Chapter Fifty-Two Hanna
Chapter Fifty-Two
Hanna
I’d slept on the couch since Jeremy disappeared. I’d get up thinking about him. Spend all day searching, mentally going over
every minute of the night I lost Jeremy and worrying about him. The sun would go down and intense panic about him not being
safe and warm kept me walking the floor like I used to do when he was a colicky baby.
His face swam in front of me. An echoing phantom scream rang in my ears every time I remembered his voice. I even thought
about him, about how I’d rather be anywhere else, during the frustrating back-and-forth, no-progress-made discussion with
the insurance adjuster.
The man droned on about arson concerns and how desperate businesspeople sometimes intentionally set fires. To his credit,
he didn’t overtly blame me. He danced around the we think you torched your business allegations with the skill of someone accustomed to universally denying claims based on nothing more than gut instinct and
office procedure.
I watched television, too. Some people made bad decisions when bills came due and the bank balance hit a negative number.
I grew up that way. I got it, but the adjuster skipped over the reality about my business being on solid financial ground.
I couldn’t make those claims during most of my life but, thanks to a spike in tourist traffic and a local interest in Daniela’s cooking, I could pay my debts on time right now.
Xavier’s asset distribution and the fee I’d collect for administering the trust assured my financial future. Even the police conceded that.
My desperation came from needing to hear Jeremy’s voice and see his face. My lawyer insisted I shouldn’t panic about the delay
in finding him. Jeremy’s a strong boy. As if that insulated him from violence.
The attorney also thought that members of law enforcement crawling all over my life and Xavier’s property were good things.
Forget how the entire town had stopped thinking about Halloween parties to focus on dissecting my life choices and betting
on how long until Jeremy forgave me enough to call home.
When it started raining earlier, pounding down in waves from a milky-gray sky, I welcomed the rush of air and water. If my
life needed some sort of cleanse to get it back on track, let it pour.
After my daily check-in with Daniela’s niece and a hospital visit to sit by Daniela’s side, I landed at police headquarters
for another bleak round of find my son. I sat in a chair, waiting. Waiting and worrying had become my daily activities. I tried to push the panic away and concentrate
on how smart Jeremy was. How I’d know if he wasn’t okay.
“Hanna?”
I started to stand up until I realized Cam was the one who stood over me. Not the police officer I wanted to see. A thought hit me out of nowhere. “They didn’t bring Marni in again, did they?”
“No.” He sighed as he sat down next to me. “She answered their questions. For now.”
Clipped with a touch of anger. That summarized his tone on a good day. It fit here, too. The man didn’t know another speed.
He’d been locked on ornery for as long as I’d known him. The idea of him caring about Marni, protecting her . . . Yeah, that didn’t fit with my view
of him at all.
“The police and FBI are at Xavier’s house, setting up ground-penetrating radar,” I said.
I thought about the equipment they unloaded in the mist and fog this morning. Black with handles. The bulky thing looked like
an odd lawn mower. The wheels stuck in the mud surrounding the former wildflower garden.
Patrick’s impromptu resting place had been roped off and the stone path had been removed. The plants had been leveled. That
patch of garden amounted to a mound of tilled and piled earth, but they planned to check it all. Every inch of every acre.
I’d watched them out of the guest bedroom window. A room two doors down from the massive primary bedroom with its attached
sitting room and fireplace. I refused to sleep in Xavier’s room. Those days were long over.
When I wasn’t pacing, I spent the nights calling Jeremy’s phone and searching online, for what, I didn’t know. Hours would
tick by, then the sun would clear the horizon and bathe the acres of hills and dips in deep orange. The shock of color that
brought a hint of hope.
Xavier must have been the one to bury Patrick in the yard. From here, Xavier could watch over his son and miss what could have been. That daily reminder of pain and loss explained so much about who Xavier was and how he treated other people.
“They’re hoping to finally find the rest of the family, or at least evidence of where the bodies could be. It makes sense
since Patrick was buried there,” Cam said.
Nothing relating to the Tanners made sense, but sure. Cam knew all about law enforcement’s comings and goings. The lack of
a badge didn’t limit his inside knowledge.
“Why are you here?” I asked even though I barely cared.
“I’ve been helping out.” He frowned as he watched two teen boys walk by.
“With what?” I left out the obvious reminder about how he didn’t work here and probably never should have.
That got his attention. He frowned at me. “The Tanner case. What else would I be talking about?”
Marni hadn’t detailed what Cam did to save her ass fifteen years ago after she called him, but it was clear Cam leaving the
force had been a good call. It wasn’t as if he ever suffered for his poor judgment or lack of results. In recent years, Xavier
repeatedly talked about how Cam had been made to pay the price for the FBI’s lack of success. Xavier pushed for Cam to get
the security job he held after the police. Now he was executor of Xavier’s estate and would get a check for that, too. How
incredibly convenient and lucrative.
