51. Daisy
Chapter 51
Daisy
B ack at work on Monday, I was still replaying our conversation with Professor Alvarez.
Because what the actual fuck?
He’d added several new pieces to the puzzle, but we had no more clarity on how it all fit together now than we’d had before the trip to Philly. Was it just a coincidence that the woman who’d accused Michael White of sexual assault had later gone missing?
How had Michael, best friend to Arlo and Mac, escaped Blackwell Falls for an Ivy League school only to become embroiled in a sexual assault allegation? And what had happened to him after graduation?
I hadn’t been the only one rocked by the information from Professor Alvarez. After we’d watched him walk away, we’d sat in the grass to look up the details on the missing girl. We probably hadn’t looked much different from the students lounging there between classes — well, except for the Beasts being twice the size of the other guys on campus — but instead of studying for a calc test or putting the finishing touches on an English paper, we were looking up the sordid details of the disappearance of a student thirty years earlier.
Thankfully she was the only girl who’d gone missing at UPenn and it had only taken us a minute to find her name: April Hedges.
But the other details were scarce. She’d last been seen leaving the library after a study session and had never made it back to her dorm. There were no witnesses to her disappearance and no trace of her had ever been found.
We’d talked about approaching her family, asking them about her accusations against Michael White, but it seemed intrusive. We’d decided to keep working the Michael angle instead, and the Beasts had spent the last few days combing the internet for any mention of him after his graduation from Wharton.
The alarm sounded on my phone and I shut off the notification, a reminder to call Tomislav Kovac, one of the VIPs who’d bought a private villa at Cantwell. His home base was Croatia, and like all the VIPs, he was impossible to get ahold of. Between their busy schedules and the international time differences, following up with them was like choreographing a dance in the fast lane.
I pulled up Tomislav Kovac’s contact info, tabbed to his design file on my computer, and reached for my office phone. The ringtone sounded different overseas, more like a digital hum, and a few seconds later a crisp female voice sounded in my ear.
“Mr. Kovac's office, how may I help you?”
“Hi,, this is Daisy Hammond with the Cantwell Resort and Spa in Blackwell Falls. I have a call scheduled with Mr. Kovac at 11 a.m.”
“Mr. Kovac is just finishing up a meeting,” the woman said. “Would you be so kind as to hold?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
There was no hold music, just silence punctuated by an occasional hum. I picked up my phone and went to Ruth’s socials. I felt a little guilty checking up on her through her online profiles, but it wasn’t like she was trying to keep me out. She hadn’t blocked me or anything.
Yet.
There were three new pictures since the last time I’d looked: Ruth’s hand (I knew it was hers because I recognized the bracelet my dad had given her for her fourteenth birthday) intertwined with an obviously male hand, a picture of a field of sunflowers with a caption that was either a poem or song lyrics, and a man’s denim-clad thigh in the driver’s seat of a car.
I sighed and opened the notes app on my phone, then started to go over my last-minute grocery list for Thanksgiving. It wouldn’t be a big gathering — just the Beasts, Wolf’s mom, Daya, Cassie, and Sarai — but it was my first time hosting and I wanted it to be nice, wanted everyone to feel loved and welcome, like they had a home.
I was especially nervous about Wolf’s mom. I hadn’t expected her to accept the invitation I’d extended through Wolf, and now I couldn’t help wondering how she felt about the fact that her son was involved with Blake’s little sister.
I’d only met her in passing when I’d been a kid, but that was before the Beasts had confessed to killing Blake to take the heat off me. Wolf said his mom knew that he’d done it, that she’d forgiven him and didn’t blame me, but it was just another complicated piece of an already complicated situation.
And then there was the food. I’d never cooked a whole turkey before, let alone a whole Thanksgiving dinner, but I’d stopped by my dad’s house when he’d been away to commiserate with Joan and she’d given me all her tips and tricks. I felt like a general armed for battle except my weapon was my grocery list and my battle plans were Joan’s recipes.
I sat up straighter when the woman came back on the line. “Transferring you to Mr. Kovac.”
“Thank you.”
A brief silence was followed by an accented male voice. “Good afternoon.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Kovac. Olivia Davis asked me to call to go over a few last-minute design details for your villa at the Cantwell Resort and Spa.”
“Yes, yes,” he said, “I can give you fifteen minutes.”
Oh boy, nothing like a little pressure. “Fifteen minutes is fine. I’ve sent you some files ahead of our meeting. Shall we start with the wallpaper for the bedroom?”