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Although he was handsome—tall, blond and tanned, angled facial features—Sophia found herself thinking that the detective had him beat. A thought that made the color rise in her cheeks. She glanced at Thatcher from the corner of her eye. He was straight-backed and concentrated on the approaching man. She doubted he was thinking about how she might be more attractive than Officer Whitfield or any of the other women in the station.
“Detective,” Richard said, extending his hand. Thatcher shook it, though there was a stiffness to it. “And you must be Sophia. Your pictures don’t do you justice.” They shook hands. “I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances.”
“Yes, let’s talk about those circumstances.”
“Of course, let’s sit.” Richard was at least smart enough to know that sitting behind his desk while the two of them sat in chairs on the other side was not the best move. If this had been a business meeting, he would have been the man in charge, but this was an investigation and Detective Thatcher was the one calling the shots. Richard instead situated himself on one of two leather love seats at the far side of the room.
Sophia and Thatcher took the one opposite, the small furniture making their legs touch. She made a point not to look at him as he leaned forward, slipping into detective mode. She also tried to ignore how her heart sped up at his closeness. At the station she had been at the man’s throat but now he was pulling at her concentration. She didn’t need distractions right now. Lisa couldn’t afford it.
“Let’s jump right into this,” Thatcher started. “You called Sophia Hardwick on Tuesday morning around six-thirty asking for the whereabouts of her sister, the woman you’ve been dating for over a year. Correct?”
“Correct.”
“When she told you she didn’t know, you told her you would take care of the situation. Again, is this correct?” Richard nodded. At each question his jawline tensed. “Sophia says that her sister never made it to see her. You found this out, so that puts Lisa Hardwick unaccounted for since Sunday morning. That’s four days, not even including today, that Lisa has been missing.” Slowly, Richard nodded. “So tell me, Mr. Vega, why the hell you didn’t call us or file a missing-persons report?” There was no mistaking the anger in Thatcher’s voice—nor the hidden accusation beneath his question. Having the whole situation recounted had a similar effect on Sophia. She wished she had as much experience as the detective at spotting a lie or pressing on a weak point to get the right information. Instead she kept her mouth shut and decided to follow whatever lead the man next to her would take.
Richard kept his face calm, not at all surprised at the question or its parallel series of thoughts. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and looked between them.
“I had a potential client come in Saturday night. It was a last-minute announcement but I wanted to show this person that I could be flexible and that I was very interested in taking on his business. If he agreed to work with me, then I could get him to participate in or donate to the Culpepper Fund-raiser this year.”
“The what?” Sophia had to ask.
“It’s a fund-raiser scheduled for next week. I started hosting them a year after I moved here. The town buys tickets while various organizations hold different auctions to raise money. It’s also a banquet of sorts—champagne, food and music.”
Sophia’s eyes widened as she remembered where she had heard about that before.
“That’s where Lisa met you.”
“Yes, the first one she came to she picked it apart, saying the vendors had ripped me off and that she could do it better if she was in charge.” He smiled. “I thought she was joking but Details did a great job last year.”
It was Detective Thatcher’s turn to raise his eyebrow. “Details? Why does that sound familiar?”
“It’s an event-planning business Lisa started when she first moved to Culpepper,” Sophia responded. It was also one of the reasons that they had drifted from each other.
“Got it. Now continue, Mr. Vega.”
“Lisa helped me host a very small, informal gathering here in the house with said potential client and a few of my employees.”
“And does this potential client have a name?” Thatcher asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I’d like to keep that confidential, if you don’t mind. We don’t want any rumors going around before anything is official.”
“I do mind,” the detective said with seriousness. “But we can get back to that later.” Richard didn’t miss a beat as he continued.
“We stayed up well into the next day. However, Lisa turned in early and left early. I, on the other hand, ashamedly slept in until almost noon. She had left me a note saying she was heading to the birthday party and would call when she made it. I turned my mind back to the potential client’s entertainment needs as well as business and before I realized it, it was Monday.” He balled up his fist. “I didn’t question the fact that she never called until Monday night after my guest left. I called her and got her voice mail.” He switched his gaze, now intense, to Sophia. When he spoke his anger was palpable. “I assumed you would have called if she hadn’t shown up. I just thought the silence was the two of you doing some sisterly bonding thing and Lisa just forgot to call. Why didn’t you call when she didn’t show up?”
