13. In Which Juniper Makes a House Call
IN WHICH JUNIPER MAKES A HOUSE CALL
S chool starts again.? *
The students return from break.
But one student does not.
I follow Aiden around the kitchen as he talks to the sheriff on the phone, craning my neck so that I can keep my ear as close to the receiver as possible. From what it sounds like…
“She texted her mom and told her she wants to extend her visit?” I say, incredulous, seconds after Aiden hangs up.
He nods, looking just as frustrated as I feel. “After chewing me out for asking so many questions?—”
“I heard that,” I say with a wince.
“Garrity said Sandra has been sending her mother updates, pictures of herself at the colleges included, and she supposedly even told her mother she would be arriving home a few days later than they’d originally planned.”
“Pictures of her at the schools?” I say, my mind whirling.
Aiden nods.
“Someone has her phone,” I say, dazed. “I figured, but…”
“Yes,” he says, looking grim. “However.” He holds up a finger.
“Garrity did admit that it’s suspicious, because apparently he’s checked with some of her friends, and they haven’t heard from her.
He also says she hasn’t been active on social media or the town forum.
So he told Sandra’s mom to tell her to come home now.
He says he’s keeping in touch with her mom, and he’s working on finding someone who can analyze if the photos being sent are photoshopped or not. ”? *
“They have to be, right?” I say. “Unless—” I break off, swallowing. “It was Sandy we saw, right?”
“It was,” Aiden says firmly. “I truly think it was.”
“That’s creepy.” I shiver, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. “That’s so creepy, Aiden. I hate this. I hate it.” We both do.
Which is why, several days later, Aiden and I visit Rocco Astor at his home. It’s all we can think to do.
According to Aiden, Rocco’s brother Lionel lives somewhere in the Heights, a sprawling but sparsely populated neighborhood in the wealthiest pocket of Autumn Grove.
When I was growing up, it was almost legendary in status; very few kids from school lived there, but theirs were the parties you always wanted to be invited to.
Now, Aiden says, it’s mostly retirees who live there— people who’ve come back to Autumn Grove and settled in, well after their own kids grew up and left home.
Where Lionel lives in the Heights, though, Rocco does not. He lives out of the way a bit, on a parcel of land on the outskirts of town.
“So he knows we’re coming, right?” I say now, turning to Aiden. We’re in his car, which is much cleaner and safer than mine.
“I texted him an hour ago,” Aiden says with a nod. He’s calm, cool, collected—everything I wish I were right now, and everything that I’m not. My palms are so sweaty that I keep having to wipe them on my jeans, and my insides are jittery with anxious anticipation.
But I can’t help it. Unlike Aiden, I don’t know Rocco. He’s not my friend. All I know is that he might be able to tell me about his brother—a friend of my mother’s. Possibly even my father.
“Okay, so remember,” I say, once again shifting in my seat so that I’m facing Aiden more fully.
“We’re not telling him about the body. We’re not even mentioning Sandy.
Okay?” I’ve taken to calling her Sandy , even though her name was Sandra in the yearbook.
It seems like that’s the name she went by, and respecting that is one of the very few things I can do for her now.
“Just like the last ten times you told me this,” Aiden says, sparing me a glance, “I agree. I will not mention Sandy. You need to chill.”
“I know,” I say as I press down on my bouncing knees. “I’m sorry. I’m trying.”
“Try harder,” he advises. “Rocco isn’t stupid. He’s going to ask questions if you’re acting weird.”
“Yeah,” I say. I force myself to take several deep breaths, and that does help some—although it also means I get a few good whiffs of whatever cologne Aiden uses, something subtle and woodsy.
? * He seems to have forgotten all about the freak moment of mutual attraction in the kitchen the other night, but I haven’t; for some reason the image of his white-knuckled grip on the table is burned into my retinas.
I’m pretty sure that’s how Aiden would hold onto any lover or girlfriend he had.
“Why are you rolling down the window?” he says five seconds later.
“Just feeling a little warm,” I say, fanning myself with my hand. “I need to get some air.”
“You’re feeling warm?” he says, casting his eyes skeptically over my outfit—jeans and a vintage t-shirt. “You’re wearing short sleeves.”
I am, and his skepticism is valid. The autumn breeze is brisk; the air is crisp despite the clear, sunny skies.
Despite his protests, though, I leave the window open until we’ve pulled off the main road and headed down a gravel side road.
We wind through countryside for a few minutes before a two-story house comes into view, one made of warm tan brick.
