Chapter 45
forty-five
CAL
“It’s been less than an hour.”
“I know,” Harlow says, pacing in front of the couch. Melt the Ice released their first episode this morning. I’ve already listened to it, and I think they did a great job. Jo was serious as always, and Harlow brought more lightheartedness to the show while still keeping to the serious nature of the topic.
“What are you worried about?” I ask, pulling her to sit on my lap.
“Negative impact. Hurting Ezra.” Harlow looks past me and out the glass door into our backyard, lost in thought. “Oh fuck! What if this makes him run again?”
“Fuck!” Cora says cheerfully from her spot on the floor.
Harlow looks shocked but recovers quickly. “Good job, Cora girl! Duck!”
“Duck!” Cora repeats and we all clap.
“That was close,” Harlow mutters as I laugh.
“Why would he run?” I ask.
“In the off chance it wasn’t Wolfe,” she says. “I know all evidence points to him, but if there’s even a slight chance it wasn’t, this could spook Ezra.”
“I don’t think he’ll run,” I say after thinking for a moment.
“You don’t?” Harlow asks, looking like she doesn’t believe me.
“I don’t. He’s had to have seen the news about his dad, and I’m sure he’ll listen to the podcast. He’s going to know what we’re doing. He’s going to see we’ll never stop searching. When it’s safe, he’ll come out of hiding, or you’ll find him before that.”
“You think he’ll listen to my podcast?”
“I know he will. Ezra has a curious mind, kind of like you. He’d be too interested to ignore it.” I kiss her forehead and she leans into me.
“Let’s hope someone has a credible tip,” she sighs. “Because I have no idea where he went after leaving Jasper in Nashville.”
“We’re getting tips on the site already,” Jo says, walking in through the back door. “Well, it looks like the app is actually the preferred method at the moment.”
“And you need to come over here to say that?” I ask grumpily. I don’t get a ton of alone time with my family, and I was enjoying it, even if Harlow was freaking out.
“There’s one that stands out that I think we need to look into,” Jo says to Harlow, ignoring that I even spoke. Which is typical. Jo hands her phone over to Harlow, who reads whatever is on the screen. Her eyebrows shoot up, and she looks at Jo.
“Holy shit.”
“Shit!” Cora echoes.
“Good job! Fish!” Harlow says, giving me a guilty look before turning back to Jo’s phone.
“Do we think this is real?” Jo asks.
“It could be,” Harlow says, biting her bottom lip.
“The submission is anonymous, but maybe we should ask your dad to try to find the person,” Jo says.
“If we do that, we might be putting them in danger. And even if we aren’t, it goes against the entire point of it being anonymous.”
“Can someone tell me what the fudge you’re talking about?” I ask, trying not to swear since apparently Cora picked today to be a parrot.
Harlow hands over Jo’s phone so I can read the submission.
I know for a fact that Ezra witnessed a murder. The murderer saw him and that’s why he ran. Murderer is still at large, so he can’t come home.
“One of your theories is that he witnessed something bad. This would confirm it.” I hand Jo’s phone back to her and shrug.
“The texts from the unknown number confirmed as much too,” Harlow says. “But if they’re still at large, it’s not Wolfe.”
“That’s also assuming this is a real tip,” Jo says. “Are you sure we can’t ask your dad to find this person?”
“If we get desperate, we might have to. But this narrows down what we think he saw. We could look into missing people from that time frame in that area,” Harlow says.
“Not murders?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Do you remember hearing about any unsolved murders back home?”
“What if it was on or near campus? We don’t know when this happened,” I say. “I don’t remember any murders, but there’s probably missing people. We went to college in Bangor.”
“Shit. That adds a lot more cases to look into,” Jo says.
“I’ll mention it to my dad. I think he was looking into something in Nashville, but I’m sure this will interest him.”
Harrison went to Nashville to ask questions around the area where Ezra used to live and work. Jasper helped him out as best he could with locations, but it wasn’t a lot to go on.
Jo’s shoulders sag as she deflates like a sad balloon. “I got ahead of myself with that,” she says.
“It could lead to something, and it could not. It’s going to keep happening. We knew that. Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Harlow tells her.
“I didn’t tell Maverick, so if you could keep this to yourselves,” Jo says.
I frown, and Harlow cocks her head. “Why?” I ask.
“He’s been happy lately. He even leaves the house without anyone forcing him to. I don’t want to bring him back down with something that could turn out to be false. I promised to keep him in the loop, and I will. Just with facts, not speculation.”
“I’ll keep it to myself as long as you promise to tell him the moment you have anything to back up that claim,” I say, and Harlow nods her agreement.
“I promise,” Jo says, looking relieved.
“What’s going on with you two?” Harlow asks.
Jo meets her eye and gives her a sad smile. “Nothing. We can’t ever be anything, Harlow. He loves Ezra, and you’re going to find him. I won’t be a placeholder for his real love.”
“Okay,” Harlow says quietly. Jo holds her gaze for a moment more and then leaves the way she came.
“Do you think it’s really nothing?” I ask.
“No. I think Jo has feelings she’s denying, and Maverick probably isn’t helping. We all see the way he follows her around like a lost puppy.”
“She’s right about Ezra though?” I point out.
“Is she? We’re going to be coming up on seven years since Ezra went missing. There’s no way he isn’t an entirely different person now. Not to mention, there’s a very good chance the person Maverick is in love with is the memory version of Ezra that never really existed.”
I suck in a breath, ready to argue, but then I let it out. She could be right. I know she’s at least partially correct. Seven years of living while looking over your shoulder for danger has to have changed Ezra. There isn’t a single scenario where it wouldn’t. I’m not sure Maverick has come to terms with that, or even willingly understood it.
Harlow lets out an exhausted sigh and slumps into my arms. “I think we should just find him first and stop speculating.”
“Works for me.”