Sophia’s face flushed red—a mix of embarrassment, guilt and anger.
“Lisa and I haven’t been on the best of terms this past year,” Sophia almost spat, trying to defend herself. “You should have known that. She didn’t tell me she was coming, so when she didn’t show up I assumed it was on purpose.”
There was a heated silence, not at all like the thoughtful one she seemed to share with the detective when they were sorting through new information. This was weighted. This was bogged down with ill feelings and regret.
“Continue, Mr. Vega,” Thatcher said, commanding the two of them to snap out of it. Richard looked back at the detective and let out a loud breath.
“When I still hadn’t received any word by Tuesday morning, I decided it wasn’t just Lisa’s forgetfulness. The phone call with Miss Hardwick here just confirmed it. I left work and began looking for her, only to come up empty.”
“Why didn’t you call us?”
Richard sat up straighter. “At first I thought...” He paused, trying to find the right words. “I thought that Lisa had left me, using Sophia’s party as an excuse to disappear.”
“Why would she leave you?”
“Over the past year, I’ve grown to trust Lisa more than I’ve ever trusted anyone else. She has become not only a woman I care about, but a confidante.” At this admission, Richard for the first time seemed uncomfortable with what he was saying.
“She knows secrets about you,” Thatcher said.
“Not only personal, but professional. Secrets my competitors would pay big for. Secrets that could undo everything I’ve worked for my entire life. I’ve had much worse attempted by people who want my money or business before.”
“Lisa wouldn’t do that, though.” Sophia spoke up with certainty. “From what I know, she has been very happy with you.” Richard’s intense expression softened at that.
“I couldn’t rule it out entirely. So I called in a few favors and had her phone traced.” He didn’t bother acting sheepish. “I found it.”
He shared a look with Detective Thatcher. It sent a chill through Sophia.
“And?” she prodded.
Richard stood and went to retrieve a box under his desk. He presented it to Thatcher. The contents made Thatcher’s brow furrow. Sophia was almost afraid to look but she had to be strong. She had to be strong for Lisa.
Holding her breath she peeked in.
“Is that it?”
Richard nodded, frowning deeply while Thatcher pushed around the several pieces of what once was a cell phone. Sophia felt her stomach drop.
“Before it was smashed, I was able to follow it to the main road, just past Tipsy’s Gas & Grill.” Sophia looked at Thatcher questioningly.
“It’s a family-owned gas station and mini-restaurant off of the main road,” Thatcher explained. “Busiest gas station in town.” He motioned to Richard to continue.
“When I went to where it last was turned on I found it scattered along the side of the road.” He sent another significant look to Thatcher.
“I’m assuming you already tried to salvage the SIM card inside? To recover any pictures or—”
“None of it could be saved.” Richard dropped back into his seat. “I couldn’t even find the remnants of the card.”
“So, what does that mean?” Sophia asked.
“It means,” Richard began, running a hand through his hair, “that either Lisa doesn’t want anyone to find her or someone doesn’t want us to find Lisa.”
* * *
THE AIR SEEMED to zip out of the room—leaving behind an unsettling silence. Braydon felt Sophia tense next to him. It was a response he was familiar with when bad news was flitting around.
“Did you find anything else?” Braydon asked. He wanted to know if Richard was aware of the other missing women.
“I called the hospitals and even morgues in the neighboring cities looking for her or a Jane Doe who matched her description, but nothing came up.” He pulled out a card and handed it to Braydon. “I even hired two PIs from this firm to search the cities.”
“You hired out-of-town private investigators before you contacted your local PD?” Braydon said incredulously.
“I hired them to stay out of town to find her. Culpepper is small. I had faith, if she was here, that I’d run into her.”
Braydon was fighting the urge to yell at the very rich, very pompous man in front of him. If he had just called the police when he first realized Lisa was missing, it could have made all the difference, but instead he wanted to handle it himself. He had as much pride as he did wealth.
