Chapter Sixteen
Audra felt like she’d been through some kind of very strange gauntlet. She knew about gauntlets that were all bad. Gauntlets that were mostly good—like when Vi and Thomas had gotten married, or Rosalie and Duncan had. Gauntlets that were terrible—when Dad had died, when Vi had been kidnapped.
But this was a mix of everything. Failure and depression over drawing Rosalie into this. Dread over having to tell Franny. Anxiety that they had no answers. And twin feelings of joy and terror that Copeland had stood across the room and said: I care about you.
How? Why? Was he lying just to keep her safe, just to do his job?
No. That wasn’t him. As hard as it was to understand why he would care about her, she knew he wouldn’t say it without meaning it. Not Copeland.
He was still talking into his phone. She got the impression it was to someone from work, probably Laurel. When he hit End, then slid the phone into his pocket, he took a minute before he turned and looked at her.
“Interesting development. Do you know anything about Austin Young?”
Audra tried not to frown. “I know Austin is the name of one of my half siblings.” She thought back to what they’d learned after Dad had died, who she’d reached out to.
“Not the youngest. The middle? I think he was in college when Dad died, but it wasn’t a college I knew, so I don’t remember the name. But he’d be out now, I’d think.”
“He’s been reported missing. He’s been living in Idaho, but his sister, Karly, reported it from where she’s living in Colorado. His mother and other siblings corroborated they hadn’t heard from him, so the police did a welfare check. Boss hadn’t seen him, friends hadn’t seen him.”
Audra tried to center herself with this new strange information. This Austin she shared half her DNA with but had never met had gone missing. “Karly. She’s the oldest.” Audra had reached out to Karly specifically, because they were almost exactly the same age.
There had been no response.
It didn’t make sense that it might be connected. Idaho. Florida. “Do you think he…?”
“I’m not sure what to think yet, but there’s something I want to cross off the possibility list.” He studied her in a way that had her feeling wary. It was a cop study, like she was simply a piece of evidence to be slotted into place.
She didn’t care for it, but a lot of it softened as he reached out, put those big hands on her shoulders. “Audra, I’ve got a big ask.”
“Oh, an ask. How novel to not be told.”
He didn’t smirk or laugh or do anything else, which had dread curling in Audra’s stomach. This was serious.
He held her gaze, and there was something warm and empathetic in his eyes, which made the dread dig deeper.
“I want you to call your mom.”
Audra didn’t allow herself to immediately react. She stayed very still, kept her expression frozen, until she could work through all the reactions inside of her.
“For the case,” she said, very carefully.
“Yes. I want you to have a mostly normal conversation, but then I want you to ask if she knows someone.”
“You think Austin missing connects…to my mother?”
“It could. She could. It more likely doesn’t, but I don’t want to leave that stone unturned. Something is coming out of Florida, where your mother is. Someone I was looking into went missing around the time all this started. I want to make sure those are two separate things.”
Audra swallowed. “She wouldn’t have anything to do with my father’s other kids. She won’t even…”
“Have anything to do with her own?” he asked, finishing gently for her.
She couldn’t hold his gaze, and even she knew the little shrug she’d meant to be casual was nothing but jerky under his hands. “Yeah.”
“Categorically her loss, Audra. But you know that.”
Did she? She wanted to know it, but sometimes… Sometimes it all just felt like she’d been rejected over and over and over again by everyone.
Not Rosalie. Not Franny. Not Vi or Magnolia. Not… Copeland.
Not yet, anyway.
She shook away that thought. “I could call her. I will, if that’s what you need for the case, but we don’t usually talk. There’d be no reason for me to call her up, unless I tell her I think she’s the one terrorizing the ranch and I don’t think that’s going to go over well.”
Copeland shrugged. “Tell her you want her to come up. Meet your new boyfriend.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Boyfriend. That makes us sound like teenagers.” Not that he’d said he was the boyfriend. It was just a conceit.
“You got a better word?” he asked, like…
“No.” Boyfriend. But Copeland wasn’t that. He was…
He wasn’t saying they were though. He was saying to tell her mother they were as an excuse.
“She wouldn’t even come for Rosalie’s wedding. Why would I think she’d come to meet a boyfriend?”
“Just pretend you live in eternal hope she’ll change her mind.”
Audra knew her mother never would, but…“What if she says yes?”
“What if she does? I can meet your crappy mom, Audra. I’d even be on my best behavior. Mostly.”
