Chapter 37 Hailey
Hailey
“Lindy, nobody’s going to take you seriously if they find out you lied.” Tiffany paced in the living room, wearing a pink-and-green
cotton flannel open over a white tank and khaki camping shorts, her hair back in a tight ponytail. Hailey had to admit it:
Even just out the Canada woods, with no makeup, Tiffany glowed. Her boyfriend, Raj, a thirty-something anesthesiologist, sat
nearby, admiring her. “This is the only way.”
Tiffany was proposing that Lindy tell the police, media, even family, that she’d gotten a scam call Tuesday night, someone
pretending to be David. Because of the TV coverage, Tiffany said, it was a realistic scenario, and claiming fraud would work
to get people started searching for him again. Lindy could not, Tiffany insisted, admit that she had actually gotten no call
at all.
The girl was ridiculous. Acting like this was some reality TV show that somebody could win or lose by cracking the code on
where Hailey’s dad was. Hailey had to put her foot down. “We are not telling any more lies.”
Jack nodded in support, but Hailey’s mom responded to Tiffany as if Hailey hadn’t spoken. “But how would I have figured out that the call was a scam? Why wouldn’t I have recognized it wasn’t his voice? And why would anybody call pretending to be David and telling me he’s fine?”
Tiffany shrugged. “People do all kinds of crazy things. That last part’s not a stretch. And maybe you wanted so badly to hear
from him that you convinced yourself it was his voice? So, you told your kids that it was him, and that was that. This lets
your twins off the hook, too, see?”
Raj broke in, inspired. “You sent him money to get home, and now he hasn’t come, so you realized it wasn’t David!” He beamed
at Tiffany, and she beamed back. It was evident they considered themselves geniuses.
“That could work . . .” Lindy said, apparently considering it for real.
“No way,” Hailey insisted. She’d been having this weird feeling, ever since her mom had said that she had saved her dad just
by being born, that it was up to her to save him again now—and she also had the sense that she didn’t have much time. The
fact that her mom and siblings had concocted this preposterous story so as not to “ruin” her wedding made her feel even more
responsible. “Get serious,” she said. “We have to review what we know. Make a plan. We need to get all the information together
before we even think of calling the police. And we have to tell everybody the truth.”
Lindy looked at her, then sighed. Rubbed her face with both hands. “Okay.”
“Let’s get Emma and Eli on the phone and start with the review.” Hailey wished the twins had listened to her yesterday when
she’d told them to get back up to Maine. Of course, she’d known they wouldn’t, even though she hadn’t known that they knew their dad was still missing, that they were down in Cranston searching for clues.
Had they found anything? Hailey hoped so.
She was not ready to confront the maelstrom that was going to be let loose once Aunt Kate and Uncle Josh found out how Lindy, Emma, and Eli had lied.
Maybe the group here could come up with a way to find David before everyone over at the yellow cottage had to know.
“Jack, would you grab my notebook and take notes?”
Twenty minutes later, Jack read out loud the list they’d made: “Good husband and father. Called to say he was on his way.
$109K missing. Applied to get a mortgage, was refused. Previously trustworthy. Left cell phone at home. Likes to hike. Old
knee injury. History of depression. Stress at work. Knowledge of Innisfree sale. According to Reese: Lighthouse-slash-midlife
crisis. No sightings of car by police. Was looking forward to family parties and wedding. Possible heart condition.” A little
glance at Hailey. That last bit had come as a complete surprise to her; another thing her mom had been keeping a secret. Jack
looked back down at the list and finished, “Bought gas at Kennebunkport service plaza. No new charges on credit cards since.”
Everyone was quiet, including Emma and Eli on the other end of the phone. The list did not add up to anything that sounded
good.
Lindy spoke quietly, almost to herself. “How could I not have had any idea what all he was going through? I mean, none!” She
inhaled, closing her eyes.
Raj spoke up somberly. “I think we need to consider the possibility that, if he was traveling with a hundred thousand dollars
in cash, someone might’ve—you know—taken it.”
