of Marni’s sentence faded as if she realized what she was
saying. “But it’s still standing. The damage is on that one side but limited. The house part looks fine.”
“There will be inspections and investigations, but I don’t care about the buildings or the business right now.” Hanna stood up. “The attorney handed me the paperwork for this place. I’m here because I thought maybe—”
“Jeremy got curious after learning the specifics of the trust and came here.” A long shot but in her place I’d grasp at any
possibility, too.
This time Hanna balanced on the armrest of the nearest chair. Restless energy pounded off her. “Wishful thinking.”
“We can help you search.” The offer sounded lame, but I extended it anyway, and Hanna didn’t balk.
Marni frowned. “You mean like in the closets?”
“It’s a huge house. There are acres to search.” My mind flashed to the pond and thoughts of a body floating there, but I shook
them off. Hanna didn’t need that vision in her head.
But the pond wasn’t the only hazard. We had to avoid the crime scene tape, but the rest of the place could . . . Okay, there
was no chance of stumbling over a brooding Jeremy somewhere on the grounds, but if moving around, lifting, and studying things
helped Hanna, then I’d pitch in.
“The police.” Hanna’s flat voice broke through my jumbled thoughts.
“Are they okay with you being here?” Marni asked.
A fair question. One I’d planned to tiptoe around, but thanks to Marni for getting right to it.
“No, I mean, the police are here.” Hanna slowly stood up again and went to the window. Put her hand on the glass. Two cars,
lights and sirens off, turned into the property’s main entrance.
That feeling you get right before the flu hits. That’s the shaky sensation that moved through me. Heat, then chills. Pain everywhere. Bile rushing up my throat.
Hanna wandered back up the main hall toward the front door. When she glanced at us over her shoulder her stark expression
telegraphed her fear. This was the visit she’d been dreading.
A second later the doorbell bonged. A deep, rich sound that screamed money.
Hanna froze. Her body seemed to shrink. “I can’t. I can’t.”
“Here.” I jumped up and wrapped an arm around her. She had a petite build, but she felt as if she’d shrunken into this stick
figure. So fragile.
The doorbell bonged a second time.
“I’ll get it.” Marni took her time walking around us and to the door.
I didn’t know whether to bring Hanna along or put my body in front of hers to block a fraction of the incoming pain. The low
rumble of voices filtered through the first floor. I couldn’t make out the words, but Marni wasn’t screaming or crying. That
might be a good sign.
“We can go over.” Hanna said the words without letting go of my arm.
I guided her, debating each step. Thinking she deserved better. As we got closer, the conversation sounded more heated. Something
was off.
Hanna talked right over them. “Where’s Jeremy?”
Two police cars and the detective from the fire. The same guy I saw all over town and on the news these days stopped talking
and stepped forward. “I’m sorry, ma’am. That’s not why we’re here.”
“Good.” Or was it? That’s when I noticed Marni’s face. So pale. “Marni?”
She drew in what looked like a fortifying breath. “They’re not here about Jeremy.”
Hanna shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Marni didn’t even blink. “They’re here for me.”