Voices grew louder as two officers ushered those teen boys into a private room and out of the center of the office.
Cam folded his hands over his stomach. “You should know there’s been some talk about Jeremy.”
“About time. I couldn’t get anyone to worry about him since he went missing.” The whole boys will be boys backslapping crap made me grit my teeth. I grumbled but kept my cool when I really wanted to berate and threaten. My attorney’s
warning about how getting on the wrong side of law enforcement would mean even less support for finding Jeremy had stopped
me. I didn’t have power and influence and that had never been clearer than right now.
Cam stretched his legs out in front of him. “There’s been some suggestion that Jeremy might have needed to run.”
I had no idea where this was going but it was likely to piss me off. I could feel the rage building. “I know the theory about
him being angry with me and—”
“About him getting revenge. Taking his anger at you out on the business.”
I shifted until I faced him. Blocked out all the noise and scurrying in the main room around us. “Wait . . . What?”
Cam shrugged. “You said he was downstairs, in the office, when the fire started.”
Now I remember how much I hated dealing with this guy. He’d questioned me about the Tanners and that text for help from Patrick
all those years ago. In retrospect, as Xavier’s trusted friend it’s likely he’d known about my personal life. About me and
Xavier. Maybe that explained the way he always glared at me, judging and finding me lacking.
“No, Jeremy was supposed to be down there.”
Cam frowned. “We’re saying the same thing.”
“We’re not.” I jumped up because the dark energy pumping through me made it impossible to sit still.
“You’re saying someone in this building thinks Jeremy, a kid who has never been in trouble, who grew up here, and who they all know from stopping in the café, decided out of spite and after only an hour or so of thinking about it to burn down the café and accidentally hurt Daniela? ”
“It’s a theory.”
“It’s bullshit.” That anger I kept pushing back roared to life. I debated taming it versus letting it fly. “I wonder, is it
your bullshit?”
Cam slowly sat up. “Now, I know we’ve never gotten along—”
“Why is that?”
“I didn’t trust you.” He glanced around but whatever he saw convinced him he didn’t need to lower his voice. He kept right
on talking at his usual grumbly, look-at-me level. “You screwed around with my best friend and—”
“Shut up.” I cut him off before he could say whatever annoying thing he had planned next. “Yes, I said shut up. You and everyone
else in this town.” Of course people were watching every move I made these days. Not exactly shocking. “You have no idea what
happened twenty years ago with Xavier.”
“Maybe I do.”
This asshole. “How about we focus on this decade. My son is missing. We talked earlier that night. He wasn’t looking for vengeance or
to punish me. He didn’t burn down my café because he wouldn’t do that.”
“He just inherited a fortune.”
“I’m not sure what you think that proves, but in reality it means he didn’t need to rush off. He has plenty of money for attorneys
or will very soon.”
“Did you ever think it’s possible I’m not the enemy?” Cam asked.
“No.”
Cam shook his head as he stood up. “I’m the one insisting to my former colleagues that you would never set fire to the business
you spent your entire adult life building. I’m reminding them that they know Jeremy and they know you. I’m pushing them to
search for Jeremy because he could be in danger.”
My biggest cheerleader . . . Since when? “Why?”
“Because I promised Xavier I’d watch over both of you.”
I spent my life fighting for a place to belong. I ignored the whispers and my needs and focused on the beauty of this town.
On the openness and goodness of many of the residents. On Jeremy because of course I did and because I worried if I didn’t,
if I faltered at all, Xavier would swoop in and take him.
I fought and worked and staked out only a few do not cross this line positions to survive. But, standing there, I had no idea what to say to Cam’s revisionist history about supporting me.
Cam leaned in. “I couldn’t protect Xavier. I will make sure no one hurts his son.”
“You couldn’t . . .” Cam’s insinuations had me whispering and stunned and totally confused. “What are you implying? He died
of a heart attack. He was almost eighty.”
“He was fit with the best doctors and best medicine.”
My mind refused to venture in the direction of another murdered Tanner. Xavier died from natural causes. No one but Cam suggested
any different. “He wasn’t superhuman.”
“He lost his family. He was determined not to lose you and Jeremy—”
I snorted because I couldn’t help it. “That’s not the way I remember it.”
“Then Aubrey appeared.”
A sobering thought. “You think she, what, poisoned him? Did he even know she was in town?”
“Just be wary. She’s smart. Don’t let her fool you. She’s also ruthless.”
I watched Cam walk away, more confused than I was before we talked. He wanted me to be skeptical of Aubrey. I was too busy
wondering what he was trying to hide.