Hailey shook her head; an ache had started up again. She’d been holding the phone out into the room so Emma and Eli could
hear, but they’d been complaining they barely could, and now she hoped they hadn’t heard that last part. She pressed the receiver to her ear and spoke into it. “Okay, guys, you keep looking on the computer,
okay? We’ll call back in a bit to let you know next steps.” They grumbled but said goodbye and hung up.
Tiffany had started pacing again. “You know, bear with me one second here. I cannot tell you how many times that man heads out for lunch telling me he’s going one place and then comes back having eaten somewhere else entirely.
A different type of food! I’ll tease him for it, and he’ll just smile and say, ‘The winds of change, Tiff. A man has to do what the spirit moves him to.’ ”
Hailey had never heard her dad say exactly that, but it definitely sounded like him. She rubbed her shoulder, trying to ease
the pain that was in her head again. “What are you saying?”
“I guess I’m saying, what if he set out driving, intending to come here, and then he just . . . went somewhere else instead?”
Hailey swallowed, as her mom shook her head and said, “He wouldn’t have done that without calling me first to tell me. I mean,
I don’t think he would. Or calling someone, anyway. And, even if he didn’t call beforehand, he certainly would’ve called by now.”
“But he doesn’t have his cell phone,” Tiffany said.
“He would have found a way,” Lindy insisted.
“But if he has all that cash,” Tiffany said, “he could be letting the wind blow him all over the place.”
“I guess so.” It was clear on Lindy’s face that she didn’t want to believe her husband would’ve just run off like that with
their hundred thousand dollars. Hailey was finding it hard to fathom, too. “But if he had access to all that money,” Lindy
continued, “why would he have bothered to take three hundred dollars out of the ATM the day before he left?”
“He took out three hundred dollars?” Jack asked, and when Lindy confirmed it, he added a note to the list.
“You couldn’t travel for six days on three hundred dollars,” Tiffany said.
Lindy buried her face in her hands. Hailey had to bite her lip to keep from telling Tiffany to shut her mouth.
“I don’t like her,” Hailey proclaimed to Jack, as he led her toward the back door at a darkened Seabreeze in the moonlight.
Even though Tiffany and Raj clearly wanted to help—they’d just taken off for town for signal so they could call all the hospitals in the entire state of Maine again—there was something about the girl’s genius-reality-show-contestant vibe that plain rubbed Hailey the wrong way.
Jack laughed a little as he opened the back door, the Maine road atlas he’d just grabbed out of the Z3 tucked under his arm.
Emma had insisted over the phone that Reese was never wrong and her clue about lighthouse/midlife crisis had to be included on their list, so, when it came time to decide where to start the search tomorrow, Hailey had proposed checking
all the lighthouses from here to the New Hampshire state line. Nobody’d had a better idea. Jack had offered a book of his
grandma’s on Maine lighthouses, saying they could use it to make a plan, and Hailey had jumped at the chance to walk with
him to grab it.
It was weird to realize, but she did not want to be in the room while her mom called Cody to confess what was really going on, then called Emma and Eli back to discuss
the search. Hailey’s usual MO would have been to try to manage everybody’s emotions, but maybe right now she was just trying
to do the whole oxygen mask thing. Desperate times, she heard her dad saying. She wondered if Noah would try to call while her mom was using the phone at Innisfree. He’d get
a busy signal. Would he bother calling back in the middle of a long night at the restaurant? Would he leave a voicemail on
her cell? She probably should’ve insisted on going to town herself to check . . .
“You just don’t like that she was the reason why your mom thought your dad was having an affair,” Jack said, as he flipped
on the light inside the back hall.
“Who’s having an affair?” came a voice from the kitchen. Marjorie!
“Oh, God! Nobody,” Hailey called. Jack had said his grandma would be asleep. “Hi, Marjorie!”
Through an open doorframe to the right was the remodeled kitchen, stainless appliances and granite countertops gleaming.
Marjorie was seated at the counter with a glass of white wine and a paperback, still dressed in her trademark crisp blouse and capris—blue and white, today—and statement necklace and matching earrings.
