Chapter 10
Every muscle in Adeline’s body quivered. She walked straight to the ladies’ room. Wanted to run but didn’t dare. Didn’t make it to the toilet. Barfed in the sink.
The dreams Elliott had spoken of had haunted Adeline her entire life .
. . for as long as she could remember. She had forced herself to learn to swim.
But she had never been a water sports fan.
Every time she drove over a body of water she told herself she wasn’t actually afraid of the water .
. . it was the stupid dreams that made her feel uncomfortable.
But that had always been a lie.
She was afraid of the water.
No. Not afraid . . . terrified.
Adeline rinsed her mouth and the sink, then stared at her reflection. What the hell was going on with her?
She washed her hands, leaned down and rinsed her mouth again under the tap, then snatched a couple of paper towels.
“To hell with this.” She banished the fear, tossed the wad of damp paper, and stormed back into the corridor.
Wyatt waited for her. “You okay?”
She wasn’t talking about it. “Huff in the other interview room?”
“She is. But, Addy—”
Adeline held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t.”
Wyatt conceded, gestured for her to lead the way. Adeline walked past interview room 1 where Elliott had opened up enough to confirm there was something she and her friend weren’t telling, took a breath, and entered room 2.
Jessica Huff looked up, then past Adeline. “Sheriff Henderson, can you please tell me what’s going on?” She glanced at her watch. “I really don’t have a lot of time today. I’ve already been waiting here for over an hour.”
Like Elliott, Huff was mid-thirties. Long black hair and dark eyes, nearly black as well.
Tall, thin. Well dressed. Her body language suggested impatience, but maybe she was more nervous than impatient.
Adeline hadn’t decided yet. The watch could be more for show than for keeping up with the time. Seriously, who wore watches anymore?
“This won’t take long,” Adeline assured her as she took a seat. Wyatt sat down next to her. “Why don’t you tell us about Cherry’s abrupt fears related to water?”
Huff blinked but not quickly enough to hide the surprise and the first inkling of uncertainty. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Wyatt didn’t speak, as promised, just watched the woman.
“Let me explain something to you, Ms. Huff.” Adeline leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest. “We know about the problem. The fact that you’re concealing information that may have something to do with why Cherry’s missing makes you a suspect.”
Outright fear replaced the uncertainty. “A suspect?” She looked to Wyatt. “How can I be a suspect? Cherry and I are like sisters. The idea that I would do anything to harm her is ludicrous.” Huff lifted her chin in defiance. “I should call my lawyer if what you say is true.”
Adeline reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. “Be my guest.” She slid it across the table. “Of course, we were hoping to keep this out of the media.”
Huff’s eyes rounded with uncertainty. She drew her hand away from the phone as if it were contaminated. “This can’t get out. Cherry would . . .”
“Cherry would what?” Adeline held that worried gaze, let the other woman see that this detective was not happy.
“She would be mortified.”
“Ms. Huff,” Wyatt spoke up, “if we can deal with this here, get all the facts, then perhaps no one else will need to be involved.”
Good move. Adeline resisted the urge to smile. “Otherwise,” she countered before the woman could catch her breath, “this could get pretty ugly. You know how the media twists things.”
Huff caved. “Okay.” She closed her eyes and took a breath. “Cherry will be extremely upset that I told you this, but”—she met Adeline’s gaze once more—“if it’ll help find her, that’s all that matters.”
Well, yeah. What the hell was wrong with these people? “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
“Three months ago, Chastity, Cherry’s daughter, turned four.
It was as if some long-slumbering phobia triggered.
Cherry started feeling anxious all the time.
Having nightmares. She refused to take a bath, something she’d loved doing, with her daughter.
” Huff flared her hands. “She has this big Jacuzzi tub and she loved running a big bubble bath and playing with Chastity. She called it girl time.”
More of that too-familiar tension knotted in Adeline’s gut. “Did she ever describe the nightmares to you?”
Huff nodded, her expression resigned. “She said she kept dreaming that she was holding Chastity under the water.” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes. “It terrified her. She was scared to death . . . that she was having some sort of breakdown.”
“Did she recall any other elements of the nightmares?” Wyatt asked.
Huff shook her head, then stopped. “Not until she got that.”
Adeline’s breath was trapped in her lungs. “The cut-and-paste letter?” She was careful not to mention the contents, though from Huff’s comments in her previous statement she evidently had seen the letter.
“Yes.” Huff swiped the tears from her cheeks with meticulously manicured fingers.
“She and her husband had called Chastity their little princess since the day she was born. Cherry would go nuts every time Ron, her husband, called her that . . . after the letter came. Ron just figured it was because of the letter.”
A frown nagged at Adeline’s forehead, ushering forth the distant ache that threatened to turn into a full-fledged skull breaker. “Wasn’t it because of the letter?”