There’s a wooden shed out back, plus a coop and a tractor.
He’s doing the country living thing, it looks like.
It’s not for me, but I respect it—I can’t begin to imagine how hard it is.
Even though Aiden is the one who’s friends with Rocco, he told me before we came that he was adopting a hands-off approach to this meeting.
When I asked him what that meant, he just said, “Interrogating people isn’t in my wheelhouse.
You do it.” So it’s to that end that I’m the one who leads the way across Rocco’s overgrown yard, and I’m the one who knocks on the front door when we reach it.
He answers after only a moment of waiting.
“Welcome,” he says. He smiles, his white teeth gleaming against his sun-darkened skin. Then he gestures to the yard behind us, to the overgrowth and the random rake cast aside at the base of a large tree. “Sorry about the mess.”
“No judgment here,” I say cheerfully. “We once had a rose bush growing up that became so overgrown the HOA fined my mom and me.” I jerk my thumb over my shoulder at the unruly grass. “This is nothing.”
Rocco laughs. “That must have been quite some rose bush,” he says to Aiden and me. “Come in.”
I watch him carefully as we step inside and follow him to a simple, no-frills living room. He’s handsome, I realize with a start as he gestures for us to sit. Tall, fit, thick hair, and clear blue eyes—a total silver fox.
Wait. Is he considered a silver fox if only a tiny bit of his hair around the temples has turned silver? Or is he just a regular fox? He’s in his forties, I think, but so are Oscar Isaac, John Krasinski, and Tom Hiddleston. Older men have plenty going for them.
This man might be your uncle , I tell myself. Stop checking him out.
Ew. That does it. All attraction is gone, replaced by wariness. Handsome men usually send up red flags for me. I’ve met too many of them who have used their looks to get what they wanted, even if it wasn’t the right thing to do.
Yep. The jury is still out on this one.
“So what can I do for you?” Rocco says as we all take our seats. He looks back and forth between Aiden and me. “Something I can help with? ”
“Kind of,” I say. “Maybe? I hope. I had some questions for you, if that’s okay.”
“Sure,” Rocco says, looking intrigued. “What’s this about?”
I take a deep breath of air that smells faintly like cigarette smoke, trying to figure out how best to go about this.
I don’t really have the patience to beat around the bush right now, but it would also be stupid to jump in recklessly when the answers I’m looking for have the potential to be so important.
I can feel Aiden’s eyes on me, and somehow I know that he’s watching carefully to see how I proceed. If I crash and burn, will he jump in and help, I wonder? Or will he just stand by and watch?
I think it will be best if I root this conversation in a very non-threatening place.
People condemn being selfish or self-centered, but what they fail to recognize is that sometimes we talk about ourselves to avoid forcing other people to open up.
If I start this line of questioning by talking about myself, it will come off less like an interrogation and more like a woman seeking to learn more about her own past.
“So basically,” I begin, making myself more comfortable on the squashy couch, “I was looking through some old yearbooks up at the school, and I saw a photo with my mom in it that I wanted to know more about.”
Rocco nods slowly, his eyes narrowed in contemplation. I take that to mean I can keep going.
“Lionel Astor is your brother, correct?”
Rocco’s contemplative look falls clear off his face, morphing into a scowl. “Lionel? Yes. He’s my brother. Why?”
I stare at him, shocked at this change in expression. Next to me, Aiden gives a snort of laughter.
“Uh,” I say, trying to regain my train of thought. “Sorry, should I not…?” Normally I’d be more tactful, but this man clearly isn’t trying to hide his feelings, so it feels okay to ask. “Wh at’s with the death glare? Why are you making that face at me?”
Another unhelpful snort of laughter from Aiden, and I reach blindly in his direction until I find him. Then I give him a good whack.
“Because Lionel’s a real son of a—” But Rocco breaks off, his expression softening into something more sheepish. “Sorry. What I mean to say is, Lionel and I don’t get along.”
My heart sinks a bit; if he and his brother don’t get along, who knows how much he’ll be able to tell me?
“Well, look,” I say with a sigh. “It’s not necessarily only your brother I wanted to ask about. I just had some questions about—about my mom.”
Rocco eyes me shrewdly; all the boyishness is gone from his face now. “You’re Nora Bean’s girl.”
“Yes,” I say, my eyebrows shooting up. “I am.”
Rocco nods. “I knew it the second Aiden introduced you at the dance. You look just like her.”
“I’ve been told.”
“I bet you have,” he says with a snort. “Your mother was a real beauty, and it got her into trouble sometimes.”