“You still should have filed a report,” Sophia barked out, breaking her silence. “Did you ever think ‘What if she didn’t run away?’ ” Braydon could tell her composure was cracking.
“Of course I did. I’m not an idiot.”
“Well, you could have fooled me!” Under different circumstances, Braydon would have smiled at Sophia’s brashness. She didn’t bottle up her emotions—she let them pour out instead. The two of them would have kept on, but Braydon had had enough.
“Do you know Trixie Martin or Amanda Alcaster?” Braydon watched the man’s facial expression closely. He could see wheels turning but there was no concrete recognition of either name.
“Not personally. The Alcaster name sounds familiar, but what has that got to do with Lisa?”
Braydon took a breath. Sophia’s hands fidgeted across her lap. He wanted to hold them still, to keep her worries at bay. Personal experience had taught him that as long as a loved one was out there in trouble, no one, not even he, could quell all worries. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to, though. He cast another look at Sophia; the realization that he wanted to make sure she was okay was an odd one. He’d only known her for two hours at best and yet he empathized with her completely.
“They were reported missing today,” he said, squaring his shoulders. Richard’s brow furrowed, his frown deepened. Braydon balled his fists again, his body winding up. “This is why you let us know when something like this happens. This is why you call the police. It doesn’t matter if you’re taking time off of your job to locate Miss Hardwick because it’s myfull-time job to do that. I help people for a living, Richard.” Braydon wasn’t yelling. In fact, his voice had taken on an eerie calm. That calm voice indicated how furious he was that Richard had not reported the disappearance of Lisa. The missing woman who had a sibling drowning in a sea of worry—one beautiful woman desperate for answers. Professionalism was dialing his volume back but it wasn’t diluting his intensity. “Now let me do my job and tell me everything else you found out or I’ll arrest you for impeding an investigation.”
It turned out that Richard was almost as clueless as they were. Apart from the cell phone, he hadn’t found any evidence of blatant foul play or anything that pointed to Lisa running away. He had instead kept eyes and ears out for the woman he loved, hoping above all else that everything had been a misunderstanding. She hadn’t run. She hadn’t been taken. Braydon knew better than to cling to such false hope. If someone dropped off the face of the earth for four days, there was something wrong. Like kicking an addiction, admitting there was a problem was the first step.
Richard Vega hadn’t handled that step well.
They wasted little time in unnecessary back-and-forth before Braydon told Richard he needed to see the exact place where the cell phone had been recovered. As far as they knew, it was the last place Lisa had been—tied by electronic tracking and hard evidence. If he could see it with his own eyes, then maybe he could see more of what had happened through hers.
“Am I riding with you or him?” Sophia asked as Richard pulled his car out of the garage. Like most houses on Loop Road it had more square footage than the resident had known what to do with.
“You can ride with either,” Braydon said, watching Richard for any signs of fleeing. He didn’t think the wealthy man would run, but he couldn’t be too sure he wouldn’t. Just because the whole town seemed to love the upstanding, well-groomed businessman, didn’t mean Braydon was going to put his faith in Richard’s good intentions. “We’re all going to the same place.”
Braydon walked over to the 370Z and inclined his head down to meet Richard’s gaze.
“It should go without saying but if you try to leave or do anything suspicious, I’ll find you and arrest you.”
“I understand.” He responded without hesitation. “I assure you that you now have my full cooperation.”
“Good.” Braydon patted the top of the car and went back to his truck. He was surprised to see Sophia already sitting in the cab with the air conditioner blasting. “How did you turn the car on?”
She remained still as she answered, her eyes closed in the cold air stream. “I used the key. You know, the things that people use to start cars?”
“Your sarcasm is noted, but what I meant was how did you get my keys?”
“You threw them on the dash here.” She opened one eye, watching as he climbed into the driver’s seat. “Not the best hiding place.” He shifted into Drive and began following Richard out onto Loop Road.
“Tom says I have a nasty habit of doing that.” Being a cop in Culpepper had seemed to activate an invisible barrier around the truck. No one wanted to steal or strip down his vehicle. The townspeople knew better. “That still doesn’t give you the right to turn it on.”