Huff shook her head. “It was because of something else she remembered from the dream.”
Jesus Christ. Could the woman get to the point any more slowly? “Something else?”
“In the dream,” Jessica said hesitantly, “while she was holding her daughter under the water, she would say something like ‘no more princesses’.”
The full impact of what Huff was saying suddenly hit Adeline’s brain. “Her older child is a boy.”
“Chad,” Huff confirmed. “He’s nine.”
Those deep spasms started in Adeline’s gut once more. “So you believe that Cherry was afraid of hurting her daughter? That she feared the dreams somehow might become a reality?”
“She started doing all this research,” Huff explained.
“She was convinced that the dreams were connected to some childhood trauma. But her parents assured her that wasn’t the case.
” Huff leaned forward. “She even started to question whether or not her parents were really her parents. Is that ridiculous, or what? I felt so sorry for her. I was literally watching my best friend fall apart.”
Adeline fought the tension clamping around her throat. “Did she talk about this to her husband?”
Huff moved her head firmly from side to side. “No one but me. She didn’t even tell Cassie. She was afraid she might be going . . . you know . . . over the edge.”
“What did Cherry do about her concerns?” Adeline felt as if she were poised on a cliff and that the woman’s next words might send her plummeting over the edge.
“I don’t know.”
Shit. “What do you mean, you don’t know? You’re her best friend. She told you everything. Things she didn’t tell her husband.”
“She wouldn’t talk to me about it.” Huff’s expression reflected her certainty. “But she was doing something. Every time I called her she was busy. When I couldn’t catch her at home, her husband would say that she was tied up with work research.”
“But you didn’t believe that,” Wyatt suggested.
“No. I called her office. She was taking a lot of personal time. Her secretary thought she was going to physical therapy for back pain.”
“And you’re certain she wasn’t.” Adeline pushed Huff for clarification.
“If Cherry ever had back pain in her life,” Huff confided, “I never heard about it. No, I think she was trying to find answers.”
“To the dreams?” Adeline asked.
Huff nodded. “She didn’t want anyone to know. Not even Ron. And that was totally weird. They have a perfect relationship. She never hid things from him. Not in twelve years of marriage.”
“You believe she was looking for the childhood trauma that had provoked the dreams?”
“Yes. I think maybe her parents were keeping something from her.”
“Are you suggesting that Cherry had seriously considered the idea that Mr. and Mrs. Bowden might not be her biological parents?” Wyatt ventured.
Adeline stared at him. Not because what he asked wasn’t perfectly logical—Huff had just said as much—but because that same question had been hovering in the back of Adeline’s mind. Only it wasn’t about Cherry.
“I can’t imagine why she would have actually considered such a thing,” Huff argued vehemently.
“She looks just like her mother, and they have tons of photos of her as a baby. Cherry and I attended school together from day one of kindergarten. There are no secrets in her family’s past. Our families have known each other forever. ”
Adeline searched Huff’s face. Zeroed in on her eyes. “What do you think happened to Cherry?”
Huff didn’t speak for a long moment, but she didn’t break eye contact with Adeline. “I think she ran away.”
Now there was an answer Adeline hadn’t been expecting. “Why do you believe that?”
“I saw the fear in her eyes.” Huff’s tears spilled past her lashes once more. “She was scared to death that she’d hurt her baby. She didn’t tell a soul she was coming here. She just up and left and then disappeared. She took her purse and her phone.”
“But she didn’t withdraw any money from the bank,” Wyatt countered. “Neither her credit cards nor her cell phone have been used since her disappearance.”
“Cherry kept a petty cash fund at home. A few hundred dollars. Maybe she took that,” Huff offered. “And she has a lot of sorority sisters from law school. Any one of them could be giving her refuge.”
“You’re certain this has nothing to do with her husband?” Adeline asked.
“It’s not about her husband.” Huff shook her head. “It always comes to that. When a woman goes missing, everyone suspects the husband. Trust me,” she looked from Adeline to Wyatt and back, “her husband is amazing. If he weren’t, Cherry would never have left her kids with him.”
The woman was telling the truth to the best of her knowledge. Adeline had no doubts about that.
“Please don’t tell Ron I said this,” Huff went on, “I don’t want him to know I kept this from him.
” A sob tore from her throat. “If I’d thought for a second that any of this might save her from some monster, I would have told you.
I swear. But I don’t think there’s a monster involved here. I believe it’s the nightmares.”
“You don’t believe Cherry was abducted?” Wyatt asked for clarification purposes.
Huff shook her head, her lips trembling.
“I don’t. I’m convinced that Cherry is running from this”—she flared her hands as if she didn’t know how to explain—“thing that’s happening to her.
” She took a deep, fortifying breath. “She won’t come back until she’s sure it’s safe for her daughter. I can guarantee that.”