She tucked her white bob behind her ear, closing her book as Jack went over to set down the atlas and hug her.
“Hey, Grandma,” he said, and Hailey saw the book’s cover.
Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. Hailey hadn’t read it, but it must be engrossing to keep Marjorie up so late.
“Planning your escape?” Marjorie said, with a lifted brow and a nod at the atlas, and Jack laughed and explained, as Hailey
tried to keep from cringing at the thought of what her grandma would say about him telling Marjorie Westfield all the details
of their family’s private, terrible story.
“Oh, dear,” Marjorie said finally, with a concerned frown at Hailey. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right? How is your mom doing?
And your grandma?”
“As good as can be expected, I guess,” Hailey said, though she was a little surprised at the unalloyed kindness. She would’ve
expected probing for more information instead.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Marjorie said, her blue eyes soft with concern.
“We need to use your lighthouse book,” Jack said. “There’s this psychic who said he might be near a lighthouse.”
“Oh, by all means!” Marjorie said, not seeming the least bit taken aback by the mention of a psychic. She got up, went to
the living room. The light flipped on. Jack gave Hailey a little smile. In a moment, Marjorie was back with a large coffee
table book titled Maine Lighthouses. She handed it to Hailey. “Oh, what a pretty ring,” she said, when she saw Hailey’s diamond. Marjorie held Hailey’s hand a
second to study the ring, then looked up at her. “That wedding is coming right up, isn’t it?” A glance at Jack, then back
at Hailey. “Next weekend?”
Hailey swallowed as her eyes darted to Jack, too. Marjorie had a point. What was she doing spending all this time with her
old flame Jack when she was marrying someone else next weekend? Hailey felt her face heating up. “Uh, yeah.”
Marjorie’s eyes crinkled. “Oh, dear, but with your father missing, how—”
“We’re going to go upstairs,” Jack interrupted. “Thanks, Grandma.”
“Let me know what I can do,” Marjorie called after them as Jack hustled Hailey out.
In Jack’s room, he turned on the light and tossed the big Maine atlas onto the neatly made bed. Hailey, shaking off her embarrassment,
saw it was all just as she’d remembered, down to the white comforter and shades-of-gray throw pillows on the bed. On the nightstand
were copies of The Art of Choosing, Kook, The Power of Intention, and The Stand. Jack sat down at the desk in front of the window, where his laptop was open.
“You have internet here?” They could’ve been using it in the search!
Jack shook his head. “I’m trying to convince Grandma to get it, but she’s saying it’ll ‘spoil the peace.’ ”
Hailey sighed, the pressure of her frustration punctured. “Oh. Well, she’s probably right.”
Jack laughed quietly. “She does like to think she is. Let me see that lighthouse book.” She handed it over, and he opened
it to a map of the coast with graphics marking the locations of the lighthouses along it.
Hailey peered over his shoulder. “That’s a lot of lighthouses.” At first glance, there appeared to be about twenty scattered
between the New Hampshire border and The Cove. God, was it totally ridiculous to base their search on what Reese had said?
Even Reese herself hadn’t been sure if what she’d “heard” was “lighthouse” or “white house.”
But again, what else did they have to go on? Hailey wished she understood why Emma had placed so much faith in Reese’s clairaudience.
And, if Emma did place that much faith in it, then why had the two of them argued and possibly—knowing Emma—split?
“We’ll make a list,” Jack said, getting up to grab the atlas again off the bed. “These maps are totally detailed, so we can
look to see which lighthouses have hiking trails nearby. Maybe we expand the search to places a little more off the beaten
path, away from the highway.”
Hailey decided: They’d stay here half an hour, about as long as her mom was apt to be using the phone, then Hailey would insist on going back to Innisfree so she’d be there in case Noah called.
“Okay, let’s do it,” she said, though it was suddenly hard to believe this task was anything but busywork designed to keep her mind off the fact that her dad could literally be anywhere in the world right now.
Or even—especially considering Raj’s theory regarding what might’ve happened if the wrong person had discovered David was carrying a hundred thousand dollars—nowhere at all anymore.