“Listen, it feels like it’s over 100 degrees in this place. I needed some air and I needed it fast.” She closed her eyes again and let the air conditioner push against her face. It was flushed from the heat, he could now tell. There were patches of red across her soft skin, though she was still attractive.
“That outfit isn’t helping,” he observed.
“And that is also noted.”
They dove into a small silence. Sophia’s perfume was slowly filling the space of the cab. He marveled at the contrast between its airy sweetness and her hard resolve.
“I’m surprised you didn’t want to ride with Richard,” Braydon admitted. “I thought you two would want to catch up.” She had picked him, a stranger, over someone she knew of and who had close ties with her sister. Plus, that man had been Richard Vega. He could charm his way out of a jail cell faster than Braydon could lock the door. Another reason why he hadn’t yet arrested the man. Though, he would in a heartbeat if he needed to.
Sophia snorted.
“Remember when I said Lisa and I weren’t on the best terms this past year?” She motioned to the sports car in front. “Meet Richard Vega. He was the hammer to our nail.”
Braydon glanced over at her. “What happened?”
Sophia turned her head so fast that her bun released the rest of her hair. “It’s none of your business,” she snapped.
“It is if you want me to find your sister, I need all of the details pertaining to her and Richard.” Her anger seemed to fade.
“Why? Do you think Richard had something to do with her disappearance?”
Braydon thought about it before he answered. Richard certainly had the means to make a person fall off the radar but there had been an unmistakable concern that had covered every word and movement when he spoke of Lisa. “I personally think the only thing he’s guilty of is being a prideful son of a bitch, but I don’t want to rule him out, either. So, if there was a fight between all of you, there could potentially be a motive.”
She went back to fidgeting with her hands.
“I really don’t think that has anything to do with what’s happening....”
“A good detective can’t leave clues half-uncovered.” He prodded with a gentler tone, “If we’re going to find your sister, I need all of the information.”
She put her hand up to the vent and quieted. The past wasn’t a pleasant place to frequent, he knew that, but sometimes it was a necessity. He remained patient and watched as Richard turned off Loop Road and onto a connector that would get them to the main one. His red little car could easily outrun the truck. Braydon imagined the only reason he was going the speed limit was to avoid pissing him off any more.
Sophia sighed, touching her face with her now-cold hand.
“It was over money,” she started. “And we never really had a fight. It was more of a buildup of things we didn’t say. My dad died when we were little and Mom worked full-time while doing odd jobs along the way to support us. The years went by and we could see her trying to not blame us for her having to work so hard, but eventually the resentment set in. Lisa and I picked up the slack and looked out for one another—encouraged good grades, gave each other rides to work and helped take care of everything else. Lisa was my older sister, but she didn’t raise me—we raised each other.” Her voice shook and Braydon had to look to see if she was crying. Her head was bent, her fingertips suddenly fascinating. “Lisa has always been the prettier, more charming sister. As we got older, she was handed more opportunities, but she never really took them. That is until she started dating Richard. He offered her a world on a gold platter and she just took it. No questions asked. We spent years working so hard to make something of ourselves and then it was like she took the easy way out.” Her voice softened. “We never fought about it—I never said those exact words—but she picked up on how I felt.”
“And that was?”
“Anger...with a touch of resentment.” Her face flushed red. “Saying it out loud seems stupid, especially now with everything going on. I should be happy for her, but Richard was just a hard pill to swallow, I suppose. Still, I don’t think that has anything to do with her disappearance. The times we did talk this past year, she seemed genuinely happy.”
Again, Braydon was surprised by the woman next to him. Just like that she had not only told him a personal story, but she had admitted her true feelings about it. He understood her stubbornness; however, it was the ease at which she told the truth that made the younger Hardwick sister more and more intriguing.
“Does your mother know about Lisa, then?” He couldn’t remember her bringing the woman up in detail before. Surely she would have been there.
“No.” She didn’t elaborate and Braydon didn’t push her. The way her body tensed like the string on a bow, he knew he had hit a deep nerve. Her openness apparently had its limits.
“What about you, Detective? Any family drama to share?” Sophia said it as a joke, something to lighten the dark mood, but she couldn’t have picked a worse topic. Years of experience saved his composure. He smiled and shook his head.