Audra didn’t have the slightest clue what to say to that. To making it feel like a real thing when it wasn’t. It was all too muddled and confused. Pointless to think about. Mom wouldn’t come. She didn’t have any connection to Austin.
But Copeland’s hands were still on her shoulders. He gave them a squeeze. “The word boyfriend doesn’t bother me. I don’t shake easy, Audra. Not once I’m dug in. And I’m getting pretty damn dug in.”
She wanted to cry again, but it was getting ridiculous. The whole thing was ridiculous and… Dug in. She didn’t know how. Couldn’t understand how. But she supposed, as much as it terrified her, he deserved a little of the same certainty.
“Me too.”
“Good.” He squeezed her shoulders one last time. “Let’s call your mom.”
HE DIDN’T LIKE this version of her. The hurt version. The woman who’d been failed by too many people who should have loved her unconditionally. Watching a woman as caring and sweet as Audra dread calling her own mother twisted his guts into knots.
But this had to be done. He had her put the phone on speaker before she dialed her mother.
“She might not answer,” Audra said as it began to ring. She kept her gaze on the phone sitting on the table, clearly hoping for that eventuality.
“Then leave her a message to call you back.”
“She might not—”
The ringing stopped and a woman’s voice scratched out from the phone receiver. “Audra.”
“Mom. Hi.”
“Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, of course. I just… It’s been a while. I wanted to check up on you.”
There was a beat of silence. Copeland could almost hear the suspicion in it. “Well, I suppose it’s about time.”
Audra linked her hands together. Her head was bowed, no doubt to hide the misery on her face, but he didn’t need to see her expression to know this was a misery to her.
“Rosalie’s wedding was beautiful. Did you get the pictures I sent?”
There was a kind of sniffing noise. “Easy to be beautiful when your husband is loaded,” she said bitterly. “But you know, I’m seeing someone myself.”
It was petty and superficial. Childish, really. Copeland couldn’t believe the woman on the other line was a mother, let alone the mother of adult children. Once this case was over, he was going to send his mother flowers as a thank-you.
“I suppose Rosalie thinks she wins with a baseball player and his boatload of money, but my Isaac? He’s a burgeoning artist. He’s going to make such a splash.”
“Oh, that’s…great, Mom.”
“It is,” the woman said firmly, but Copeland’s mind was whirling.
He’d been looking in to all of Audra’s half siblings, so he knew bits and pieces about them. Like that Austin worked at an art gallery in Boise and was attempting to become an artist himself.
A coincidence. It could be, but what kind of insane coincidence was that?
“Is there anything else, Audra? I am very busy.”
“Oh. No, I guess not. I just…heard recently that one of my half siblings has gone missing. Austin. He’s the middle one I think and—”
“I can’t believe you’d even utter that name to me.”
“I’m sorry,” Audra said, in what was clearly an automatic, knee-jerk apology. “It’s just…upsetting and made me think of you. Worry about you.”
“And you think I’d care about that? After all the upsetting your father put me through? With that other family? Honestly, Audra, what are you thinking?”
“I suppose I wasn’t. I’m sorry.” She pushed a finger into the corner of her eye, like a headache was drumming there, and Copeland had the acute stab of guilt that he was putting her through this.
But art and Florida suddenly had a connection, and they wouldn’t have stumbled upon it without this little foray into the heart of Audra’s pain.
“I have to go. This has been very upsetting. Next time you call, I don’t want any topic that even remotely connects to your father. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“After what he did. After… Oh, I’m so worked up now. That’s what I get for taking a call from you. There is no reason to call me again unless it’s actually important, Audra. And you can tell that to your sister too. Goodbye.”
“’Bye, Mom.” But it was clear the connection had ended before she’d even gotten the goodbye out.
Copeland fought the urge to bundle her up and just hold on until this all went away. But it wasn’t going away, and they had to get to the bottom of this more than deal with her completely understandable issues.
He’d send his mother two bouquets of flowers.
“Well, no need to use the boyfriend excuse,” Audra said.
She sounded very much herself, but he could see the way she chose each word carefully.
The way she held herself just so, as if she was still enough the pain couldn’t get through.
“She was too busy bragging about hers.” Audra sighed deeply, closing her eyes and leaning her head on the back of the couch.
“She doesn’t know Austin, Copeland. You heard how she reacted. She’s not connected. She can’t be.”
“Do you know what your half brother does for a living?”
“Huh?” She opened her eyes, looked at him in confusion. “No. I don’t…”
“He works at an art gallery in Boise. And does some of his own painting on the side with a clear desire to make it to the big time.”
“That’s…”
“A pretty big coincidence.”