BOOK 3
Chapter 1
“Now listen here, Mrs. Shorts, we’re only here to investigate based on a tip we got from an anonymous party. It would behoove you to cooperate as much as possible. If you don”t want any trouble, then I suggest you do exactly as we ask.” He snarled at Willow.
As if things couldn’t have gotten any worse, the detectives from Tallahassee had shown up unannounced and demanded that Willow give them every bit of information she could about Charlie.
“What’s going on? Why is it that when I called and asked for your help, it fell on deaf ears? Yet, now that the shoe is on the other foot, you expect me to do what? Tell you everything? Well, newsflash, I don’t know anything.”
“I don’t believe you. I think you know exactly where he is and you’re covering for him. You expect us to believe that you have no idea where he is? When he’s stolen millions from unsuspecting women across the U.S.? How can you even afford to stay here? Do you know how much this place costs? Cut it out and tell us what we want to know.” The detective wasn’t giving up. She had wished he would. She had clearly been under enough pressure without Charlie’s actions as a reminder. She was tired of everyone accusing her of being in on this.
The detective looked her deep in her eyes. He had hoped he could break her down and get a confession but there was nothing to confess. She was innocent. Why couldn’t he see that?
“It’s fine that you don’t believe me. But I have nothing to hide. I have my own suspicions of where he might be… but you need to know that I had nothing to do with this. I wouldn’t. It’s not who I am. I loved that man more than anything for a long time. More than I even loved myself at times, but I’d never help him cover up this mess. You’d have to be some kind of horrible human being to enable someone to do some of the things I’ve heard he’s done.”
“You think we believe you? There are more than a million women in prison who lie just as good as you do. You’re in on this somehow and we’re gonna find a way to prove it.” Detective Reyes scolded her.
She noticed that the other detective hadn’t said a word. It was almost as if he knew something neither she nor Detective Reyes knew. She tried to pay attention to him a little more closely.
“Look, Miss. What my partner is trying to say is that it just seems a tad suspicious that you’re here in this lovely cottage all by yourself. Especially when your husband is a wanted man, even more now that he’s missing. I know this is not your fault. A man should be responsible for his own actions. But make no mistake when I say that this kind of thing is a team effort. We have the same goal: to find your husband. If you’re saying you don’t know anything, we have no choice but to believe you until we can prove otherwise.” The taller older cop said calmly. He had a cool demeanor, unlike the other cop, who seemed to have a major chip on his shoulder.
“I understand that, Sir. The issue is that I don’t know what to tell you. This cottage belongs to my best friend and I’m estranged from my husband. I haven’t seen him. I’ve tried to figure out what’s going on and where he could be.” She was irritated.
The detectives tried their hardest to draw a confession from her. She knew exactly what they were trying to do and she wasn’t falling for it. She didn’t have anything to do with Charlie going missing and wouldn’t let them drag her down with him. He was in deep trouble and she knew it.
“The best I can do for you is a cup of tea and a conversation.” She offered.
“That’s fine. We’ll take that.” The good cop said. He was actually quite easy to speak to. Unlike Detective Reyes.
She poured the tea and smiled at him while offering him a seat. Reyes moved closer but stood. His body language proved confrontational, and it wasn’t getting any less problematic.
“You have no idea where he is? There’s nowhere you could think that he’d be hiding?”
“If I had an idea, I wouldn’t have called out there to ask if you’d heard from him. It’s all on public record that I called.”
“Maybe so, but there’s no missing person’s report on file. If you didn’t know where he was, did you know it was possible to file a missing person’s report on his behalf? Being his wife, that is.”
“It isn’t unlike him not to call. Even when we argue, he would go off to work and we’d go a while without speaking, then he’d be back home and we would just go back to normal. I don’t know why, but I have this feeling that wherever he is, he’s fine. I can just feel it in my bones that he’s alive and well. And if I put out that missing person’s report, it will draw way more attention than it needs to.”
“You don’t want to find him? He’s your husband. Don’t you love him?” he asked but she could tell that he didn’t really care. He was good at laying things on thick. He knew how to guilt a good woman into feeling sorry for her soon-to-be ex-husband.
The question echoed in her mind.
Don’t I love him? Don’t I? Should I feel guilty for not wanting to know where he really is? Something tells me that this is more trouble than it’s worth. I don’t even know what to say. How dangerous is he? Has he physically hurt someone? Is he going to? Does he know where I am? Willow, get yourself together. You know what happens when you start overthinking. Don’t I love him?
“You find people who are actually missing. He’s not missing; he just disappeared.” She retorted. Detective Ryan looked over at Detective Reyes. They didn’t say a word to each other but it was clear that she had said more than enough for them.
“If you happen to hear from him, give me a call.” Detective Ryan slid his business card across the table toward Willow, and she swore she saw him wink. He was too smooth for his own good, it didn’t help that he was extremely handsome in uniform.
“Hey, you never said why you guys are looking for him?”
“Same reason everyone is. Is that okay with you?” He smiled before gulping down his tea. She wasn’t going to get any straight answers at this point. She’d have to give up some information if she wanted to know anything. He scooted his chair out from under the table and stood tall to excuse himself.
“If I hear from him, I’ll give you a call. I hope that you would extend the same courtesy.” She smiled. She knew they wouldn’t but she thought it might help to say it.
She let the detectives out of the cottage and locked the door behind her. She wasn’t ready to face facts. Even though the facts had presented themselves right in her face. Her husband was trouble. He was the kind of trouble you would never intentionally get mixed up in. Where was he? What was she trying to protect? Her husband had clearly chosen to be alone, to be malicious, to be himself. Regardless of what they said about Charlie, she still couldn’t believe it. She just knew she couldn’t be around him.
Charlie wasn’t always a bad guy. He was such a caring soul when I first met him. When did it all change? Or perhaps the whole thing was just an act. I can’t believe I didn’t see the signs. Maybe I just chose to ignore them. This is insanity. You know better. You know that this isn’t going to go away.
She was stuck in limbo. She hadn’t a clue where the man she married was. She didn’t know what he was hiding, and she wasn’t sure when he was coming back. If he was even coming back. She’d gone to Tallahassee recently to try to draw him out but it didn’t work in her favor. It actually backfired. Now they were investigating her harder than they were her husband.
If she had spoken out about the truth about their recent struggles, that she was actually contemplating a divorce, then she might have looked even more guilty, and she wasn’t willing to take that risk. It was easier to play by the rules, even though they seemed to change at a rapid pace on any given Sunday. She was so flustered. How did she get here? Did she ignore every red flag? Charlie was an entirely different person now.
How does someone cope when realizing they helped cause their own heartache?
Charlie wasn’t a good man. He wasn’t a good husband. Hell, he wasn’t even a good friend. Charlie wasn’t good at all. Lately he was bitter, controlling, cantankerous. She had just chosen to ignore the signs. Until recently, she didn’t believe in divorce but now? She also understood why people didn’t stay married. She was finally learning that it was okay to be one of them.
Flustered with the sudden realization that she was calling her own shots from this moment forward, she decided it’d be best to stay put right in Sanibel. Sanibel was going to be her new permanent residence as long as Brandi let her stay. She just knew she could turn her life around if given the opportunity and that was exactly what she set out to do.
She had tried her hand and she realized she didn’t have the best poker face. So it was just best to blend in instead of stick out. She was going to give it her all. What other choice did she have?